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Hungary Releases Communist-Era Secret Police Files
Confirmed
In Short: Hungary has released communist-era secret police files to the public, fulfilling a campaign promise made by Prime Minister Péter Magyar.
Hungary has released communist-era secret police files to the public, fulfilling a campaign promise made by Prime Minister Péter Magyar. The move aims to help the country heal from the traumas of 45 years of communist rule.
The files were made available on Wednesday, a date symbolic of the Soviet suppression of the 1956 Hungarian revolution. Since 1998, individuals have been able to request their own files, and historians have been permitted to research others.
Prime Minister Magyar defended the release, stating it was a promise made by those who overthrew the Communist party in 1989. He urged citizens to treat the disclosure with 'dignity and humanity,' acknowledging that many families will face difficult information.
The secret police employed a total of 150,000 informants during the communist era, but records survive for only around a third of them. Many files were destroyed in 1956 during the anti-Soviet uprising and again between 1988 and 1989.
The release of the files has sparked mixed reactions. Historian and MEP Zsuzsanna Borvendég countered that in the majority of surviving agent reports, it is impossible to identify the agent or their motives.
The files reveal the names of the socialist regime’s informant network, providing more information about the recruitment process and the functioning of the security apparatus during that time.
What this adds
The release of the files is part of a broader effort to address the lingering effects of the communist era, including the potential for political hysteria and blackmail.
The government's decision to release the files comes after years of debate and opposition from previous administrations, particularly the Fidesz-KDNP government, which had voted down proposals to disclose the files multiple times.
What's confirmed
- The files were released on Wednesday as part of a campaign promise by Prime Minister Péter Magyar Hungary has opened communist-era secret police files to the public, in a controversial move the government says will help Hungarian society heal itself from the traumas of 45 years of communist rule.
- Secret police employed a total of 150,000 informants during the four decades, according to estimates from the state security archives, but records survive for only around a third of them.
- In 2002, weeks after becoming prime minister, socialist politician Peter Medgyessy became embroiled in scandal after it was revealed that he had worked as a communist era secret agent.
What's still developing
- Over the past 36 years, there were frequent leaks of data from the files, as successive governments tried to damage their opponents.
- "It is impossible to process a trauma without discussion and asking questions." Magyar defended the move, which was a central promise of his election campaign ahead of his landslide victory in April elections, as the fulfilment of a promise made by those who toppled the Communist party in 1989 in Hungary.
- The date of the opening is symbolic - on 4 November 1956 Soviet tanks rolled through Budapest and other cities, to crush Hungary's short-lived revolution.
- A partial release of state security files did occur in the 1990s, when the Hungarian parliament passed the so-called "agents law" in 1994.
- "A significant proportion of the records from the late 1970s and 1980s are incomplete, largely because these records were still active files" at the time of regime change, said Bendeguz Gergo Cseh, the head of the archive.
- The greatest responsibility for this lay with the Fidesz-KDNP government, which between 2010 and 2026 had voted down proposals to disclose the files on twenty-five occasions, he recalled.
- He noted that Tisza had already committed to making the files public before the election, and that after coming to power, the National Assembly passed the necessary legislation on 15 September — without the votes of the former political elite.