About Ryszard Siwiec
Ryszard Siwiec was a Polish accountant and former Home Army resistance member who was the first person to die by self-immolation in protest against the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia. Although his act was captured by a motion picture camera, Polish press omitted any mention of the incident, which was successfully suppressed by the authorities. Siwiec prepared his plan alone, and few people realized what he tried to achieve with his sacrifice. His story remained mostly forgotten until the fall of communism, when it was first recounted in a documentary film by Polish director Maciej Drygas. Since then, Siwiec has been posthumously awarded a number of Czech, Slovak, and Polish honours and decorations. Siwiec was the first person from Central and Eastern Europe to immolate himself in protest of the invasion. A story invented on the spot was that it was an accident caused by drinking vodka and smoking, or spontaneously combusting, aiming to divert interest to gossip and portray Siwiec as an irresponsible drunk.
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