Archival Sources for the Research of History of the Croatian Emigration in the Croatian State Archives

U Hrvatskom državnom arhivu u Zagrebu (HDA) pohranjeno je mnoštvo arhivskih fondova i zbirki koji su primaran izvor za proučavanje povijesti hrvatskoga iseljeništva. U prvom dijelu članka kritički se preispituje dosadašnji domet hrvatske historiografije u proučavanju iseljeništva, te analizira metodičnost autora (povjesničara) pri korištenju i istraživanju tih arhivskih fondova. U drugom dijelu naglašavaju se najvažniji arhivski fondovi za proučavanje iseljeništva, a koji se čuvaju u HDA.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