The Hungarian People's Republic was a communist state that administered Hungary from 20 August 1949 to 23 October 1989, governed by the Hungarian Socialist Workers' Party (MSzMP). Following the occupation of Hungary by the Soviet Red Army at the end of World War II, the Soviet occupation of Hungary ensued, and the Soviets managed Hungarian political affairs and empowered the Hungarian Communist Party to take power. Communist leader Matyas Rakosi used "salami slice tactics" to purge the government of opponents, pressuring parties to expel members whom he deemed "fascist", and the communists won full power later on. In 1949, Hungary became a communist "people's republic", and Rakosi became known as a brutal Stalinist dictator. From 1948 to 1956, 350,000 Hungarian intellectuals and party officials were purged from the Communist Party, and 150,000 were imprisoned; 2,000 of them were executed. By 1953, 700,000 people outside of the party had been arrested in "social purges", with 98,000 being branded as spies and saboteurs and 5,000 being executed. Religious instruction was claimed to be propaganda and was eliminated from schools, but education reforms led to the poor having a better education, literacy increasing, and poor children being able to have more options later in life. On 18 July 1956, Rakosi's Stalinist rule ended due to pressure from Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev, but his successor Erno Gero was close friends with him. Gero's government was briefly overthrown and replaced with a democratic government during the Hungarian Revolution of 1956, but the Soviet Army crushed the uprising with tanks and infantry in November. The communist regime remained in power until the revolutions of 1989, and the Communist Party renamed itself the Hungarian Socialist Party in October 1989 before adopting legislation that transitioned the state to democracy.
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