XIX. 2.

No. XIX. Main Group of Fonds – High Organs of Public Administration

1945–1990; 10.023,92 linear metres

The archival material of the Central Planning Board – "OT” (1947–1990) is of outstanding importance. The OT was established by the "Act on the First 3 Year Plan” of 1947. In the first two decades of the communist era it played an important part in the development of direct central economic management. Its material contains the plans of industrial, agricultural and commercial companies alike. The OT material of the 1960s serves as basic historical source in connection with the economic reform attempt of 1968 known as the "new economic mechanism”. Throughout the whole period of its existence, the OT functioned as central authority in the administration of large-scale state investments and projects, and co-ordinated the development of the investment system.

The Ministry of Reconstruction operated between 1945 and 1956 when it was replaced by the Ministry of Construction and Public Labour. Its scope of duties included the organisation of the national economic restoration, the co-ordination of the struggle against unemployment and the management of public labour. Its material is fragmented.

The Ministry of Construction and Public Labour existed between 1946 and 1949. Its competence included surface construction and civil engineering, town planning and landscape architecture, the control of building industry materials, the central management of human resources and public labour as well as the administration of the building industry and public construction. One of the most important tasks of the Ministry of Construction (1949–1967) was the development of the industrial infrastructure of the state housing project. As its legal successor, the Ministry of Construction and Town Planning (1967–1988) dealt, among others, with building administration, town planning activities and housing administration matters.

The Ministry of Building Materials (1952–1953) was established to draw the building materials industry, which had been subordinated to different ministries up to that time, under unified control. The remaining fragmented material of the Ministry provides information on the development concepts of the building materials industry as well as the central material management and price control. The Ministry of Town and Village Management (1954–1956) administered town planning and landscape architecture. It also controlled the housing administration, the investment departments of local councils as well as communal (i.e. public) works.

The Ministry of Industry (1945–1949) supervised the industrial production and the "production of industrial character”, industrial and mining administration, energy planning and public services, patent laws as well as trade mark and brand protection. From 1949 the competence of the Ministry was divided between the Ministry of Light Industry and the Ministry of Heavy Industry. This was the beginning of the division of industrial administration into branches. The heavy industry as well as the metallurgy and engineering industry branch was taken over by the Ministry of Heavy Industry (NIM). After the termination of NIM I. the heavy industry went under the control of the Ministry of Mining and Energetics I., whereas the metallurgic branch was taken over by the Ministry of Metallurgy and Engineering Industry. The light industrial branch was also controlled by an independent ministry.

The main function of the ministries which belonged to this branch (Ministry of Heavy Industry I., Ministry of Mining and Energetics I., Ministry of Chemical Industry I. and II., Ministry of Coal Industry, Ministry of Chemical Industry and Energetics) was the central administration of chemical, mining and energetics management.

This branch managed and supervised the metallurgy, engineering industry, electrical installation industry and metalworks industry. Between 1950 and 1980 the following ministries administered the branch: Ministry of Metallurgy and Engineering Industry I. (1950–1952); Ministry of Medium Machinery Industry (1952–1953); Ministry of Metallurgy (1952–1953); Ministry of General Engineering Industry (1952–1953); Ministry of Metallurgy and Engineering Industry II. (1953–1980). The ministerial material of the 1950s, especially the branch departmental documentation, is very deficient. However, the material of the Secretariat, Professional Board and the ministerial meetings of the post-1953 Ministry of Metallurgy and Engineering Industry II. is almost complete.

The material of the Ministry of Light Industry (1949–1980) is an important historical source of the 1950s concerning the Ministry’s foundation, reorganisation and termination, the liquidation and socialisation of private firms as well as the applications for compensation and exemption.

The Ministry of Trade and Co-operative Matters (1945–1949) supervised internal and external trade, customs regulations and customs policy as well as the management of tourism and non-agricultural co-operatives. In 1949, the competence of the portfolio was taken over by the simultaneously established Ministry of Internal Trade and Ministry of External Trade. The fond of the Ministry of Internal Trade (1953–1988) includes the material of the Ministry of Internal and External Trade (1953–1954) as well. The Ministry of Foreign Trade (1949–1976) handled theoretic organisational, supervisory, administrative and company management related issues as well as the management of domestic and foreign trade representations.

