Following these events, several editorial offices in Hungary began receiving packages containing photocopied documents, apparently new revelations. These supported the allegations against the mayor – who in recent times has been heard professing the anticommunist rhetoric of the center-right FIDESZ – Hungarian Civic Union. What we were lead to believe in these new allegations is that in the Kádár years he had provided hand-written reports to secret service officials including details as banal as what foreign license plates he noticed on the streets.

This whole series of events, however, supported a basic suspicion: contrary to prior reports, the files of the former communist secret-service were probably not destroyed during the systemic changes of 1989. In fact, over the past few years these types of documents have appeared intermittently – and were known to be used to blackmail public officials.

Inability to face the past

Fifteen years after the systemic changes, sporadic leaks to journalists concerning compromising documents seem to prove Hungary, contrary to other Central European countries, has been unable to face its past. Furthermore, it is primarily the political parties that bear the responsibility.

Last December saw a surprise when Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsány promised to make public as large a swath as possible of these secret service files. The timing was rather predictable, however, since last year on an almost weekly basis damaging information was leaked about various public figures. The claims were that they had been operatives for the communist-era secret service.

The SZDSZ push for the move

The prime minister’s declaration was also surprising since the governing socialists themselves had not, up until then, been prepared to look into the past in its totality. Only one month before the prime minister’s declaration, the coalition partners – the ruling Hungarian Socialist Party (MSZP) and the Alliance of Free Democrats (SZDSZ) – had commented the move would be untimely. The SZDSZ, however, later brought up the question again, in the interest of revealing and making public the whole of the network of communist-era secret agents. As of going to press, it was still unclear if there would be a definite agreement in the releasing the documents, and under what conditions. Many remained skeptical. The opposition wants former operatives who worked on their own accord with the communist-era secret service barred from public office. The ruling coalition would simply be content revealing names to the public.

János Kenedi is the subject’s top researcher and expert. Kenedi himself was under the watchful eye of operatives in the former system, and was reported on by one of his closest friends. The way he sees it, Gyurcsány only began discussing the issue to steer public attention away from other concerns, and the decision was based less on a responsibility to reveal past mechanisms of the stateparty system, than pragmatism.

Promises for naught

The reservations, meanwhile, are justifiable. After all, since 1989 five governments have promised to release the documents to the public, only to backtrack, and make minor advances. In 15 years there have been few grand revelations about Hungary’s operative network. Meanwhile, research estimates reveal some 9,000 operatives, spying on about 165,000 people across the country.

In the 1950s, the darkest years of the communist dictatorship, about 1.5 million people were being watched, while an average of 200,000 were either imprisoned or lived their lives behind the barbed-wire fences of forced labor camps. By 1960, there were still 600,000 being spied on, while six years later that figure dropped to 186,000. The victims of the state have yet to see any compensation or justice, save the odd symbolic gesture.

To answer why it was decided not to divulge at least the information that was amassed on the victims directly, Internet news portal Index talked to a former minister of that period in 2002. The first freely elected parliament, in 1990 began the preparatory work for legislation that would have prohibited - both communist-era operatives, as well as those who during the Second World War worked with the Arrow-Cross - from taking part in public life.

Only it soon became clear, according to then Finance Minister Iván Szabó, that numerous government politicians would have been affected. Szabó claimed around 10 percent of parliamentary members would have somehow been linked to the espionage of the infamous III/III department network. According to Szabó, if legislation was passed the ruling party would have, in effect, lost the support of its majority in parliament.

The case of István Csurka

Moreover, years ago revelations surfaced that István Csurka, the deputy-leader of the largest governing party at the time - the Hungarian Democratic Forum (MDF) - had been discovered as a former operative in a background check. Csurka, who later formed the far-right Hungarian Justice and Life Party (MIÉP), even tried to stop the documents from being revealed publicly. It was only later in his party’s own publication that he revealed he was recruited under the name Rasputin. He claimed, however, not to have written reports for the secret service. The list grew longer and it became increasingly uncomfortable when it was revealed that even an ambassador of the Vatican was affected.

One-time operatives were part of the first parliament following the systemic changes, and on both sides of the House, according to Balázs Horváth that government’s interior minister in an interview with the weekly Élet és irodalom in 2002.

In stepping down, the reformed-communist Prime Minister Miklós Németh delivered then Prime Minister József Antall and President Árpád Göncz a long list of operatives.

A partial list delivered

Balázs recalled that the list did not include a single member of the Hungarian Socialist Workers Party (MSZMP), nor any from the then newly created MSZP, but it was clear to him that Németh had somehow ‘guided’ the make-up of the list. The former interior minister – who also had access to the secret documents – remembers why the first draft of the then proposed legislation had to be withdrawn, since some 140-150 modifications were introduced. Basically, the Members of Parliament tore the legislation apart, and left little intact from the original concept.

