Thomas More

=== Communism, socialism and anti-communism ===
{{anchor|SovietCommunism01a}}Having been praised "as a [[Communism|Communist]] hero by [[Karl Marx]], [[Friedrich Engels]], and [[Karl Kautsky]]" because of the Communist attitude to property in his ''Utopia'',<ref name=Margaret-L-King01a /> under [[Soviet Communism]] the name of Thomas More was in [[Alexander Garden Obelisk#Inscribed names|ninth position]] from the top of Moscow's Stele of Freedom (also known as the [[Alexander Garden Obelisk|Obelisk of Revolutionary Thinkers]]),<ref>{{cite book |last1=Valavoi |first1=Dmitry |last2=Lapshina |first2=Henrietta |title=Names on an obelisk |date=1983 |publisher=[[Progress Publishers]] |location=Moscow |oclc=878939730|translator=[[Peter Greenwood]] |pages=8–9}}</ref> as one of the most influential thinkers "who promoted the liberation of humankind from oppression, arbitrariness, and exploitation."<ref group=note name="University-of-Dallas01a">{{cite web|year=2010|title=The Center for Thomas More Studies Art > Gallery > Moscow|url=http://www.thomasmorestudies.org/g-c1.html|access-date=20 December 2014|publisher=The Center for Thomas More Studies at The [[University of Dallas]]|quote=This monument, suggested by Lenin and built in 1918, lists Thomas More (ninth from the top) among the most influential thinkers "who promoted the liberation of humankind from oppression, arbitrariness, and exploitation." It is in Aleksndrovsky Garden near the Kremlin.|archive-date=15 January 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190115073923/http://www.thomasmorestudies.org/g-c1.html|url-status=dead}}</ref> This monument was erected in 1918 in Aleksandrovsky Garden near the [[Kremlin]] at [[Lenin]]'s suggestion.<ref name="Margaret-L-King01a" /><ref name="Guy2000">{{cite book|last=Guy|first=John Alexander|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lf1lQgAACAAJ|title=Thomas More|publisher=Arnold|year=2000|isbn=978-0-340-73139-0|pages=95–96}}</ref><ref group=note name="University-of-Dallas01a" />

''[[The Great Soviet Encyclopedia]]'''s [[Great Soviet Encyclopedia#English|English translation]] (1979) described More as "the founder of [[Utopian socialism]]", the first person "to describe a society in which private property ... had been abolished" (a society in which the family was "a cell for the communist way of life"), and a thinker who "did not believe that the ideal society would be achieved through [[socialist revolution|revolution]]", but who "greatly influenced reformers of subsequent centuries, especially [[Étienne-Gabriel Morelly|Morelly]], [[François-Noël Babeuf|G. Babeuf]], [[Henri de Saint-Simon|Saint-Simon]], [[Charles Fourier|C. Fourier]], [[Étienne Cabet|E. Cabet]], and other representatives of Utopian socialism."<ref group=note name="GreatSovietEnc01a">{{cite web| url= https://encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com/Thomas+More |title="Thomas More." The Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 3rd Edition. 1970–1979. The Gale Group, Inc. |publisher=[[TheFreeDictionary.com|The Free Dictionary [Internet]]]|date=1979 |access-date =14 September 2021 |quote=The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased. ... More, Thomas ... English humanist, statesman, and writer; founder of Utopian socialism. ... More is especially famous for the dialogue Utopia (1516; Russian translation, 1789), which describes the ideal society on the imaginary island of Utopia. ... He was the first to describe a society in which private property (even personal property) has been abolished, equality of consumption has been introduced (as in the early Christian communes), and production and the way of life have been socialized. ... The family, a cell for the communist way of life, is organized more as a productive unit than as a kinship unit. ... More did not believe that the ideal society would be achieved through revolution. Utopia ... greatly influenced reformers of subsequent centuries, especially Morelly, G. Babeuf, Saint-Simon, C. Fourier, E. Cabet, and other representatives of Utopian socialism. ... The Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 3rd Edition (1970–1979). © 2010 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.}}</ref>

''Utopia'' also inspired [[Socialism|socialists]] such as [[William Morris]].<ref group=note name="CathEnc02a">{{cite encyclopedia|encyclopedia=Catholic Encyclopaedia|title=St. Thomas More|url=http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/14689c.htm|year=1913|quote=The whole work is really an exercise of the imagination with much brilliant satire upon the world of More's own day. … there can be no doubt that he would have been delighted at entrapping William Morris, who discovered in it a complete gospel of Socialism}}</ref>

Many see More's communism or socialism as purely satirical.<ref group=note name="CathEnc02a" /> In 1888, while praising More's communism, Karl Kautsky pointed out that "perplexed" historians and economists often saw the name ''Utopia'' (which means "no place") as "a subtle hint by More that he himself regarded his communism as an impracticable dream".<ref name="Kautsky01a" />

[[Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn]], the Russian [[Nobel Prize in Literature|Nobel Prize]]-winning, anti-Communist author of ''[[The Gulag Archipelago]]'', argued that Soviet communism needed enslavement and forced labour to survive, and that this had been " ...foreseen as far back as Thomas More, the great-grandfather of [[Socialism (Marxism)|socialism]], in his ''Utopia''".<ref group=note name="Bloom01a">{{cite book|author1=Bloom, Harold|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=s-sVN2COG78C&q=%22Solzhenitsyn+insists+that+the+Soviet+system+cannot+survive+without+the+camps%22+%22Thomas+More%22+%22the+great-grandfather+of+socialism%22&pg=PA173|title=Enslavement Enslavement and Emancipation] and Emancipation|author2=Hobby, Blake|date=2010|publisher=[[Infobase Publishing]]|isbn=978-1-60413-441-4|pages=173–174|quote=Moreover, Solzhenitsyn insists that the Soviet system cannot survive without the camps, that Soviet communism requires enslavement and forced labour. " ...foreseen as far back as Thomas More, the great-grandfather of socialism, in his ''Utopia'' [, the] labor of ''zeks'' was needed for degrading and particularly heavy work, which no one, under socialism, would wish to perform" (''Gulag'', Vol 3. 578).|author-link1=Harold Bloom|access-date=20 January 2015}}</ref>

{{anchor|HK-antiCommunist01a}}In 2008, More was portrayed on stage in [[Hong Kong]] as an [[allegorical]] symbol of the [[Pro-democracy camp in Hong Kong|pan-democracy camp]] resisting the [[Chinese Communist Party]] in a translated and modified version of [[Robert Bolt]]'s play [[A Man for All Seasons (play)|''A Man for All Seasons'']].<ref name="ChapmanChen01a">{{cite book|author=Chen, Chapman|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=S4-MqkBKvg4C&q=%22thomas+More%22+China&pg=PA48|title="Postcolonial Hong Kong Drama Translation" in "Beyond Borders: Translations Moving Languages, Literatures and Cultures"|publisher=[[:de:Frank & Timme|Frank & Timme GmbH]], Berlin|year=2011|isbn=978-3-86596-356-7|editor=Pekka Kujamäki|series=Volume 39 of TransÜD. Arbeiten zur Theorie und Praxis des Übersetzens und Dolmetschens|pages=47–54|access-date=8 January 2015}}</ref>