State Protection Authority

State Protection Authority
Államvédelmi Hatóság
Agency overview
Formed10 September 1948 (1948-09-10)
Preceding agencies
  • Main Command Political Department (PRO) (2 February 1945 – October 1946)
  • State Protection Department (ÁVO) (October 1946 – September 1948)
Dissolved28 October 1956 (1956-10-28) (declared)
7 November 1956 (1956-11-07) (confirmed)
Superseding agency
TypeSecret police
JurisdictionHungary
HeadquartersAndrássy út 60., Budapest
Employees30,000 (1953)
Agency executives
Parent agencyBudapest Police
Ministry of Interior
AVH building

The State Protection Authority[a] (Hungarian: Államvédelmi Hatóság, ÁVH) was the secret police of the People's Republic of Hungary from 1945 to 1956. The ÁVH was conceived as an external appendage of the Soviet Union's KGB in Hungary responsible for supporting the ruling Hungarian Working People's Party and persecuting political criminals. The ÁVH gained a reputation for brutality during a series of purges but was gradually reined in under the government of Imre Nagy, a moderate reformer, after he was appointed Prime Minister of Hungary in 1953. The ÁVH was dissolved by Nagy's revolutionary government during the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 and succeeded by the Ministry of Internal Affairs III.

Archived data related to the ÁVH and the Ministry of Internal Affairs III are made available through the Historical Archives of the Hungarian State Security [hu].[1]


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  1. ^ "Historical Archives of the Hungarian State Security". Hungarian Archives Portal. Archived from the original on 2019-09-14. Retrieved 2021-10-23.