We consider it essential to end this issue of the Chronicle with the following document:
TO THE CITIZENS OF THE SOVIET UNION
28 February 1969
The series of self-immolations, begun on 16 January 1969 by the Prague student Jan Palach in protest against the interference in the internal affairs of the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic, continues. Yet another (for the time being, the last) human torch burst into flames in Wenceslas Square in Prague on 21 February.
This protest, taking such a terrible form, is aimed above all at us, THE SOVIET PEOPLE. It is the unasked-for and in no way justified presence of OUR armies which causes such anger and despair among the Czechoslovak people. It is not for nothing that the death of Jan Palach has stirred the entire working population of Czechoslovakia.
WE all carry our share of the blame for his loss, as for that of our other Czechoslovak brothers who have committed suicide. By our approval of the intervention of our armies, by our justification of it, or simply by our silence, we are helping to ensure that human torches will continue to burn in the squares of Prague and other cities.
The Czechs and Slovaks have always considered us their brothers. Can we really allow the word ‘Soviet’ to become for them a synonym for the word ‘enemy’?!
Citizens of our great country!
The greatness of a country lies not in the might of its armies brought down upon a small freedom-loving people but in its MORAL strength.
Can we really go on watching in silence as our brothers perish?!
By now it is already clear to all that the presence of our armies on the territory of the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic is serving neither the defence interests of our motherland nor the interests of the countries of the socialist commonwealth.
Do we really not have the courage to admit that we have made a tragic mistake and to do everything in our power to correct it?
That is our right and our duty!
We call upon all Soviet people who do not approve of this rash and hasty act [see Commentary, below] to use all legal means to achieve the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Czechoslovakia and a renunciation of interference in that country’s internal affairs! Only in this way can the friendship between our peoples be renewed.
Long live the heroic Czechoslovak people! Long live Soviet-Czechoslovak friendship!
Pyotr Grigorenko,
Ivan Yakhimovich
23 February 1969
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COMMENTARY
On 5 December 1968 Vasily Makukha set fire to himself on Kreshchatik, the main street in Kiev, crying “Long live a free Ukraine!” He died hours later from the extensive burns (CCE 6.9 [2]).
This self-immolation took place over two months earlier than that of Jan Palach in Prague. In February 1969 another Ukrainian attempted to follow the example of Makukha’s suicide; teacher Nikolai Berislavsky from the Rostov Region also set fire to himself in the Ukrainian capital (CCE 8.6).
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Whatever the intention of Pyotr Grigorenko and Ivan Yakhimovich, their appeal on 23 February 1969 did not halt further attempts at self-immolation within the USSR.
On 14 May 1972, Romas Kalanta died after dousing himself in petrol and setting light to his clothes in one of the squares in Kaunas. He was holding a placard that read, “Freedom for Lithuania”.
His example was followed on 28 May in Varena by Stonis (b. 1949), and on 3 June by a 60-year-old worker named Andriusevicus, again in Kaunas (CCE 26.11, “Events in Lithuania”).
JC, 17 January 2016
See also “Self-immolation: A protest of despair, 1968-2019” (13 September 2019)
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