The name and structure of the Ministry of Transportation and Postal Administration ("KPM”–1946–1976) changed several times throughout the decades, but its competence remained basically the same (public roads, bridges, internal customs, public quarry operation, road vehicles, public, restricted and private railways, postal, telegraph, telephone and radio administration, shipping and air services). The Ministry also controlled water management between 1950 and 1951, and tourist administration between 1948 and 1964.

The records of the Railways Department form the most significant material of the Ministry. In 1949 the Managing Directorate of the "MÁV" (Hungarian State Railways) merged into the Railways Department of the Ministry and thereafter the Department’s material contains the records of the company as well. The incomplete material of the Shipping Department includes the documents concerning the post-war restoration of shipping. The documents of the Department of Air Traffic provide a more or less full picture of the management of air services between 1946 and 1949. The Postal Managing Directorate material of the Postal Administration Department includes the matters of postal, telegraph, telephone and radio works except the radio technical service, the newspaper distribution and sale and the postal surface construction works. After the 1983 termination of the KPM, its duties were taken over by the Ministry of Transportation. The KPM’s documents of 1977–1983 are still in the custody of the Ministry of Transport, Communication and Water Management.

Until 1967, the administration of the agricultural branch fell within the competence of the Ministry of Agriculture (FM). Between 1945 and 1967 the Ministry was reorganised eight times. Due to the organisation of separate ministries for special tasks, from time to time the scope of the FM’s duties was temporarily narrowed. The FM supervised land reform issues, the development of agricultural production, the development of the forms of collective farming, the central management of agricultural machine depots, the veterinary service, the determination of guidelines for cultivation of plants, animal husbandry and forestry. The fond includes sources on the implementation of the land reform, the distribution of socialised large estates for public purposes, circulation, partition and expropriation of estates, migration, the organisation and operation of co-operatives as well as the modification of the principles of collective farming.

The record unit of the National Land Board is an indispensable source on the agrarian policy of 1945–1950. The material includes valuable documents concerning the land reform and the deportation of ethnic Germans. The Ministry of State Farms and Forests was established in 1952. It controlled and supervised state farms, forests, lakes and reed cutting farms. The Ministry of State Farms was founded in 1954. It took over the scope of duties of the FM’s Managing Directorate of State Farms.

Within the food administration branch, most of the material of the Ministry of Public Supply have perished. In 1947 the Ministry was replaced by the National Public Supply Board of which duties included the organisation and management of the forced collection system and, from 1948, the supervision of food industry directorates. By the establishment of the Ministry of Food Administration, the management of public food supply, agricultural collection and food industry were reunified. In 1952, this Ministry was terminated too, and a separate Ministry for Collecting Agricultural Products and Livestock was established. The archival material of this latter is nearly complete. The same refers to the Ministry of Food Industry of which name changed to Ministry of Food Administration in 1957.

The material of the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Administration (established in 1967) includes documents concerning agriculture and food industry, forestry, primary timber industry, wildlife and hunting, land administration, loan policy, production circulatory system, wage and income control, investment system, proposals on production and technical development, scientific research, professional training and the international relations of the branch.

The central authority of financial management is the Ministry of Finance ("PM”). Its competence includes the preparation of the state budget and final accounts, the registration and management of state property, determination of taxation policy, management and supervision of the imposition and collection of taxes, the central administration of the collection of fees, revenues and customs, the control of banking institutions, insurance companies, public foundations and funds and the direct management and control of the organs of financial public administration. Following 1945 the Finance Ministry’s responsibility was extended over the handling of properties confiscated by sentences of people’s tribunals as well as the exploration and sequestration of assets abandoned due to war events, illegal emigration or other reasons as well as the assessment and clearing of foreign credit balances. The PM proceeded in cases related to the implementation of the financial and economic resolutions of the peace treaty as well as the Hungarian public and private assets taken abroad. The PM’s responsibility was further extended in 1949 when it took over the competence of central exchange control authority from the National Bank of Hungary. In 1952, some of its duties were taken over by the National Customs Headquarters (later the National Headquarters of the Customs Authority). In 1967, the newly established Chief Administration of Revenues of the PM took over the duties related to the taxation of national companies.