1945. Despite rapid growth in membership immediately following the war, the party refounded under the name MKP received 17 percent in the elections, equal to the Hungarian Social Democratic Party. But the appointment of party secretary László Rajk as Minister of the Interior, coupled with the presence of the Red Army in the country and strong support for the MKP within other parties, allowed the Hungarian Communists time to whittle away their political opponents. Party leader Mátyás Rákosi implemented a strategy of pressuring the non-Communist parties to gradually push out their more courageous elements as "fascists" or fascist sympathizers, a strategy he later called salami tactics. Within two years, the MKP had broken the power base of the Independent Smallholders Party (FKGP), the majority party in the new government, and by 1948, every party but the Social Democrats had either vanished or taken over by fellow travelers willing to do the Communists' bidding. The Social Democrats were eliminated in 1948 by a forced merger with the Communists in June 1948 which formed the Hungarian Working People's Party (MDP). However, the few independent-minded Social Democrats were quickly shunted aside, leaving the MDP as essentially the MKP under a new name. In 1949, elections were held in which voters were presented with a single list from the Communist-controlled Independent Democratic Front. Electoral history Diet Elections Leaders Béla Kun (1918–1936) János Kádár (1943–1944) Mátyás Rákosi (1944–1948) Prominent members Ernő Gerő Béla Kun Imre Nagy József Pogány László Rajk Mátyás Rákosi László Rudas Tibor Szamuely Ilona Duczynska See also Hungarian Socialist Workers Party History of Hungary Hungarian People's Republic Bibliography Crampton, R.J. Eastern Europe in the Twentieth Century - And After, 2nd Ed. Routledge Press, 1994. Kenez, Peter Hungary from the Nazis to the Soviets: The Establishment of the Communist Regime in Hungary, 1944-1948, Cambridge University Press, 2006 Kovrig, Bennett. Communism in Hungary: From Kun to Kadar. Hoover Institution Press. Stanford, 1979 Molnár, Miklós From Béla Kun to János Kádár: Seventy Years of Hungarian Communism, Berg Publishers, 1990 References 1918 establishments in Hungary 1948 disestablishments in Hungary Comintern sections Communist parties in Hungary Defunct political parties in Hungary Political parties established in 1918 Political parties disestablished in 1948 Revolutions of 1917–1923 fr:Parti communiste de Hongrie