On 4 November, Hungary will for the first time make publicly accessible the archives of the state security services from the socialist dictatorship era (1945–1989). The special online platform Nyitottaktak.hu will publish the names of approximately 50–60 thousand people linked to the state security system: agents, informants, and those targeted for recruitment.
This is one of the key election promises of Prime Minister Péter Magyar’s Tisza party, which came to power after the parliamentary elections in April 2026. In September, parliament passed the relevant law (149 votes in favour, with no votes against). The opening was originally planned to coincide with the 70th anniversary of the 1956 Hungarian uprising, but the date was postponed to 4 November — the day Soviet military intervention began, crushing the revolution.
Until now, access to the materials was mainly limited to researchers and relatives of victims. The documents will now be searchable and available for download without registration. In the first wave (from 4 November), the so-called “No. 6 cards”, recruitment journals (B-napló), and data from the 1989 magnetic tapes (H-database) will be published. Detailed files on roughly 9,000 people (B-dossiers) will be released later — by 25 February 2027 — after the redaction of sensitive information concerning health, addictions, sexuality, and data about victims.
According to archivists’ estimates, of the 50–60 thousand people mentioned in the documents, about 10% may still be alive today (5–8 thousand), of whom 1–2 thousand could potentially still be active. The surviving materials represent only a fraction: research suggests the total number of network agents during the Rákosi and Kádár eras may have exceeded 150 thousand. Many files were destroyed during the 1956 uprising or in the course of the 1989 transition.
Minister of Social Relations and Culture Zoltán Tarr stressed: “A democratic society has the right to know its past.” Péter Magyar acknowledged that the publication would be a “difficult and sensitive” issue for many families, but that genuine political change is impossible without an honest reckoning with the past. Historians note that Hungary will become one of the most transparent countries in the former Eastern Bloc regarding access to secret service archives.
The opening of the archives may reveal unknown pages in the family histories of thousands of Hungarians: who collaborated with the services voluntarily or under pressure, who was recruited, and who was under surveillance. At the same time, the mere appearance of a name in the database does not always mean active informing — the lists also include candidates for recruitment.
