Commission for expropriation and land reform, Gheorgheni district

Collection

Holding institution:: Harghita County division of the Romanian National Archives

Holding institution (official language):: Serviciul Judetean Harghita al Arhivelor Nationale

Title (official language):: Comisia de ocol pentru expropriere şi împroprietărire Gheorgheni

Creator/accumulator:: Commission for expropriation and land reform, Gheorgheni district

Scope and content:: This fonds comprises the records issued by the Commission for Expropriation and Land Reform in Gheorgheni district from the period of 1901 to 1958. It includes information about the estates to be expropriated by the agrarian reform of 1921, details of those expropriations actually carried out, lists of citizens to be put in possession of the expropriated land and appeals against the final lists. The files include the estates that were excepted from expropriation, with applications and evidence concerning their cases.

The following files have Jewish references: no. 5 - property of the brothers Elemer, Jeno and Adalbert Baruch from Joseni (1922-1926); no. 56 - expropriation of the estate of Elek Stein from Gheorgheni (1923); no. 60 - expropriation of the estate Vithavas of Salamon Rubin and his wife from Gheorgheni (1923-1930); no. 65 - expropriation of the estate of the Kohn M. Society from Gheorgheni (1940); no. 243 - 1932 - application of Alter Schapira from Tulgheş to be put in possession of an expropriated property.

Archival history:: The fonds was transferred to the Harghita County division of the Romanian National Archives in 1999, where it was inventoried and made available to researchers.

Administrative/biographical history:: The agrarian reform for Transylvania was adopted by the Romanian Parliament in 1921. To put the reform into practice, commissions were organised on county, district and locality level. The reform was directed by an Agrarian Committee of the Ministry of Agriculture, a commission of expropriation in every county and district committees headed by the district judge and including an agronomist, a cadastral engineer and a delegate of the Central Commission. In every locality there was a local committee chaired by the mayor and including the communal secretary, the priest, the teacher and 2-3 peasants. These institutions established the estates to be expropriated, the lists of those to be put in possession and resolved all the litigations that occurred during this difficult process. They functioned until 1932 when their place was taken by the local courts which were intended to continue resolving the problems provoked by this reform, which had radically changed radically the property relations in this fundamental branch of the economy.

Access points: persons/families:: Baruch, Albert; Baruch, Elemer; Baruch, Jeno; Kohn, M; Rubin, Salamon; Schapira, Alter

System of arrangement:: The fonds is organised into files according to each estate.

Finding aids:: Inventory No. 980, held by the Harghita County division of the Romanian National Archives.

Yerusha Network member:: Romanian Institute for the Research of National Minorities

Author of the description:: Levente Tóth (archivist, Protestant Theological Institute Cluj), Ladislau Gyémánt (emeritus professor), 2018