Hungary to unmask communist informants and confront the past of ‘traitors in every family’

Files set for public release

On Wednesday, Hungary’s new government is due to reveal names held in the state-security files. The records, kept at the Historical Archives of the State Security services, have largely remained out of public reach despite repeated demands and partial leaks.

Péter Magyar pledged during his campaign ahead of Hungary’s April parliamentary elections to open the files. Zoltán Tarr, minister of social relations and culture, wrote on Facebook that a democratic society has a right to know its past. Archivist István Papp described the move as opening a door that had been left partly open.

A vast but incomplete record

Historians estimate that the files contain names of 50,000 to 60,000 people, with about 10% believed to be alive today. If laid end to end, the documents would extend for three miles, Papp said.

The collection is smaller than those held by Polish or Romanian secret services. Many Hungarian records were destroyed during the 1956 anti-Soviet uprising, while others vanished during the largely peaceful transition of 1989, when authorities had time to remove incriminating material.

Families face painful discoveries

One report was written by a Hungarian woman in London who had befriended Faludy’s grandmother as she was dying of cancer. Faludy said details in the woman’s file about relatives in Hungary, including her elderly parents, changed his anger to sympathy.

Public scrutiny and complex choices

Partial lists released since the 2000s have named politicians and prominent artists. Some denied involvement, while the allegations alone triggered political crises. Religious figures were also targets and were sometimes blackmailed into reporting on their congregations; some estimates put cooperation among them at 7-10%.

Historian Domokos Szokolay hopes the release will not become a public shaming. His father, poet and politician Zoltán Szokolay, was named as an informant in an unofficial list in 2005. Domokos said people may fear judgment, but learning about family history is preferable, even when the process is painful.