Was Oliver Cromwell a Socialist?

by JGr3g3s

Someone I know made this broad statement recently, and I'm not sure of it's truthfulness. Was he just a religious fanatic, or something more? Especially as Marx and socialism came after Cromwell.

Thank you!

Maklodes

I would say Oliver Cromwell was not a socialist by most reasonable definitions of socialism; the Commonwealth preserved private property, etc. There actually were what I would call socialists during the period during and following the English Civil War -- the Diggers -- but Cromwell showed little sympathy for their cause.