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. Police stop people at the railway station of Vsetaty near Prague after they arrived by train to commemorate Jan Palach at his grave on January 21, 1989. (CTK Photo/Michal Dolezal)

Restrictions Only for Ireland and United Kingdom

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

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