Horváth remembers that the modifications to ’soften’ the legislation came – in pretty much equal numbers – from both the governning and opposition parties. Not surprising, as he acknowledges, operatives were ensconsed on both sides. Had the slate been cleaned then and there, Horváth believes the results would have lead to a grandiose scandal, but it would have looked like a smaller one for each party to deal with. Ultimately, he said, the governing of the country would not have been endangered.

Legislation introduced in the first parliament following the systemic changes still defines the rules on how to research former operatives. But the legislation is very narrow and rather ineffective.

As for victim’s rights, until last year they received information only on reports that directly effected them, and the name of the operative was diligently blacked out. This has now changed, and today victims can learn both the alias and real name of the operative. As a result, the number of visitors to the archives has increased dramatically. At the end of 2004, around 40 people a day were requesting information about who was monitoring them.

All walks of life

This is how Olympic soccer champion, Dezső Novák, and a respected theater critic, Népszabadság’s Péter Gál Molnár, were both revealed to have been informants. They, continue, however, to deny having given useful information to the secret service.

Should somebody be interested in knowing if an individual worked with the political police, they are not likely to get very far. They would only have a chance to succeed if the individual is a public figure, and more importantly, considers themselves as such. Because of this stipulation, there have been several strange instances where Members of Parliament and former ministers denied being ‘public’ figures.

This rule can be questioned in a court of law. If after going through the whole procedure it is discovered an individual was an operative, the only piece of information the archive could disburse would be a copy of the individual’s recruitment form. Reports, observations, or any other official documents would not be released.

The only people automatically examined through an inquiry are those who take an oath in front of Parliament. This later extended to judges, lawyers, party heads and journalists. The legislation mandates the creation of a committee, headed by an examining judge who has access to communist-era operative lists, documents and who even received or had access to the reports of such operatives. If it is found the individual was an operative, they are requested to step down from their position within 30 days. If they refuse, the results of the inquiry are brought to the attention of the public.

Meanwhile the examined individual has the right to turn to the courts for an appeal after the first ruling. Additionally there are no sanctions possible against the individual being reviewed. Regardless of what documents are found to implicate the individual, they might not feel a responsibility to resign as a result. Such was the case with former Prime Ministers Gyula Horn and Péter Medgyessey.

Medgyessy most affected

Medgyessy, the fourth prime minister in power after the systemic changes, was most affected by the question of how to react to former operatives. Medgyessy himself came extremely close to having to resign in the summer of 2002, after a mere three weeks in office. It almost cost him his job when the daily Magyar Nemzet revealed that before the systemic changes, the prime minister cooperated – as operative D-209 – with counter-espionage. Following a series of awkward rhetoric, Medgyessy admited that he had worked for five years as a counterintelligence officer.

He patriotically claimed not to be working against the CIA, but in the interests of Hungary - against the KGB - while Hungary was working hard to develop closer ties with the International Monetary Fund in the face of muted Soviet opposition.

Following the D-209 affair, a parliamentary committee began to examine the totality of post-1989 governing politicians. The committee came to the conclusion, on the basis of the documents that were relseased to them, that a handful of individuals in power after 1989 had cooperated with the former dictatorship’s secret service. Committee president, Imre Mécs, announced the names of 10 governing politicians since 1989 who the committee claimed to be former operatives.

However, some of these claims were subsequently challenged. Eventually three of them admited to making reports for the authorities, but did not go so far as to consider themselves operatives. The list included prominent individuals such as Central Bank President Zsigmond Járai, former minister Szabolcs Fazakas and a former state secretary in the economics ministry.

In theory, the political parties agree to the principal of facing this murky past. Differences in opinion, however, could block any kind of compromise solution. The SZDSZ is a proponent of bringing out the full range of secret service documents from the communist period – including the names of the officers behind the actions of the operatives.

Negotiations are underway – but the latest news is that the information will be uploaded onto the Internet – a similar solution taken recently in neighboring Slovakia.

Historians skeptical

Historians are still skeptical. Krisztián Ungváry wrote in Népszabaság that even though András Tóth of the National Security Office claimed to have handed over the whole of the pre-1990 secret service files to an archive, in reality Ungváry wrote, this is far from the truth.

The allegation of some members of the commitee responsible for determining the release of security services files is that if they be made public – they could potentially threaten national security interests. Moreover, according to Ungváry, this could represent a lot of documents. For 2004, meanwhile, not one higher level counter-espionage or secret service document from that era was sent to the archives. Both Kenedi and Unváry are of the opinion that it is merely fiction that the former system’s secret service documents were destroyed.

At the same time the secret service guards these documents and prevents researchers from having access to them, Kenedi claims. According to him in a BBC report, in 1989 some members of the national security services lifted and moved certain documents that could later be used to blackmail individuals.

People still compromized

Kenedi claims it is laughable to say that the reason why some of these documents are being held back is because of potential economic threats by large companies, who would allegedly sue the state for the theft of international patents. In one of his articles, Ungváry comes to the conclusion numerous individuals are still compromised by these secret documents and the protection of their interests are jumbled with the protection these documents enjoy.

