Hungary released thousands of communist-era secret police records to the public on Wednesday as part of the country's long-delayed effort to come to terms with its repressive past.

The archives, which are now part of a searchable online database, include the names of thousands of former informants who worked for the state security apparatus during four decades of one-party rule.

Although communism ended in Hungary in 1989, attempts to open the files had been repeatedly stalled. Some critics blamed the delay on successive governments' reluctance to implicate public figures.

Historic move 36 years after transition to democracy

Center-right Prime Minister Peter Magyar, who unseated longtime populist leader Viktor Orban in April, had pledged to grant the public unrestricted access to the records.

"After 36 years, we are finally fulfilling what was once one of the key promises of the 1990 regime change — a promise that was later denied and lied about," Magyar told a media briefing at the state security…