https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ryszard_Siwiec
Ryszard Siwiec was a Polish accountant and former Home Army resistance member who was the first person to commit suicide by self-immolation in protest against the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia. Although his act was captured by a motion picture camera, Polish press omitted any mention of the incident, which was successfully suppressed by the authorities. Siwiec prepared his plan alone, and few people realized what he tried to achieve with his sacrifice. His story remained mostly forgotten until the fall of communism, when it was first recounted in a documentary film.
According to friends and family, he had extensive historical knowledge and was deeply disillusioned with the reality of communist Poland. He supported the protesting students during the March 1968 Polish political crisis in Poland, printing bibuła leaflets and asking his daughter to distribute them. According to health professionals, he was of sound mind, and fully rational, at the time of his suicide. Siwiec planned his self-immolation months in advance, writing out a last will in April, and leaving written and tape-recorded statements explaining his revulsion at both the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia and the Polish People's Republic's participation in it.
Siwiec obtained passes to a national harvest festival taking place on 8 September 1968 at the 10th-Anniversary Stadium in Warsaw. His goal was to have his act be witnessed by nearly 100,000 spectators, including numerous journalists and the national leadership of the Polish United Workers' Party. He set himself ablaze during one of the festival dances using a flammable solvent. This method of protest was likely inspired by recent series of similar protests by Buddhist monks in Vietnam, most notably that of Thích Quảng Đức. He had a banner with the words "For our freedom and yours" and "Honour, Fatherland" as well as some leaflets, which he is said to have thrown around right before the incident, though neither attracted much attention, and both items are primarily mentioned only in the documents of the investigating secret police. He refused immediate help and shouted "I protest". He retained consciousness after the flames had been extinguished, giving brief statements, as well as later when he was transferred to a hospital, where he was able to communicate with the medical personnel, and where he received a brief visit from his wife. In the hospital, he was put under police surveillance, dying four days later.
The incident was immediately suppressed by the authorities. A story invented on the spot was that it was an accident caused by drinking vodka and smoking, or spontaneously combusting, aiming to divert interest to gossip and portray Siwiec as an irresponsible drunk. He was also declared mentally ill.