Hungary has released communist-era secret police files identifying tens of thousands of former informants in a long-delayed reckoning with the country’s repressive past, spearheaded by Prime Minister Peter Magyar.
Since Hungary’s democratic transition in 1990, efforts to open communist-era archives have repeatedly stalled, critics blaming successive governments’ reluctance to implicate public figures across the political spectrum.
Magyar, who ousted long-time nationalist premier Viktor Orban in April on the promise of “regime change”, pressed ahead with a bill in September to grant the public unrestricted access to the records for the first time.
“After 36 years, we are finally fulfilling what was once one of the key promises of the 1990 regime change – a promise that was later denied and lied about,” Magyar told a media briefing at the state security archives.
“For decades, restrictions on public access provided opportunities for political hysteria, blackmail, the exertion of pressure, silencing,” he said.
A digitalised, searchable database containing names and records related to an estimated 50,000-60,000 former informants came online at 10am local time.
Before the publication, rumours had resurfaced that Orban was an informant – but his name did not appear in the archives.
‘Dignity and humanity’
Some public figures, including politicians, clergy members and TV personalities, did feature in the registry.
However, Bendeguz Gergo Cseh, the head of the archive, said a “large proportion” of the informants were likely “people who did not make their mark on national public life”.
The Government will set up hotlines offering emotional support and counselling for those affected by the revelations.
“Following today’s disclosure, a great many families will be confronted with information that is difficult for them to bear,” Magyar said, asking people to treat the disclosure with “dignity and humanity”.
A second batch of files, giving more details on about 9000 of the informants, will be released in February.
Some personal information, including details on individuals’ sexual orientation, will be redacted.
Hungary was under one-party communist rule between 1949 and 1989 that repressed dissent.
Much like in East Germany and other parts of the Soviet-led Eastern Bloc during the Cold War, authorities employed an extensive network of informants to monitor public sentiment.
Individuals, often recruited through coercion, were tasked with reporting on colleagues, friends and even relatives for signs of disloyalty towards the regime.
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.
Many files are believed to have been destroyed in the 1956 anti-Soviet uprising, or hidden during the months-long peaceful transition to democracy in 1989-1990.
“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 Cseh.
‘Better late than never’
Debates over opening the archives have dogged Hungarian politics since the fall of communism.
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.
The case prompted fresh calls for transparency, and Parliament adopted a law in 2003 that allowed individuals who had been monitored to learn who had reported on them.
Broader access, however, remained restricted to researchers, who had to gain permission from the state security archives until the latest reform.
Historian Laszlo Eorsi from the 1956 Institute Foundation told AFP the release was “better late than never”.
“We are getting access to much more information than before about who the authorities have recruited and how the security apparatus worked back then,” he said.
But historians have cautioned against judging anyone just because their names are on the list of informants.
“I know of quite a few examples when someone was recruited, but they did not make a report, but in fact took a huge risk by turning against the authorities. Some even could be considered proper heroes,” Eorsi stressed.
- AFP