Shrine to Jan Palach

Jan Palach was a martyr to the cause of an independent Czechoslovakia. His self-immolation on behalf of that cause roused the nation. As makeshift shrines sprang up and multiplied throughout the 1970s and 1980s, they served as common rallying points that ultimately contributed to the overthrow of Communist rule. Václav Havel, the future president of a liberated Czechoslovakia, was arrested early in the momentous year of 1989 for commemorating Palach’s sacrifice at a shrine. In light of so many other deaths in the Soviet bloc, why did Jan Palach’s death become so powerful a force? (© Marc Garanger / Corbis.)