Palach week - protest - demonstration - police

On the 20th anniversary of the death of Jan Palach, Czech university student who set himself on fire in Wenceslas Square in Prague on January 16, 1969 as a political protest against the Soviet occupation of Czechoslovakia, protests in his memory against the regime escalated into what would be called Palach Week. The series of anticommunist demonstrations in Prague on January 15-21, 1989, were suppressed by the police, who beat demonstrators and used water cannons, often catching passers-by in the fray. Palach Week is considered one of the catalyst demonstrations which preceded the fall of communism in Czechoslovakia 11 months later. Riot police cordon off Wenceslas Square on January 16, 1989. (CTK Photo/Michal Dolezal)

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15-21 Anticommunist Cannons Catalyst Catching Considered Cordon Ctkvintage Demonstrators Dolezal Escalated Fray Memory Michal Often Palach Passers-by Preceded Protests Regime Repression Riot Suppressed Wenceslas

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