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

Hungary has released the secret police files from its communist era, disclosing the names of the socialist regime's informant network roughly 70 years after the Soviet Union crushed the 1956 Hungarian revolution. The move opens long-sealed records of state surveillance to public scrutiny, potentially reshaping how Hungarians understand collaboration and resistance under the one-party system. The disclosure matters because it settles decades of debate over who informed for the secret police and gives historians and families access to previously withheld identities. Watch for public reaction from descendants of those named, and for how researchers and institutions use the newly available records.