36 years later: Hungary opens Communist-era secret service files

Decades after the end of Soviet rule, Hungary is releasing all its secret service files. The disclosure is sparking fresh debate about informants, guilt and responsibility. On November 4, 1956, tens of thousands of Soviet soldiers and tanks swept into Hungary , brutally suppressing the country's anti-Communist uprising. Decades of dictatorship followed, relying on Hungary's brutal secret police to keep the system in place.

Magyar and his Tisza party had previously promised to make the "agent files" public if elected. Their release is an historic event, as it comes after over three decades of heated debate over how to handle such sensitive files. The decision to publish is also sure to spark further debate on Communist-era guilt and responsibility. Hungarians have been calling for the release of the files for years.

After the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and the end of Soviet rule, civil rights activists and smaller Hungarian political parties said the files should be released. Demands for their publication were expressed repeatedly over following decades.