The National Archives of Hungary (Budapest, 2006)

NATIONAL ARCHIVES AND SPECIAL ARCHIVES OF NATIONAL COLLECTION - The Archives of Military History Budapest by Jolán Szijj

appearing in front of the public in 1924 with the help of the annals of the Hungarian Royal Military History Archives in 1924. The annual report gave information about the establishment of the Archives, about its construction and the documents held there. In the years that followed, several annals were published that contained information about the completed works and gave detailed information on the extension of existing works. We went back to these military antecendents recently when we started the series of Publications of the Archives of Military History. Our slogan also originates here. World War II was a tragic period even in the life of the Archives. The Archives were partly evacuated but most of the delivered materials were destroyed. The building of the Archives suffered considerable damage during the siege of Budapest and the stores of Archives of Military History were ruined. The first years after the war were spent clearing the ruins away and recollecting the materials. The institution started its new life under the name of Military Museum and Archives but it only existed for a short period, from 24

th April 1945 to 15

th May Its successor was the Allied Control Commission - Hungarian abbreviation SZEB -which contributed only to the operation of the function of the museum. Therefore, the Archives worked as a part of the department of the Ministry of Defence and the museum took over its valuable documents (that were saved from ruin) so as to look after them. The national organization and the archives made contributions to the Archives- so that it could function once again. As a result of these efforts, it has continued to exist since March, 1947. Nowadays the Archives of Military History as an autonomous board is a part of public collection and scientific military institution named War History Institution and Museum - Hungarian abbreviation H/M -. The Archives of Military History together with the Hungarian National Archives and the regional state archives were ordered to be listed among public archives on the basis of decree-law No. 29 of 1950. According to decree-law No. 27 of 1969, it was changed into state special archives. It was strengthened by the legislative Act LXVI. of 1950 that is still considered valid. It declared that the task of the Archives of the Military History is to collect the written materials of military past and Hungarian history of war, by maintaing them and making them available for research. Also as living archives they continue to take over the documents of Hungarian People's Army and other related documents of interest. The Hungarian Army is responsible for maintaing its own documents with the help of Central Archives of HM HIM. It keeps about 6700 linear metres of written material, fifteen thousand scroll of film and eight million microfilms. With the policy of 'openness' that started with the political changes many