A historic step is taking place in Hungary. Budapest will soon begin publishing tens of thousands of communist-era files in a public online database, giving people access to lists of informants and collaborators used by the former state security services.
The publication, timed to coincide with the 70th anniversary of Hungary’s 1956 anti-Soviet uprising, is part of Prime Minister Peter Magyar’s pledge to make the documents – stored in a vast archive in Budapest’s basements – public and enable Hungarians to confront their totalitarian past.
Although communist rule ended in 1989, Hungary delayed the full opening of the files due to a lack of strong political will from successive governments.
“No such radical measure regarding the disclosure of information or legislation of this kind was undertaken in any partner institution or former member state of the Warsaw Pact. I also consider this a historic step; in essence, it makes accessible all the preserved documents of the former networks,” said Bendeguz Gergo Cseh, director of the Security Archive.
During the Cold War, secret police agencies in Eastern Europe—such as East Germany’s Stasi or Hungary’s security services—relied on collaborators recruited from the population, often through blackmail, threats, or rewards. Between 1956 and 1989, some 55,000 secret collaborators were registered in Hungary. They monitored friends, family, neighbors, and work colleagues for signs of dissent and Western influence; their reports often led to arrests and interrogations.
Many apartments in central Budapest – known as “K apartments” or conspiracy apartments – served as meeting places between secret police officers and civilian collaborators. In the 1980s, informants attended concerts in Budapest’s “underground” rock scene, which attracted crowds of young people and were seen by the authorities as potentially subversive.
“As an archivist and historian, I believe that making judgments based on this information is inappropriate; however, I think it is possible to gain insight into life stories and to confront our past more deeply — not only on an individual level, but also on a societal one,” said Bendeguz Gergo Cseh.
The Historical Archive of the Hungarian State Security (ABTL) manages the documents of the former state security services; the files contain the names of 50,000 to 60,000 collaborators.