Editing State Protection Authority (section)

{{Short description|1945–1956 secret police of Communist Hungary}}
{{Multiple issues|
{{Expand Hungarian|topic=hist|Államvédelmi Hatóság|date=May 2013}}
{{more citations needed|date=January 2013}}
}}

{{Infobox government agency
|agency_name   = State Protection Authority
|nativename_a  = ''Államvédelmi Hatóság''
|nativename_r  =
|logo          = Emblem of the State Protection Authority.svg
|logo_width    =
|logo_caption  =
|seal          =
|seal_width    =
|seal_caption  =
|formed        = {{Start date|df=yes|1948|9|10}}
|preceding1    = Main Command Political Department (PRO) {{small|(2 February 1945 – October 1946)}}
|preceding2    = State Protection Department (ÁVO) {{small|(October 1946 – September 1948)}}
|dissolved     = {{End date|df=yes|1956|10|28}} {{small|(declared)}}{{-}}{{End date|df=yes|1956|11|07}} {{small|(confirmed)}}
|superseding   = [[Ministry of Internal Affairs III]]
|jurisdiction  = [[Hungarian People's Republic|Hungary]]
|agency_type     = [[Secret police]]
|headquarters  = [[Andrássy út]] [[House of Terror|60.]], [[Budapest]]
|employees     = 30,000 (1953)
|minister1_name  =
|minister1_pfo   =
|minister2_name  =
|minister2_pfo   =
|minister3_name  =
|minister3_pfo   =
|chief1_name     = [[Gábor Péter]] (1945–1953)
|chief1_position =
|chief2_name     = [[László Piros]]  (1953–1956)
|chief2_position =
|chief3_name     =
|chief3_position =
|chief4_name     =
|parent_agency   = [[Law enforcement in Hungary|Budapest Police]]<br />[[Ministry of Interior (Hungary)|Ministry of Interior]]
|child1_agency =
|child2_agency =
}}
[[File:Budapest-Terror Museum.jpg|thumb|AVH building]]
The '''State Protection Authority'''{{efn|Also translated as '''State Security Authority''' and '''State Defense Authority'''}} ({{langx|hu|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 criminal]]s. The ÁVH gained a reputation for brutality during a series of [[purge]]s 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 {{ill|Historical Archives of the Hungarian State Security|hu|Állambiztonsági Szolgálatok Történeti Levéltára}}.<ref>{{cite web|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20190914001839/http://www.archivportal.hu/en/archives-of-hungary/historical-archives-of-the-hungarian-state-security/|url=http://www.archivportal.hu/en/archives-of-hungary/historical-archives-of-the-hungarian-state-security/|title=Historical Archives of the Hungarian State Security|publisher=Hungarian Archives Portal|accessdate=2021-10-23|archivedate=2019-09-14}}</ref>