The political parties would probably come to some kind of conclusion by again evaluating the previously held back documents, but with the assistance of new experts. Until now it was understood that in first instance it was the role of the secret service to determine which documents remained under their jurisdiction, and which could be transferred to the archives. According to SZDSZ politician Gábor Fodor, however, at least a sixth of those documents are being held back – which he finds excessive.

Over the past 15 years damaging documents have mysteriously appeared only to taint the reputations of personalities of everyone from prime ministers to international soccer stars. Yet all of the accused deny having cooperated with the Kádár-era secret service. Much is at stake, after all, this cooperation - if accurate - was known to have resulted in state-sponsored abuse – at best.

Operatives-a-plenty: A regional perspective
Looking back at the communist-era secret-service past has not been easy in this region. However, recently many of our regional neighbors have also started dealing with their murky past.
One of the first steps of the newly elected government of Romanian President Traian Basescu was to order the release of the communist-era secret service files of the much feared Securitate. In theory, Romania had already passed a law in 1999 taking just these steps. Romanian Securitate-related documents number around 125 million. In Slovakia, officials have already begun the process of revealing, on the Internet, lists of former state operatives. Investigative journalists have revealed numerous public figures as being former spies, including politicians and former head of the government, Vladimir Meciar. Meciar had earlier warned his name may appear on the list, but that the information would be false.
A list of 60,000 operatives was made public in the Czech Republic. Two of the accused fought the allegations in court, succeeding in having their names removed. Last December in Poland, lower house parliamentary president, Józef Oleksy, offered his resignation after an investigative committee judge discovered that during the period of state-socialism, the politician was a paid secret-service agent. The 58-yearold politician was found to have been working, from 1970-1978, for the military’s information-gathering services. Oleksy continues to deny the alegations. The Germans were the quickest to release information pertaining to Stasi operatives. The one-time East German secret-service employed some 90,000 full time, official officers – three times the number used by Hitler’s Gestapo. The Stasi also employed some 175,000 ‘social’ workers, whose job was to report on individuals. These individuals, after the unification of Germany, were forbidden to undertake public posts. Joachim Gauck founded the institution responsible for handling the Stasi files. At a talk on the handling of the files, he claimed the decision to open the files did not come easy. He believes the German solution was only possible at that point in time, and today he would not advise similar steps.

The operative’s life

Film-maker Zsigmond Gábor Papp looks into the life of a spy “What should you do if the phone rings while you are searching someone’s flat? Don’t pick up the phone.” These are the kind of tricks taught by Kádár-era propaganda films, in Hungarian Zsigmond Gábor Papp’s film on the life of a communistera spy.

“The Operative’s Life” is based on instructional films made between 1956 and 1989 in the Police Film Studio of the Ministry of Interior. These films were so secret that at the time only elite political officers were allowed to watch them. Even the projectionist had to leave the cinema hall during the screenings.

Papp’s film is divided into four parts: where to put bugs, initiation to the house search, main tricks, and effective networking. The best part of this film is the humor, rare in political documentary genres. Even in the shocking pictures when a porter helps to enter an individual’s flat, the scene somehow become humorous. During the Kádár-era, tens of thousands of informants were spying on hundreds of thousands of people. Soldiers, conductors, officials, teachers and healthcare workers officially cooperated with the highest ranking operative office.

The film-maker chose from 300 archive films to cut his final version. The director came upon the archives by accident in an exhibition on the communist-era state security police organized by the Office of Historical Affairs. A friend of Papp drew his attention to those quirky productions. Even though the films were shown at this public exhibition in 2000, the authorization procedure for him to later gain access to the films remained very complicated.

Watching the film, it is amazing to see how much energy was put into making Kádár era propaganda films. The state used expensive 35 mm film, and contracted professional cameramen and directors. In spite of the seeming professionalism the form renders them laughable. The primitive narration of the instructional elements somehow stand in contrast to the ‘lofty,’ sometimes destructive ends, and makes the films seem ridiculous and petty, despite their true seriousness.

Zsigmond Gábor Papp

Zsigmond Gábor Papp is a 37–year-old director interested in examining the past. He produced popular documentaries like the “Budapest Retro” and its sequel,.which presented archives on the architecture, furniture, dress and shoe design of 1960s and 1970s Budapest.

He also shot a documentary on one of the most recognized Hungarian writers, Péter Esterházy, and a portrait film on Dezsô Tandori. Both films won recognition, with “Tandori” taking the best literature portrait film prize at Famafest in Portugal, and “Esterházy-vacsora” winning best documentary at the Romania’s Sensor Festival. Papp won the best film prize in the 35th Hungarian Filmszemle – the most notable Budapest film festival - for his film, “The School of the Empire.” The movie is about the school of the German empire, established in 1908 for the children of German, Austrian and Czech diplomats and traders working in Budapest – although the school was eventually opened to Hungarians as well.

By Nóra Lakos