Dr. Péter Balázs: Guide to the archives of Hungary (Budapest, 1976)

A Szakszervezetek Központi Levéltára (Central Archives of the Trade Unions)

A SZAKSZERVEZETEK KÖZPONTI LEVÉLTÁRA (CENTRAL ARCHIVES OF THE TRADE UNIONS) 1075 BUDAPEST, Dózsa György út 68. Tel. 228-016/304 Leader: Dr. Elek KÁRSAI According to the decree-law No. 27 of 1969 of the Presidium of the People's Republic and the executional decree No. 30/1969, the Presidium of the Trade Union Council adopted a decision on the 1st June 1970, the Secretariat of the same on the 22nd June 1970 "on the raising the efficiency of the work in record management, registration and the archives and the securing the necessary conditions". The decision united the Central Archives of the Trade Unions and the Central Registry of the TUC under a common direction. On the 28th June 1971 the Deputy Minister of Culture declared the archives maintained by the TUC a special archives with the seat in Budapest (decree No. 2031/1071. X.) and defined its competence. The Secretariat of the Trade Union Council decided on the 22nd January 1974 the division of the archives and of the registry, and from the 30eth January 1974 the undersigned took over the lead of the Central Archives of the Trade Unions, with the duty of fulfilling the tasks outlined in the decision. According to the decision the Archives are bound "to collect, to preserve and to make accessible the archival material of the trade union movement", to establish the photographic and sound records connected with the trade union movement as separate collections, to help the leading bodies of the trade unions in the political use of the archival material, further to give methodological aid to the leading bodies of the Trade Union Council, its institutions, its branch organisations, the County Trade Union Councils in developing the order of their record management, and to control and help the work of the Central Registry, also the central registries of institutions and the professional trade unions regularly. In principle the archival material consists of the papers of the trade union movement produced between 1945 and 1963, but in fact also records prior to 1945 and after 1963 are in archival custody. The archival material totals approximately 1100 running metres; the most valuable archival groups are the records of the trade union congresses, the Trade Union Council, its secretaries, employees and Presidium, and also of the trade unions of various branches. The arrangement is in course.