Jan PalachIt is the 19th January 1969, Czechoslovakia has been a Communist controlled country ever since Klement Gottwald seized control in 1948. In St Wenceslas Square, in the capital city, Prague, student Jan Palach takes off his coat. Palach stands near the fountain railing beneath the National Museum and takes a bottle labelled “Ether” out of his briefcase. He opens it with a knife and smells it. After a moment, Palach pours the petrol over himself and set himself on fire. He jumps over the railing and runs between the parked cars towards the St Wenceslas statue. He is almost run over by a passing tram. After travelling a few more yards he falls on the road, whilst witnesses put him out with their coats. Palach begs them to open the briefcase he left near

the fountain and read his letter. Jan Palach, still conscious, is rushed to. He is admitted at 2:45 p.m. Whilst being transported to his room in the hospital, he tells the nurses that he is not a suicide case. Meanwhile, police investigators in St Wenceslas Square a letter in which he had explained his act. The letter was confiscated.

Palach’s LetterLetter “Torch No. 1” sent to the Czechoslovak Writers’ Union

Given that Czechoslovakia has found herself on the brink of hopelessness and resignation, we have decided to express our protest and to awaken the national conscience.Our group is composed of volunteers who are determined to set themselves on fire for our cause. I had the honour to draw number one, and therefore I have earned the right to write these first letters and to make my appearance as the first torch.Our demands are:

1. the immediate abolition of censorship

2. a ban on the distribution of Zprávy (a Communist newspaper distributed in Czechoslovakia)

As you can see, our demands are not extreme, rather the opposite. If our demands are not met within five days,

that is by 21. 1. 1969, and if the people do not come out in sufficient support of these demands (through an open-ended strike), another torch will go up in flames.

Torch No. 1P.S.: I believe our nations will not need any more light. January 1968 started from above, January 1969 must start from below (if it is to start at all).

1 Jan Palach was born on 11 August 1948, several months after the communist Take-over of Czechoslovakia. He grew up in Všetaty, a small town 50 kilometres from Prague.

Palach’s father, Josef Palach was a member of the National Socialist Party who wanted to see a new republic set up in Czechoslovakia, free from Communist control.

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3 Jan Palach’s father owned a sweet shop. At the start of the 1950s, like the majority of small business owners, the Palachs had to close the sweet shop as people could no longer afford luxuries.

In 1963, Jan Palach began his studies at the high school in Mělník. His teachers remember him as an average pupil, but he excelled in history.

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5 In 1965 the leader of Czechoslovakia, Novotny, tried to combat the failing economy by giving individual companies more freedom to decide on prices and wages and reducing the role of the government.

In 1966 Jan Palach began to study at university. He was not able to study history but did study aspects of philosophy and economics.

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7 In September 1967, Alexander Dubcek, a key Communist, presented a long list of problems with the Czech government. This led to many demonstrations against the existing leader of Czechoslovakia, Novotny.

In January 1968 Alexander Dubcek became the new leader of the Communist Party in Czechoslovakia. Dubcek stated: "We shall have to remove everything that strangles artistic and scientific creativeness." He promised the Czech people, “Communism with a human face”

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9 During February 1968, Dubcek announced a series of reforms. This included the abolition of censorship and the right of citizens to criticize the government. Newspapers began publishing revelations about corruption in high places, including the president, Novotny.

In April 1968 the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia said that members would no longer be forced to be obedient to party policy. Instead it declared that each member "has not only the right, but the duty to act according to his conscience."

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Jan Palach had always been interested in politics, but during 1968 his interest grew. In the spring of 1968 he attended many discussion sessions and student meetings.

In August, Dubček assured Moscow that Czechoslovakia would remain in the Warsaw Pact and that they had nothing to worry about with regards to the reforms. Meanwhile he allowed farmers to form co-operatives and suggested that opposition parties could be set up.

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On 3rd August Brezhnev stated that the USSR would intervene in any country trying to end Communism (Brezhnev Doctrine). Hard-line Communist leaders in Europe wrote to Brezhnev in Russia, demanding he stopped the reforms in Czechoslovakia.

On the night of August 20th/21st 1968, 500,000 Warsaw Pact troops invaded Czechoslovakia. The invasion was nearly bloodless and there was very little resistance from the Czech people.

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The reforms of Dubček were abandoned. He was arrested and sent to Moscow. Here he was told what was expected of Czechoslovakia and he was released and sent back to Prague.

During autumn of 1968 Prague radio broadcast demands for passive resistance – secret broadcasters showed the world what was happening until they were discovered and silenced.

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At the start of October 1968, Jan Palach visited the West for the first time. When he returned to Czechoslovakia on 19 October 1968, the National Assembly had just agreed that Soviet troops should remain in Czechoslovakia.

Jan Palach’s friends recall that he participated in several demonstrations in the autumn of 1968. He was meant to actively join the strikes in November 1968, but those strikes did not succeed.

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