This paper aims to explore the role of the archives in dealing with the communist past, that is, in regard to the public debates about the contested archival materials and the problems which researchers have been facing in Croatia over the last two decades. It will inquire into the past practice of Croatian historians in carrying out research on the communist period. The article examines the state of the archives in Croatia, especially with regard to the most critical archival fonds – the Central Committee of the League of Communists of Croatia (CK SKH) and the files of the State Security Service (SDS) of the Republic Secretariat of Internal Affairs, which are kept in the Croatian State Archives in Zagreb. Since the independence of Croatia, those archival materials have been the subject of many debates in Croatian public and political life. Finally, this article will showcase the practical consequences of the newly adopted legal changes, especially in the case of the Horizon 2020 project “COURAGE – Cultural Opposition: Understanding the Cultural Heritage of Dissent” (2016-9).