 Secret police encouraged people to spy on each other |
The Slovak government has begun releasing thousands of secret police files from the communist era. Slovaks will be able to find the real or code names of people who worked for the former regime.
The files, which date back as far as the mid-1950s, contain lists of more than 21,000 names, including informers and alleged dissidents.
They are being made public to mark the 15th anniversary of the Velvet Revolution against communism.
The Memories of the Nation Institute made 20,000 files available on the internet on Tuesday.
The complete archive of 60,000 files will be posted online in the next six months.
Network of informers
The archive of the former Czechoslovakia was split between the Czechs and Slovaks in 1993, when the two countries separated.
The Czech Republic made the files public last year, but Slovak nationalist leader Vladimir Meciar kept them secret while he was in power.
Their release was subsequently delayed by opposition from the security services.
Under the communist regime, the secret police, the StB, used a complex network of spies and informers to build cases against supposed agitators.
It is thought to have carried out more than 230 executions, jailed about 280,000 people on political charges, and confined around 7,000 people in mental institutions against their will.
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