Hungarian Working People's Party

The Hungarian Working People's Party (Hungarian: Magyar Dolgozók Pártja, 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 Hungarian Social Democratic Party.[1] 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.

Hungarian Working People's Party Magyar Dolgozók Pártja
First leader	Mátyás Rákosi
Last leader	János Kádár
Founded	12 June 1948
Dissolved	31 October 1956
Merger of	Hungarian Communist Party and Social Democratic Party of Hungary
Succeeded by	Hungarian Socialist Workers' Party
Newspaper	Szabad Nép
Ideology	Communism Marxism–Leninism
Political position	Far-left
International affiliation	Cominform
Party flag
Politics of Hungary Political parties Elections

Unification congress poster

Its leader was Mátyás Rákosi until 1956, then Ernő Gerő in the same year for three months, and eventually János Kádár until the party's dissolution. Other minor legal Hungarian political parties were allowed to continue as independent coalition parties until late 1949, but were completely subservient to the MDP.

During the Hungarian Revolution of 1956, the party was reorganised into the Hungarian Socialist Workers' Party (MSZMP) by a circle of communists around Kádár and Imre Nagy. The new government of Nagy declared to assess the uprising not as counter-revolutionary but as a "great, national and democratic event" and to dissolve State Security Police (ÁVH). Hungary's declaration to become neutral and to exit the Warsaw Pact, caused the second Soviet intervention on 4 November 1956. After 8 November 1956, the MSZMP, under Kádár's leadership, fully supported the Soviet Union.