Grigory Yavlinsky’s web-site, 4.10.2020​​

On 16 January, 1969, Jan Palach, a 20-year-old student of the Faculty of Philosophy, set himself on fire in the very center of Prague, in Wenceslas Square. He took this step in protest against the indifference of society, which resigned itself to the end of democratic reforms, known as the Prague Spring, abandoned the struggle for freedom, independence, a new economy and submitted to the political regime established after the occupation of Czechoslovakia by Soviet troops. Letters were found in Palach’s briefcase explaining his act.

The authorities of Czechoslovakia lied about the reasons of his self-immolation, they said that he was not going to commit suicide, that initially it was supposedly planned to use liquid for “cold fire”, which was replaced with gasoline secretly from Palach.

Within three months after Palach’s death, 26 more citizens of Czechoslovakia attempted self-immolation, seven of them died. Jan Zajic, 18-year-old student, like Palach, set himself on fire in Wenceslas Square.

Until the very fall of the regime, the authorities of communist Czechoslovakia were overtaken with fear of Jan Palach. In 1973, secret services secretly exhumed and removed his remains from Prague. In January 1989, on the twentieth anniversary of Palach’s death, a series of civil protests took place in Prague. The authorities violently dispersed the demonstrations, arresting about 1,400 protesters, including Vaclav Havel, future Czech president. Now there is a memorial in honor of Jan Palach and Jan Zajic in Wenceslas Square – a cross scorched by fire, embedded in a stone pavement.

On 2 October, 2020, Irina Slavina, 47-year-old journalist from Nizhny Novgorod, set herself on fire outside the building of the regional department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. “Blame the Russian Federation for my death,” she wrote before the self-immolation.

This terrible act is an extreme protest against endless state lies, against lawlessness and lack of freedom, against persecution, humiliation and unreasonable searches, against election fraud and the destruction of the Constitution, that is, against everything in which we live in and about which the overwhelming majority prefers to remain silent.

The state had been persecuting and tormenting Irina Slavina for years. According to the denunciations of the Stalinists and communists, the court fined her for “disrespect for the authorities” (but in fact for criticism of admiration for Stalin). “Unidentified persons” repeatedly punctured the wheels of her car. On the eve of Irina’s death, the security forces carried out a humiliating search at her house with confiscation of personal belongings. But the authorities, represented by the Investigative Committee, have already rushed to declare that they had nothing to do with the journalist’s persecution, and, mocking the deceased, announced a “posthumous psychological and psychiatric examination”. However, those who say that “something is wrong” with the state and society, rather than Slavina, are right.

In Nizhny Novgorod, not only the authorities are responsible for the terrible death of an honest professional journalist, but also Russia’s society, which is largely indifferent to the fate of fellow citizens persecuted for their fight against lies and falsifications. Historian Yuri Dmitriyev, who exposed the crimes of Stalinism, has been just sentenced to 13 years in a fabricated case. Participants of the Moscow protests who fought for our rights in the elections have been in prison for a year now. There are persons involved in other fabricated political cases. Hundreds or even thousands of falsely accused and innocent citizens of Russia are imprisoned.

Powerlessness in politics and indifference of society gives rise to despair, a feeling of complete deadlock and it… kills.

This killed Jan Palach in 1969. This killed Irina Slavina in 2020.

Years, and perhaps decades, will pass – and films will be made about Irina Slavina, as well as about Jan Palach, squares and streets in Russian cities will be named after her. It will definitely happen.

Deep condolences to the family of Irina Slavina.

Let her memory last forever.

Source

Grigory Yavlinsky

is Chairman of the Federal Political Committee of the Russian United Democratic Party YABLOKO, Vice President of Liberal International, PhD in Economics, Professor of the National Research University Higher School of Economics.