In the late afternoon of October 19, 2017, a man walked into Warsaw’s central square and set himself on fire. He had first scattered flyers that began with the words “I, an ordinary, gray person,” and warned of the danger posed by Law and Justice (PiS), the right-wing populist party that took over Poland’s presidency and parliament in 2015. The gray person was Piotr Szczęsny, a fifty-four-year-old chemist and consultant. His manifesto accused the country’s leaders of betraying the legacy of Solidarity and condemned PiS for, among other things, taking control of Poland’s judiciary and media, violating its constitution, and discriminating against immigrants, women, the queer community, and Muslims. Szczęsny declared that PiS and Jarosław Kaczyński—a member of parliament as well as the party’s mastermind—had “blood on their hands.” He ended with a call to resist: “Wake up! It’s not too late!” Szczęsny died ten days later. In a posthumously released open letter, he acknowledged that he suffered from depression but emphasized that his suicide was a political act. There had been many protests against …