Independent Smallholders' Party in the context of "Second Hungarian Republic"

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".