Hungary opens communist-era informer files in belated reckoning with Cold War past
The release covers about 60,000 names and will add 9,000 detailed dossiers in February, officials said.
- On November 4, Hungary will begin publishing tens of thousands of communist-era informant records via a new online database. Prime Minister Peter Magyar called this a key pledge of the "2026 regime change," settling a 36-year debt to those surveilled or blackmailed.
- The release date marks the 70th anniversary of the Soviet suppression of the 1956 revolution. Hungary remains the last major former Soviet-bloc country in Central and Eastern Europe to fully declassify comprehensive secret police records.
- Gergo Bendeguz Cseh, director-general of the Historical Archives of the Hungarian State Security Services, expects around 50,000 records to be published. However, only one in ten detailed files have survived due to historical looting and destruction.
- Prime Minister Peter Magyar urged citizens to approach the disclosures with understanding, noting people may find relatives among those named. He stated, "We must learn to ask the right questions, confront what happened and find the strength to listen to the answers."
- The release process will continue until February 25, 2027, the memorial day for victims of communism. Successive governments previously resisted opening archives, fearing the material could be used to discredit or blackmail political opponents.
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While Slovenian Prime Minister Janez Janša caused a tsunami in Slovenia by demanding that Belgrade hand over the UDBA documents, Hungary is publishing the names of 60,000 people who collaborated with the communist dictatorship. Hungary is starting lustration, joining other countries that have already opened similar archives. In Germany, access to East German […] The post Hungary publishes documents with the names of “informants” of the communist…
Hungary has made public tens of thousands of secret police documents from the communist era. These documents contain, among other things, names, aliases, and other details of nearly 60,000 former informants who spied on citizens during the regime. By making the documents public, the Hungarian government hopes that the country will come to terms with its past. Between 1945 and 1989, the secret police in Hungary used informants to monitor the popu…
berlingske.dk
On Wednesday, Hungarians were given the opportunity to search for names and information in a database from the Cold War.
The documents that now see the light also add details such as the activity of that person within the network, the reasons for his recruitment or what his code name was
Hungary has published the names and personal details of around 60,000 people who collaborated with the secret police during the communist regime, in an initiative that aims to shed light on one of the most sensitive chapters in the country's history. The documents have been made available through an online platform, including the real names of the informants, their secret pseudonyms, dates of birth, addresses and other personal details. The file…
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