Overview
- The Historical Archives of the Hungarian State Security (ÁBTL) put a searchable H-Database online on Wednesday, Nov. 4, 2026, containing roughly 58,000 names drawn from 1989 magnetic tapes and associated logs.
- Officials said the release will be staged with a second phase scheduled for 25 February 2027 to publish about 9,000 more detailed B-dossiers that contain fuller case files.
- Archive staff and historians warned that a name in the database does not by itself prove voluntary collaboration because entries also record recruitment attempts, targets of surveillance, and incomplete notes.
- Former prime minister Viktor Orbán posted secret-service documents on Nov. 3 saying agents tried to recruit him during military service and that he and his associates were later heavily surveilled.
- Sensitive personal data such as health, addiction and sexual-orientation details will be redacted before detailed files are published, but historians say gaps and destroyed records mean some questions about the full scope of the informant network will remain.