New Delhi: Hungary’s government will open long-restricted Communist-era secret police files to the public Wednesday, through an online database. It would contain the names of between 50,000 and 60,000 people recorded as informants, collaborators, agents, or recruitment targets of the former secret police.
The searchable website, nyitottaktak.hu, managed by the Historical Archives of the Hungarian State Security (ÁBTL), is set to go live on 4 November. The date coincides with the 70th anniversary of the day Soviet tanks entered Budapest in 1956 to crush the anti-Soviet uprising.
According to a Reuters report, the release will take place in two stages and cover four types of records.
Prime Minister Péter Magyar, whose Tisza party defeated Viktor Orbán’s long-ruling Fidesz in the April 2026 elections, has framed the release as fulfilling a key campaign pledge and completing the unfinished business of Hungary’s 1989–90 transition to democracy.
“This will be a belated, difficult and sensitive topic in many families, but without it there is no change of regime,” he wrote on Facebook.
What will the files reveal?
From 1945-1989, the communist state-security services of Hungary relied on a large network of informants to monitor the state and suppress dissent. According to Reuters, they were drawn from the public, often via blackmail, threats, or rewards.
Until now, access to the records was largely restricted to researchers and close relatives of those named in them. A law passed by parliament in September broadened public access.
The release was originally planned around the 23 October anniversary of the 1956 revolution but was later shifted to 4 November to allow for additional screening and preparation.
In the first phase, according to the Budapest Times, the archive will publish the “H-Database”, derived from magnetic tapes dating back to 1989 and containing roughly 58,000 names, along with the so-called “6-cards” and B-logs.
The second phase, scheduled for 25 February 2027, is expected to make around 9,000 more detailed “B dossiers” public.
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A name on the list does not prove collaboration
Officials and historians have cautioned that appearing in the database does not, by itself, establish that someone voluntarily collaborated with the secret police. The records also include individuals who were approached or targeted for recruitment.
Historian István Papp, head of the archive’s academic department, described the move as opening up records that had long remained only partially accessible.
“We are opening wide a door that was left ajar,” he said.
Minister of Social Relations and Culture Zoltán Tarr said: “A democratic society has the right to know its past.”
Historians estimate that around 10 per cent of the 50,000–60,000 people named in the records are still alive. The original network of informants is believed to have been considerably larger, with estimates ranging from 150,000 upwards. However, many records were destroyed or remain incomplete.
Sensitive personal information, including details about health, addictions and sexuality, as well as information concerning victims, will be redacted before the detailed files are released.
Bendegúz Gergő Cseh, director of the Hungarian archives, described the move as “historic”, saying it goes further than comparable disclosures in other former Eastern Bloc countries.
“As both an archivist and a historian, I believe that passing judgment based on this information is inappropriate,” he told Reuters.
“However, I do think it is possible to gain insight into life stories and confront our past more deeply — not only at an individual level but also at a societal one,” he added.
(Edited by Maryam Hassan)