The National Archives of Hungary (Budapest, 2006)
NATIONAL ARCHIVES AND SPECIAL ARCHIVES OF NATIONAL COLLECTION - Hungarian National Archives by Géza Érszegi and István G. Vass
of enemy attacks and other reasons. So it can be understood that these archives - with the exception of two - soon split up and were dispersed. Only the archives of two reigning families were preserved intact: one of them was the Rákóczi family and the other was the Apafi family. These documents still found their way into the Archives, despite the many vicissitudes of Hungarian history. The official central administration of Transylvania took place at the beginning of the 18 th century - when the Turks were driven out. The Principality of Transylvania was abolished and came under the rule of the Hapsburg dynasty. It was organized like the one in Hungary but was absolutely separate. The newly formed Transylvanian governmental authorities took charge of holding their own records in their own archives. Besides the private material of the archives of Transylvanian authentic places, the written records of public archives were combined with the Hungarian National Archives according to the individual legislative Act XXIII. of 1882. The former, secret royal, court archives in the 18 th and 19 th century Europe changed from the institutions of rulers and estates to one that conferred rights to scientific institutions, and which took mainly the demands of history in view. Re-organization of Hungarian National Archives in 1874 was embedded along similar lines of development. After long preparation, it was in this year that a decision was made to unify the archives of Hungarian and Transylvanian governmental authorities and courts from the time of feudalism (except in 1848) that lost their functions with the National Archives. The few decades that followed it gradually took over the records of central governmental institutions existing in the period of 1848-1849 Ministry- then of the absolutism and provisional state, 1849-1867. This work, except some minor ones, was eventually completed in 1906. This occurred, despite the fact that a rule of law in 1874 regulating the work of archives and which defined its tasks in detail did not come into being. The National Archives essentially differed from the Archives of the Country and from other archives and record offices working under its frame. The latter, took over mainly the documents of organizations and people supporting them. But the collection area and the competence of the institutions established in 1847 covered all the written material of three sectors of power, namely enacting law, administration and exercise of jurisdiction. These institutions worked nationally and regionally. Untill World War II, the collection area was damaged only by forming the Archives of War History Museum, 1918 that is, the Ministry of War and its
