Forced regime changes in Hungary, 1945-1949

Gyarmati, Gyorgy

In Hungary, in the 5 years that followed World War II, there were two regime changes. From 1945, the building up of a multi-party parliamentary democracy was started. Between 1947 and 1949, the Communist party sought to extend this political turn of events into a deeper change to the system of society-with Soviet assistance. Leftist influence was strong in Parliament, and even stronger within the local authorities.
Subsequent to land reform at the end of 1945, from 1947, a command economy was launched, and from 1948, the collectivisation of agriculture started. Even though regeneration started after the successful reconstruction and stabilisation of the forint, it was rolled back by the foundation of the MDP (the Hungarian Workers' Party) and the fast implementation of the Rákosi dictatorship. A major restructuring of the legal concept of property and property distribution took place. By 1949, all spheres of the society had already been subjected to centralised state control.
This was ratified by the constitution of 1949, wherein the democratic principle of the division of power was rejected.

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