Hungary to unmask tens of thousands of communist-era informants as it confronts its past

Hungary's new government will on Wednesday reveal the names of tens of thousands of state informants from the communist era, in an attempt to confront the past and rebuild public trust.

From 1945 to 1989, Hungary's communist state-security services relied on an extensive network of informants to monitor society and suppress dissent. Some were blackmailed or coerced into reporting on neighbours, friends, colleagues and even family members; others were recruited through promises of various advantages.

For decades, the extent of this network was hidden from public view. The 'agent files', held in the basement of the Historical Archives of the State Security services, remained largely inaccessible to the public, despite repeated calls and partial leaks.

During his campaign leading up to Hungary's April parliamentary elections, Peter Magyar promised to make the state-security files public, a promise he seems intent on fulfilling now that he is in power.

In September, his government passed a law paving the way for the files to be made public, a move that more than two-thirds of the country supported according to polls. The release was initially scheduled for the anniversary of the 1956 anti-Soviet revolution but was pushed back to November 4.

'A democratic society has the right to know its past,' Zoltan Tarr, the minister of social relations and culture, wrote on Facebook.

Previously, access to the reports on informants was restricted to researchers and relatives of victims. With the new, searchable online database, Hungary's former state security service will become the most transparent in the former eastern bloc, researchers say.

'We are opening wide a door that was left ajar,' said Istvan Papp, a historian and head of the academic department of the archives. He said that as a historian he agrees with the release, but on a personal level he feels for those who will face their family's history for the first time. Of the 50,000 to 60,000 people whose names appear in the files, historians estimate 10 percent are alive today.

For three decades, the former eastern bloc has been divided on how to publish agent files, and when. In East Germany, the Bundestag opened the state security Stasi files in 1992. In the Czech Republic, they became open to the public in 2003. Most recently, Latvia published files on informants in 2018.

Miklos Kiss, a survivor of a Hungarian forced labour camp and president of an association for victims, would have preferred Hungary to follow Germany's example and release the files earlier. 'If that had happened, everything would be done and dusted by now,' he said, adding: 'People will learn that there were traitors in every family, in every neighbourhood and street. But what are we supposed to do with that now?'

Placed side by side, the documents would stretch for three miles. Even so, the collection is small compared with that of the Polish or Romanian secret services, Papp said. In Hungary, many files were destroyed during the 1956 anti-Soviet uprising; others disappeared during the transition of 1989, a gradual, largely peaceful process that gave the authorities time to get rid of incriminating material.

Many of the records will be incomplete, as each agent's motivation, or the extent of their reporting, will remain unknown. Of the 60,000 people mentioned in the files, the archives hold detailed files, background checks and statements for only 9,000 people. Those will be released in February, after personal information, including details of health, addictions and sexuality, as well as information about victims, has been redacted in accordance with privacy laws.