Hungarian Communist Party in the context of "Romanian Army"

The Second Hungarian Republic was the Hungarian state that existed as a parliamentary republic briefly established after the disestablishment of the Kingdom of Hungary on 1 February 1946. It was itself dissolved on 20 August 1949 and succeeded by the Soviet-backed Hungarian People's Republic.

The Republic was proclaimed in the aftermath of the Soviet occupation of Hungary at the end of World War II in Europe and with the formal abolition of the Hungarian monarchy, whose throne had been vacant since 1918, in February 1946. Initially the period was characterized by an uneasy coalition government between pro-democracy elements—primarily the Independent Smallholders' Party—and the Hungarian Communist Party. At Soviet insistence, the Communists had received key posts in the new cabinet, particularly the Interior Ministry, despite the Smallholders' Party's landslide victory in the 1945 elections. From that position the Communists were able to systematically eliminate their opponents segment by segment through political intrigue and fabricated conspiracy, a process that Communist leader Mátyás Rákosi called "salami tactics".

The Hungarian Working People's Party (Hungarian: Magyar Dolgozók Pártja, pronounced [ˈmɒɟɒr ˈdolɡozoːk ˈpaːrcɒ], abbr. MDP) was the ruling communist party of Hungary from 1948 to 1956.

It was formed by a merger of the Hungarian Communist Party (MKP) and the Social Democratic Party of Hungary (MSZDP). Ostensibly a union of equals, the merger had actually occurred as a result of massive pressure brought to bear on the Social Democrats by both the Hungarian Communists, as well as the Soviet Union. The few independent-minded Social Democrats who had not been sidelined by Communist salami tactics were pushed out in short order after the merger, leaving the party as essentially the MKP under a new name.

The Information Bureau of the Communist and Workers' Parties (Russian: Информационное бюро коммунистических и рабочих партий, romanized: Informatsionnoye byuro kommunisticheskikh i rabochikh partiy), commonly known as Cominform (Коминформ), was a co-ordination body of Marxist–Leninist communist parties in Europe which existed from 1947 to 1956. Formed in the wake of the dissolution of the Communist International in 1943, it did not replace that body, but instead mainly served as an expression of solidarity and as a means of disseminating Stalinist propaganda. The Cominform initially included the communist parties of the Soviet Union, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Yugoslavia (expelled in 1948), France, and Italy. The organization was dissolved in 1956, during de-Stalinization, largely replaced in function by the Warsaw Pact formed in 1955 and Comecon formed in 1949.

Parliamentary elections were held in Hungary on 4 November 1945. They came at a turbulent moment in the country's history: World War II had had a devastating impact; the Soviet Union was occupying it, with the Hungarian Communist Party growing in numbers; a land reform that March had radically altered the property structure; and inflation was rampant.

In what is generally reckoned as the first relatively free election in the country's history, the Independent Smallholders Party won a sweeping victory. However, the Smallholders' gains were gradually whittled away by Communist salami tactics, fulfilling the prediction of Communist leader Mátyás Rákosi that the defeat would "not play an important role in Communist plans".

Mátyás Rákosi ([ˈraːkoʃi ˈmaːcaːʃ]; born Mátyás Rosenfeld; 9 March 1892 – 5 February 1971) was a Hungarian communist politician who was the de facto leader of Hungary from 1947 to 1956. He served first as General Secretary of the Hungarian Communist Party from 1945 to 1948 and then as General Secretary (later renamed First Secretary) of the Hungarian Working People's Party from 1948 to 1956.

Rákosi had been involved in left-wing politics since his youth, and in 1919 was a leading commissar in the short-lived Hungarian Soviet Republic. After the fall of the Communist government, he escaped the country and worked abroad as an agent of the Comintern. He was arrested in 1924 after attempting to return to Hungary and organize the Communist Party underground, and ultimately spent over fifteen years in prison. He became a cause célèbre in the international Communist movement, and the predominantly Hungarian Rákosi Battalion of the International Brigades in the Spanish Civil War bore his name. Rákosi was finally allowed to leave for the Soviet Union in 1940 in exchange for prized battle flags captured by Tsarist Russian forces after the Hungarian Revolution of 1848.