Hungarian Socialist Workers’ Party
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Hungarian Socialist Workers' Party
Magyar Szocialista Munkáspárt |
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| First leader | János Kádár |
| Last leader | Rezső Nyers |
| Founded | 31 October 1956 |
| Dissolved | 7 October 1989 |
| Preceded by | Hungarian Working People's Party |
| Succeeded by | Hungarian Socialist Party, Hungarian Communist Workers' Party |
| Headquarters | Budapest, Hungarian People's Republic |
| Newspaper | Esti Budapest |
| Youth wing | Hungarian Young Communist League |
| Ideology |
Communism, Socialism, Marxism–Leninism, Kádárism |
| Colors | Red, white, green (Colours of the Hungarian flag) |
The Hungarian Socialist Workers' Party (Hungarian: Magyar Szocialista Munkáspárt, MSzMP) was the ruling Marxist–Leninist party of the Hungarian People's Republic between 1956 and 1989. It was organised from elements of the Hungarian Working People's Party during the Hungarian Revolution of 1956, with János Kádár as general secretary.
The party supported the revolution, but turned against Imre Nagy's government after he denounced the Warsaw Pact. The party formed a 'Revolutionary Peasant-Worker Government' that took over the country, with Soviet support, on 4 November 1956.
Gradually, however, the new government instituted goulash Communism, a somewhat more humane way of governing than had prevailed under Mátyás Rákosi. Under Kádár's mantra of "he who is not against us is with us," Hungarians generally had more freedom than their Eastern Bloc counterparts to go about their daily lives. For example, his government executed only 350 people after the 1956 revolution. The government also gave limited freedom to the workings of the market via the New Economic Mechanism. However, it retained a monopoly of political power, and subjected the media to censorship that was fairly onerous by Western standards. The National Assembly, like its counterparts in the rest of the Soviet bloc, continued to rubber-stamp decisions already made by the MSzMP leadership.
Kádár retired on 22 May 1988 and was succeeded by Prime Minister Károly Grósz. However, Grósz soon found himself eclipsed by a group of radical reformers who favored establishing a market economy. On 28 January 1989, young Politburo member and minister of state Imre Pozsgay announced during an interview with the radio program 168 Hours that the Poliburo's historical sub-committee regarded the events of 1956 as a 'people's uprising'. This announcement, not approved in advance by the Politburo, provoked and catalyzed various developments within the party, and brought about sudden and ever-escalating changes that, within nine months, resulted in the ending of Communism in Hungary and the dissolution of the MSzMP.
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Wikipedia