Arhivski vjesnik, Vol. 57 No. 1, 2014.
Professional paper
Archival Sources for the Research of History of the Croatian Emigration in the Croatian State Archives
Radoslav Zaradić
; Hrvatski državni arhiv
Abstract
Despite the long historical process of emigration of population from the area of Republic of Croatia, the migration phenomenon has not drawn any serious or systematic interest of the Croatian scientific community until today. The emigration literature mostly consists of memoirs and publicist writing, without scientific analysis and scholarly apparatus. Croatian historians began to research migrations only in the 1960-is. Only few historical studies based on original archives and periodicals stand out and are mostly related to emigration to the Americas. Therefore, we can conclude that the Croatian historiography has neglected the historical discourse of the (e)migration, which is mostly seen today through the eyes of the ethnologists, sociologists and demographers. The Croatian State Archives stores many archives on emigrants in more than fifty fonds and collections. Half of it is comprised of personal papers, among which the leading one by its scope and contents are the papers of Artur Benko Grado. This article also outlines the key fonds for researching emigrants during the inter-war period – Iseljenički komesarijat (Emigrant commissariat), as well as fonds Savez organizacije iseljenika (The Association of Emigrants’ Organization). The intention of this article is to warn about numerous archival documents whose value as the historical source for emigration has not yet been established.
Keywords
Croatian emigration; historiography; history of emigration; Croatian State Archives; archive material; personal papers
Hrčak ID:
139182
URI
Publication date:
18.12.2014.
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