The National Archives was founded in 1723 as a governmental archives and developed as such up until the socialist period. In 1949, the Archives became an integral part of a centralized archives structure, and its collecting activities extended over regional governmental organizations as well. A new department was established to manage the records of the communist governmental authorities.

Beginning in 1970. the National Archives played an increasingly important role in representing the post-war communist state. In 1970, the Archives was split into two organizations: a historical archives proper, which preserved all pre-1945 records, and a New Central Archives, which collected government records from 1945 excluding, however, party records.

In 1991, the two sections of the Archives were once again unified, and the National Archives acquired the records of the former Hungarian communist party. This material, together with relevant documents of the Ministry of Education, is crucial evidence to understand the modes of tackling critical culture, alternative culture, and counterculture in socialist Hungary.