As the Red Army drove the German Wehrmacht out of Hungary at the end of World War II, Rákosi returned to his home country in early 1945 and became the leader of the re-founded Hungarian Communist Party. The Party suffered a crushing defeat in Hungary's postwar free elections at the hands of the pro-democracy Independent Smallholders' Party. However, at Moscow's insistence the Communists received key positions in the government including the Interior Ministry, while Rákosi himself became a heavily influential deputy prime minister. From this position the Communists were able to use political intrigue, subterfuge, and conspiracy to destroy their opponents piece by piece, in what Rákosi would later term "salami tactics." By 1948 they had gained total power over the country, and in 1949 the country was proclaimed a people's republic with Rákosi as its absolute ruler.