Oleksa Hirnyk

Oleksa Mykolajovych Hirnyk (Ukrainian: Олекса Миколайович Гiрник; 28 March 1912 – 21 January 1978) was a Ukrainian nationalist and Soviet dissident, an engineer by profession, who burned himself to death as an act of protest against Soviet suppression of the Ukrainian language (russification), culture and history. The act was quickly covered up by the Soviet authorities and remained unknown to general populace for decades.