# Anarchism in the Czech Republic

Part of a series on :
Anarchism :
Glossary
History
Outline :
Schools of thought
Black
Feminist
Green
Primitivist
Social ecology
Total liberation
Individualist
Egoist
Market
Philosophical
Mutualist
Queer
Religious
Christian
Jewish
Social
Collectivist
Parecon
Communist
Magonism
Without adjectives
Methodology
Counter-economics
Illegalism
Insurrectionary
Pacifist
Platformism
Relationship
Syndicalist
Synthesis :
Theory
Practice
Anarchy
Anarchist Black Cross
Anarchist criminology
Anationalism
Anti-authoritarianism
Anti-capitalism
Anti-militarism
Affinity group
Autonomous social center
Black bloc
Classless society
Class struggle
Consensus decision-making
Conscientious objector
Critique of work
Decentralization
Deep ecology
Direct action
Free love
Freethought
Horizontalidad
Individualism
Law
Mutual aid
Participatory politics
Permanent autonomous zone
Prefigurative politics
Proletarian internationalism
Propaganda of the deed
Refusal of work
Revolution
Rewilding
Sabotage
Security culture
Self-ownership
Social ecology
Sociocracy
Somatherapy
Spontaneous order
Squatting
Temporary autonomous zone
Union of egoists
Voluntary association
Workers' council :
People
Alston
Armand
Ba
Bakunin
Berkman
Bonanno
Bookchin
Bourdin
Chomsky
Cleyre
Day
Durruti
Ellul
Ervin
Faure
Fauset MacDonald
Ferrer
Feyerabend
Giovanni
Godwin
Goldman
González Prada
Graeber
Guillaume
He-Yin
Kanno
Kōtoku
Kropotkin
Landauer
Liu
Magón
Makhno
Maksimov
Malatesta
Mett
Michel
Most
Parsons
Pi i Margall
Pouget
Proudhon
Raichō
Reclus
Rocker
Santillán
Spooner
Stirner
Thoreau
Tolstoy
Tucker
Volin
Ward
Warren
Yarchuk
Zerzan :
Issues
Animal rights
Capitalism
Education
Love and sex
Nationalism
Religion
Violence :
History
French Revolution
Revolutions of 1848
Spanish Regional Federation of the IWA
Paris Commune
Hague Congress
Cantonal rebellion
Haymarket affair
International Conference of Rome
Trial of the Thirty
International Conference of Rome
Ferrer movement
Strandzha Commune
Congress of Amsterdam
Tragic Week
High Treason Incident
Manifesto of the Sixteen
German Revolution of 1918–1919
Bavarian Soviet Republic
1919 United States bombings
Biennio Rosso
Kronstadt rebellion
Makhnovshchina
Amakasu Incident
Alt Llobregat insurrection
Anarchist insurrection of January 1933
Anarchist insurrection of December 1933
Spanish Revolution of 1936
Barcelona May Days
Red inverted triangle
Labadie Collection
Provo
May 1968
Kate Sharpley Library
Carnival Against Capital
1999 Seattle WTO protests
Really Really Free Market
Occupy movement :
Culture
A las Barricadas
Anarchist bookfair
Anarcho-punk
Arts
DIY ethic
Escuela Moderna
Films
Freeganism
Infoshop
Independent Media Center
The Internationale
Jewish anarchism
Lifestylism
May Day
"No gods, no masters"
Popular education
"Property is theft!"
Radical cheerleading
Radical environmentalism
Self-managed social center
Symbolism :
Economics
Communization
Cooperative
Cost the limit of price
Decentralized planned economy
Free association
General strike
Gift economy
Give-away shop
Labour voucher
Market socialism
Mutual bank
Mutual credit
Social ownership
Wage slavery
Workers' self-management :
By region
Africa
Albania
Algeria
Andorra
Argentina
Armenia
Australia
Austria
Azerbaijan
Bangladesh
Belarus
Belgium
Bolivia
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Brazil
Bulgaria
Canada
Chile
China
Colombia
Costa Rica
Croatia
Cuba
Cyprus
Czech Republic
Denmark
Dominican Republic
East Timor
Ecuador
Egypt
El Salvador
Estonia
Finland
France
French Guiana
Georgia
Germany
Greece
Guatemala
Hong Kong
Hungary
Iceland
India
Indonesia
Iran
Ireland
Israel
Italy
Japan
Korea
Latvia
Malaysia
Mexico
Monaco
Mongolia
Morocco
Netherlands
New Zealand
Nicaragua
Nigeria
Norway
Panama
Paraguay
Peru
Philippines
Poland
Portugal
Puerto Rico
Romania
Russia
Serbia
Singapore
South Africa
Spain
Sweden
Switzerland
Syria
Taiwan
Tunisia
Turkey
Ukraine
United Kingdom
United States
Uruguay
Venezuela
Vietnam :
Lists
Anarcho-punk bands
Books
Fictional characters
Films
Jewish anarchists
Musicians
Periodicals :
Related topics
Anti-corporatism
Anti-consumerism
Anti-fascism
Anti-globalization
Anti-statism
Anti-war movement
Autarchism
Autonomism
Communism
Definition of anarchism and libertarianism
Dual Power
Labour movement
Left communism
Left-libertarianism
Libertarianism
Libertarian socialism
Marxism
Relationship between Friedrich Nietzsche and Max Stirner
Situationist International
Socialism
Spontaneous order :
Anarchism portal
Politics portal :
vte :
Anarchism in the Czech Republic is a political movement in the Czech Republic, with its roots in the Bohemian Reformation, which peaked in the early 20th century. It later dissolved into the nascent Czech communist movement, before seeing a resurgence after the fall of the Fourth Czechoslovak Republic in the Velvet Revolution.

