"Neither Mine nor Thine": Communist Experiments in Hussite Bohemia

Abstract

One of the consistencies of Hussite history in Marxist historiography for much of the twentieth century has been the assertion that the Hussite Revolutionary Movement essentially comprised a social and economic struggle against the exploitation of late medieval feudalism. Central to this struggle was the communal-communism of the radicals at Tábor. The following study is a re-evaluation of that historiographical assertion. The communist tendencies and experiments among the Táborites and later of the Unitas Fratrum are considered together with their underlying themes, emphases, and influences. An attempt is made to analyse their decline especially among the Táborites. Comparison is drawn between the two types of Hussite communism with reference to later communes elsewhere in Europe, though it would be incorrect either to assign to the Hussites archetypal significance or to regard them as an episode of Reformationsgeschichte. Such comparisons are beneficial both for understanding the medieval foundations of the sixteenth century and also for a broader grasp of pre-modern communism itself. The study concludes that Hussite communism was doomed to failure from the outset due to inherent flaws. The most crippling of those shortcomings was the conundrum that neither property nor privilege could really be abolished, only transferred. This reconsideration of the theme finds the Marxist explanation wanting and concludes that in Hussite Bohemia religion proved more important than economics and that theology was more a decisive factor than any social critique. The significance of the study lies in its survey presentation and reconsideration of an important theme based upon primary sources. It is, further, another corrective in post-Marxist Hussite historiography. It is useful as a comparison to the work of Bob Scribner, James Stayer, and Werner Packull on similar movements in the sixteenth century.