Hungarian Communist Party

The Hungarian Communist Party (, abbr. MKP), known earlier as the Party of Communists in Hungary (, abbr. KMP), was a communist party in Hungary that existed during the interwar period and briefly after World War II. It was founded on November 24, 1918, as Party of Communists in Hungary, and was in power between March and August 1919 when Béla Kun ran the short-lived Hungarian Soviet Republic. The communist government was later overthrown by the Romanian Army, Kun was exiled to Vienna and later he including many other communists moved to Moscow and during those years membership was becoming smaller every year. During World War II the party changed its name to Peace Party but only a year later in 1944, they embraced a new name which they will hold until 1948. After the war, they regained power and their membership rose up quickly which led to Mátyás Rákosi suppressing other parties in the country besides the social democrats (which were aligned with them) to form a one-party state. In 1948, the party merged with the social democrats to form the Hungarian Working People's Party which became the next ruling party of Hungary. It was also a member of Comintern and its successor Cominform. Foundation and early years The Communist Party of Hungary (KMP) was first established as The Party of Communists in Hungary in late 1918 by Béla Kun, a former journalist who fought for Austria-Hungary in World War I. After spending time in a Russian POW camp, Kun, along with several associates, set up the initial workings of the KMP in Moscow in October 1918. These first members returned to Hungary in November, and on the 24th officially created the KMP. The Communist Party chose "The Party of Communists in Hungary" (Hungarian: Kommunisták Magyarországi Pártja) as its name, instead of "Hungarian Communist Party", since the vast majority of its represented social class, the factory workers, still did not have ethnic Hungarian roots in Budapest, and ethnic Hungarians were only a minority in the newly-founded party. Initially, the group was small in number and boasted only its founders and a handful of leftist Social Democrats. Nonetheless, the political instability of the government under Mihály Károlyi and the growing popularity of the Bolshevik movement prompted the Social Democrats to seek a coalition with the KMP.