We talk about all of this on the bohemican podcast (http://bohemican.com) we also did a guest episode on the History of England podcast as a lead up to Jan Hus on Wycliffe and him setting the stage for Hus. Jan Hus really was the forerunner to the Reformation. He died a martyr instead of recanting. He had massive political and popular support in Bohemican (Czech Republic) and after his death the Hussite armies did indeed hold off crusader army from every surrounding country... but in between fighting crusaders, they fought themselves.

Zizka is all that and more (or I'm also biased). He's a truly interesting character, it's hard to say how he may have changed history had he lived longer. It's that potential greatness that make him seem great to the Czechs, less what he actually did. His retreat from the Hungarians was celebrated and him ending the civil war with the Utraquists (for a bit)... so it's not like he did earth shattering things. But he was the first perhaps to really show Czechs that they could stand up to far bigger enemies--- the whole world, really. And his soldiers absolutely loved him. His image was taken as a symbol in the 1st republic, a symbol against Nazi oppression, and then another symbol for the Communists. He just resonates with their history in a timeless sense.

It's interesting that the communists built the biggest equestrian statue ever. Of Zizka on the tomb of their first communist leader, Gottwald.

Hapsburgs desecrated his tomb and tried to stomp out Hussites. That just showed the Czechs that they were different and would never be accepted in the Empire... and so never gave up on freedom. Communists did not make that same mistake.

Even today the communist statue of Zizka looks over all of Prague, the top of the mausoleum being a great view from on top of vitkov hill (a Hussite battlefield).

I think we did two episodes on Hus for Bohemican Podcast, another one about Wycliffe's influence on Hus for the History of England Podcast... and I seem to recall there being 4 episodes in total, but I think the 3 from those 2 shows should give a good introduction to the whole situation at least... which in turn is absolutely necessary to understand Martin Luther and the later uproars of the Reformation.

the treaty ending the Hussite war was the first time a Protestant branch of christianity was accepted by the pope as anything other than straight heresy (because he kept losing the crusades against the tiny area of Bohemia, and didn't really have a choice). Had the pope not made peace when he did (or Žižka died of plague when he did) the Reformation might have just happened sooner.