Marta Haiduchok

This project examines the wave of self-immolations that took place in East-Central Europe following the 1968 Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia. This form of self-inflicted violence, setting one’s own body on fire, appeared in Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Lithuania, Latvia, Ukraine, Crimea and other regions. I perceive these acts as a lens through which to analyze modes of political resistance and the circulation of ideas within the Eastern Bloc. By examining archival materials related to the self-immolations of Ryszard Siwiec (Poland, 1968), Vasyl Makukh (Ukraine, 1968), Jan Palach (Czechoslovakia, 1969), and Romas Kalanta (Lithuania, 1972), I argue that the practice, appropriated from Thích Quảng Đức’s 1963 protest in Vietnam, developed into a distinct tradition in East-Central Europe and became a form of political participation and opposition under state socialism. In doing so, it also conceptualized violence as a method of political action in the region.