Hungary's state archives released communist-era secret police files on Wednesday, naming as many as 60,000 people who informed for the security services. The disclosure, 36 years after one-party rule ended, covers recruitment papers and surveillance records previously kept from the public.

Hungary's state archives released secret police files from the communist era on Wednesday, naming as many as 60,000 people who informed for the security services during four decades of one-party rule. The disclosure covers reports, recruitment papers and surveillance records compiled before the system collapsed in 1990.

Hungary has struggled for decades over how much of this material to make public, citing concerns about privacy, the reliability of some files and the risk of exposing ordinary citizens who informed under pressure or coercion. Earlier partial releases named only senior officers, leaving most lower-level informants unidentified until now.

Historians and archivists said the wider release gives researchers and families a fuller record of how the surveillance network operated, while officials acknowledged the files will reopen painful questions about guilt and complicity for many Hungarian families. The national archive said it would expand public access to the records in the coming months.