Ryszard Siwiec

Ryszard Siwiec (1909 - September 12th, 1968) was an accountant, professor and former soldier Polish. It was the first nobody with immoler in protest against standardization who followed the Printemps of Prague in Czechoslovakia. It immola with Warsaw, right in the middle of a national festival to celebrate harvest, on September 8th, 1968, at the Dziesięciolecia Stage. He died of his wounds four days later and its gesture was seen on line by more than 100.000 spectators, of which leaders of the country and the diplomats foreign who had been invited for the spectacle of propaganda;

He was father of 5 children and originating in Przemyśl. He had prepared his action in advance, leaving audio recordings to express his dislike in front of the intervention of the armies of the Warsaw Pact and the participation of the Polish armies.

Its act could be a release for Jan Palach and Jan Zajíc but it is impossible to know if the communist political police could choke the event completely. According to the official version, it was only about the gesture of somebody suffering from mental disease . Although its act was recorded by the cameras present at the festival, the newspapers did not speak about it and the thing was largely known in Czechoslovakia only two months after the death of Jan Palach, when the new one was diffused by Radio Free Europe.

After the fall of Communism, the Polish realizer Maciej Drygas devoted documentary to Siwiec, Usłyszcie mój krzyk ( Entend my cry ), left in 1991.

Posthumous decorations

Order Tomáš Masaryk Scrubland, first class, decreed in 2001 by Václav Havel, president of the Czech Republic.
Order Polonia Restituta, Commander, decreed in 2003 by Aleksander Kwaśniewski, president of the Poland. Because of the past of communist dignitary of Kwaśniewski, the family of Ryszard Siwiec refused decoration.
Order the double white cross, decreed in 2006 by Ivan Gašparovič, president of the Slovakia

See too

External bonds

dissidence under the Communist regimes

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