"Even My Family Spied on Me"... Hungary to Release Names of 50,000 Communist-Era Informants

Hungary to Release Secret Police Lists from the Communist Era
More Than 50,000 Informants' Names Available to Search and Download Online
About 150,000 Informants Estimated... Many Records Lost

The names of more than 50,000 informants who spied on family members, neighbors and friends and passed information to the secret police under the communist regime will be made public in Hungary for the first time.

On November 2 (local time), the UK newspaper The Guardian reported that "the Hungarian government plans to release a list of informants who cooperated with state security agencies during the communist era, along with people targeted for recruitment, in a searchable online database on November 4." The website is called "Nyitottaktak," meaning "Open Files." Until now, access had been limited to some researchers and the families of victims, but starting today, anyone will be able to search and download the list.

"Agent files" in an underground archive... 16,000 A4 pages

Informant files from the communist era stored at the Historical Archives of the Hungarian State Security (ABTL) in Budapest, Hungary, last September. Photo by Reuters-Yonhap.

The material being released consists of so-called "agent files" compiled between 1945 and 1989 and kept in the underground vault of the Historical Archives of the Hungarian State Security. The files amount to more than 16,000 A4 pages and would stretch about 4.8 kilometers if laid out end to end. Of the more than 50,000 people on the list, records detailing their activities, including background checks, statements and reports, remain for about 9,000. More than 5,000 of the informants are believed to still be alive. The Hungarian government plans to release the original detailed records in February 2027, after anonymizing personal information.

However, the actual number of informants is estimated to have been far higher than the number on the list. According to Hungary's state-run MTI news agency, an estimated 150,000 people acted as informants during the communist era, but the names of only about one-third have been identified, and detailed files remain for just one-tenth. Many records were lost when protesters stormed the secret police headquarters during the 1956 revolution, and documents related to major trials were destroyed in the early 1960s.

Hungary was occupied by Nazi Germany during World War II and became a communist country under Soviet influence after the war. Established as a one-party state in 1949, the Hungarian People's Republic monitored society through the secret police's intelligence network and suppressed opposition. This continued until the end of communist dictatorship in 1989. Informants were threatened and coerced into passing on information about family members, neighbors, friends and colleagues, while the regime recruited them by offering material rewards.

The informants' surveillance reached into people's homes. The parents of American journalist Kati Marton worked as reporters for the Associated Press and United Press International in Budapest in the 1950s, reporting on human rights abuses under the communist regime. Years later, while reviewing secret police records, Marton learned that the French nanny who had cared for her and her older sister when Marton was six had been informing the secret police about the family's every move. In an interview, Marton said, "Almost everyone close to the family was an informant." Her parents were eventually arrested and imprisoned, and the family later moved to the United States.

Prime Minister Magyar's pledge... release timed for national day of mourning

Hungarian Prime Minister Peter Magyar. AP-Yonhap News.

The release fulfills a campaign pledge made by Prime Minister Peter Magyar during last April's general election. Magyar defeated the pro-Russian government of Viktor Orban, which had been in power for 16 years, and formed a pro-Western government last May. In September, Hungary's parliament passed a bill allowing classified documents, including the agent files, to be made public. The release was initially scheduled for October 22, the eve of the 70th anniversary of the 1956 revolution, but was postponed to November 4 because preparations were delayed. Culture Minister Zoltan Ter wrote on social media, "A democratic society has the right to know its own past."

November 4, the day of the release, is Hungary's national day of mourning. A peaceful protest against communist dictatorship by university students in the capital, Budapest, on October 23, 1956, ended on November 4 when Soviet forces crushed it by force. A total of 2,652 people were killed and 19,226 were injured.

Many former communist-bloc countries made secret police documents public before Hungary. Germany released secret documents from the former East German intelligence agency, the Stasi, in 1992, while the Czech Republic, Poland and Latvia, among others, have released documents related to informants since 2003.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.