The paper deals with events which date from the Prague Spring to the Velvet revolution regarding Jan Palach, his deed, the reaction of the media, politicians and the public to his deed, other living torches around the Eastern Bloc, emphasizing self – immolationin protest against the Soviet occupation of Czechoslovakia. Due to the strong repercussion and the reaction of the public to the self-immolations the leadership of the Communist party of Czechoslovakia and other countries have tried from the very beginning to cover it up as much as possible and to lower the credibility of those whose deeds did make it to the public, along with the letters which they use to explain their reasons and demands. In a situation when the people of a nation have been systematically oppressed for years, and a country is under foreign political repression which greatly lowers the quality of life and makes the life of citizens almost unbearable, re-establishment of sovereignity can be a difficult task. Self-immolation is a symbolic support of the process because the state policy has a lot in common with religious structure, for example exaltation of patriotism, sacrifice and building monuments resembling temples. In the case of Jan Palach and the soviets, self-immolations have attracted a lot of attention from the public, domestic and foreign, from numerous media, and the method itself expanded rapidly throughout other countries of the Eastern Bloc. Palach week of 1989 was a prelude to the Velvet Revolution, and with this paper I emphasize the importance of symbolic capital in forming national identity and community, especially during a fight against the occupation of a country, and I also demonstrate the meaning of political commemorations regarding social movements.