Scientific research at the Historical Archives focuses on the organization and operation of the Hungarian Secret Services after World War II, as well as the relationship between central Party bodies, state bodies, and state security bodies. The results of the Archives’ research are published as monographs, edited volumes, and source books, while our newest publications are frequently showcased to the public at book premiers.
Since its debut in 2007, the online journal of the Historical Archives, Betekintő (“Insights”) has become increasingly more well-known as a professional forum frequently referenced by historians of our research field. It is also available in print from the year of 2020.
Professional cooperation with national and international organizations and institutes is an important goal at the Historical Archives.
In July 2004, the leaders of the institutes with similar mission in Germany, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary wrote a letter to Romano Prodi, then President of the European Council. In this letter they called his attention to the problems of handling and processing former State Security documents.
On 11 April 2005, based on the international contract between the Government of the Hungarian Republic and the Government of the United States of America, an agreement was signed between the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and the Historical Archives of the Hungarian State Security. In this program the American party could get digital copies of the documents which are about the 1938-45 persecutions and the limitation of rights concerning Hungarian Jews, or others because of belonging to an ethnical or religious minority or certain political groups.
In November 2005, the Archives signed an Agreement of Cooperation with the Nation’ Memory Institute in Bratislava. The aim of this agreement was to co-ordinate research in both countries and to uncover documents about our countries in both institutes.
In November 2008, an Agreement of Co-operation was signed in Budapest between The Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes which is based in Prague and the Historical Archives. The agreement comprises common scientific programs, organizing scientific conferences and meetings, editing common publications, and sharing experience gained while processing archives material.
On 16 December 2008, the representatives of the archives in Germany, Bulgaria, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Hungary that keep documents concerning secret police signed an agreement in Berlin. According to the declaration of intent the European Network of Official Authorities in Charge of the Secret Police Files will mean tight co-operation among the states that signed this agreement. Thus, they can present a united front on issues concerning the publicity of documents, the freedom of research and while disclosing the sins of the previous regime and the activity of secret services. According to the agreement the seven institutes are in regular touch through a co-ordination group and the presidium, which is changed every year, organizes conferences at regular intervals.
In 2013, the European Network was joined by three observers: Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, and in 2014, the chair of the Network was held by the Historical Archives of the Hungarian State Security.
The Historical Archives has established extensive contacts with institutes and researchers that deal with keeping and handling former State Security documents both in Hungary and abroad. The above-mentioned facts, which are far from being complete, show that our institute plays an important role in Hungarian scientific public life and we have regular business contacts with similar institutes in neighbouring countries.
In international cooperation, we have signed contracts with the following institutions:
Babeş-Bolyai University
Ludwig Boltzmann Institute
Ferenc Rákóczi II Transcarpathian Hungarian College
Sapientia Hungarian University of Transylvania
National Council for the Study of the Archives of the Securitate (CNSAS)
Evangelical Lutheran Church of Romania
Security Service of Ukraine (SBU)
The Historical Archives has organized several conferences where their researchers gave presentations side by side with renowned professionals of the field. The colleagues of the Archives have also attended several national and international conferences to report their newest research results. Some of them are:
In September 2006, The Historical Archives and the Institute of 1956 organized an international conference titled Az 1956-os forradalom visszhangja a szovjet tömb országaiban / The International reception of the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 in member states of the Soviet Bloc in honor of the fiftieth anniversary of the Hungarian Revolution of 1956.
In 2008, we organised an international conference in Pécs with lecturers representing our fellow institutes abroad. The topic of the conference was: “Those Who Watch and Those Who Are Being Watched – How useful secret agents documents are from the point of view of social history”, and the co-organising institutes were The Pécs Committee of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences and The Historical Institute of the Faculty of Arts of the University of Pécs.
The Historical Archives organized an international conference about mass deacidification of archival records in 2010 with participation of German, Polish, Slovak, Czech, Roman and Hungarian experts and the representative of the Norwegian Embassy. A detailed report and the presentations have been also published at the website of the Historical Archives.
In 2012 we celebrated 15th anniversary of the Historical Archives. Representatives of partner institutions from Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Germany, Poland, Romania and Slovakia also participated in the event.

In 2014 we organized a conference for the European Network of Official Authorities in Charge of the Secret Police Files. The title of the conference was: Continuities – Discontinuities: Secret Services after Stalin’s Death in Communist Central and Eastern Europe,1953–1960.
In 2017 we organized an international workshop for the partner institutes of The European Network of Official Authorities in Charge of the Secret Police Files. Title of the workshop was Archives in Charge of the Secret Police Files for Education and the Public Dissemination of Knowledge.
In 2018 the Historical Archives, together with the Ludwig Boltzmann Institut für Kriegsfolgenforschung, organized an international conference entitled Hungarian Intelligence Services in Austria during the Cold War. Also, in 2018 Historical Archives organized an international workshop about the GDPR the application of the general data protection regulation (GDPR) in archives, with special focus on the documents of the totalitarian political systems.
The list of books published by ÁBTL is available at the following link.