## Precursors

Traces of anarchism can be seen at the beginning of the Hussite movement. The Hussites, inspired by the teachings of Jan Hus, held that all authority (including the Church) was unjustifiable because it did not follow God's laws. Hence they supported the rights of ordinary subjects to rebel and establish a "society of equals." Although the revolutionary Tábor did establish consumer communism in its beginnings, the authorities were not suppressed (on the contrary, Jan Žižka imposed an authoritative military order).
A radical faction, the so-called Adamites, separated from the Hussites. They believed that the kingdom of God had already come to pass, but that it would be established by men. They denied all authority, such as marriage, and instead exercised absolute freedom, including free love. Adamites and other followers of folk radicalism (historian Vladimír Liška refers to them as the "far left" of the movement) were gradually eliminated by the Hussites.
Side the Hussite movement, there was a religious thinker Petr Chelčický, who sympathized with the Hussite socially critical views, but rejected violence and armed struggle. He opposed the social hierarchy (the so-called "triple people"), criticized the Catholic and Hussite nobility and opposed the existence of states. As an early pacifist, Chelčický is considered to be a forerunner of Christian anarchism and anarcho-pacifism, his teachings were an influence on Leo Tolstoy.
Modern anarchists espouse the Hussites and Czech brothers as their predecessors, judging that "the ideas of the Czech revolutionaries of the fifteenth century were anarchist and communist in nature."

## Turn of the 20th century

The emergence of the anarchist movement in Bohemia and Moravia was closely connected with the split in the Czech Social Democratic Party. The moderate wing promoted parliamentarism and reformism as a peaceful path to socialism. The radicals, inspired by the ideas of Johann Most, instead called for an economic, collective and individual struggle. It was from this radical wing that the modern Czech anarchist movement emerged. On the pages of radical magazines and newspapers, "propaganda by deed" was promoted as a tactic. However, the issue of the using violence, which also provided a justification for state repression against the workers' movement, became the subject of debate in the anarchist movement over time.
During the 1890s, a form of so-called "independent socialism" prevailed in the movement. It built on absolute individual freedom and achieved a response in the student progressive movement. In 1896, the half-censored "Manifesto of Czech Anarchists" was published. In 1904, the "Czech Anarchist Federation" (CAF) was formed, which demanded the spread of anarchism between the working class and the intelligentsia. In the same year, the "Czech Federation of Trade Unions" (CFVO) was founded, based on the principles of anarcho-syndicalism and the political neutrality of trade unions. The CFVO was officially banned in 1908. In 1914, the creation of a "Czech Anarchist Communist Party" was discussed among anarchists, but this idea was largely rejected. Instead, the Czech Anarchist Federation was transformed into the Federation of Czech Anarchist Communists (FČAK).

## First Republic

Many anarchists took part in resistance activities against Austria-Hungary, which in turn led to the creation of the First Czechoslovak Republic. But experiences during the First World War and subsequent political developments led most of the anarchist movement in the Czech Republic to revise their political views and practices. They adopted a vision of joining a revolutionary-based political party. Many anarchists, especially Bohuslav Vrbenský and the union leaders of North Bohemian miners, established closer cooperation with representatives of the Czech National Social Party (ČSNS). In February 1919, the liquidation congress of the Federation of Czech Communist Anarchists (FČAK) took place, which agreed to merge with the ČSNS.
By the mid-1920s, Czech anarchism had lost its momentum, owing to the increased influence of Marxism-Leninism over the Czech social movement. The group that formed around Stanislav Kostka Neumann established contacts with the Communist International and participated in the founding of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia. However, after the 5th Congress of the Communist Party in 1929, Neumann and his companions were expelled for releasing the Manifesto of the Seven, in which they protested against the Bolshevization of the party.

## After 1989

The Czechoslovak Anarchist Association was established in the 1980s, even before the Velvet Revolution. After the revolution and the fall of the Fourth Czechoslovak Republic, other organizations began to appear. During the 1990s, the Federation of Social Anarchists, Federation of Anarchist Groups and Czechoslovak Anarchist Federation were formed. Ladronka was squatted by anarchists in 1993 and became a self-managed social centre. Other squats which followed in the tradition of Ladronka included Milada and Klinika.
By the 2010s, there were several other anarchist organizations and groups in the Czech Republic, including those operating internationally, such as Antifa, Anarchist Black Cross, Anarcho-Communist alternative, Food Not Bombs, Animal Liberation Front and Voice of Anarchopacifism.