Czechs mark 50 years since Jan Palach's self-immolation over crushing of Prague Spring


  • World
  • Thursday, 17 Jan 2019

PRAGUE (Reuters) - Czechs marked the 50th anniversary on Wednesday of student Jan Palach setting himself on fire in central Prague in a desperate act aimed at lifting the apathy hanging over the country in the wake of the Soviet invasion that crushed the Prague Spring of 1968.

Having seen a period of reforms to Czechoslovakia's Communist system snuffed out by the invasion five months earlier, and the widespread public demoralisation that followed, the 20-year-old Palach decided to take action.

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