osmikon.search

osmikon.search

What is searched?
osmikon.search offers the possibility to search simultaneously in relevant German and international library catalogues, bibliographies and special databases for scientific literature and research material on Central, Eastern and Southeastern Europe.
Find out more about osmikon.search

OstDok

OstDok

What is searched?
The subject repository "OstDok – Eastern European Documents Online" provides electronic full texts of research on Eastern, Central Eastern and Southeastern Europe.
Find out more about OstDok 

ARTOS

ARTOS

What is searched?
The database ARTOS records specialist articles and reviews from around 400 current journals and selected anthologies covering a wide range of research in the humanities and social sciences from Eastern and Southeastern Europe and across the region.
Find out more about ARTOS

OstNet

OstNet

What is searched?
OstNet is a catalogue for internet resources and lists academically relevant websites and online documents on Eastern, Central and Southeastern Europe. In OstNet you can, for example, search for institutional websites, blogs or digital humanities projects on a specific topic or country, or search for databases for a specific research target.
Find out more about OstNet

ARTOS

ARTOS alerting service

Use the ARTOS alerting service to receive regular e-mail updates on new articles and reviews from several hundred journals and selected edited volumes on Eastern Europe!
Find out more about ARTOS alerting service

Archival sources – digital source collections and microforms

Recommended source collections with digitised archival documents as well as references to microfilmed archival documents from the holdings of the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek (microfilms and microfiches, available via interlibrary loan) on Central, Eastern and Southeastern Europe

Digital source collections (Eastern and Southeastern Europe in general)

ALEX is the digital reading room of the Austrian National Library for historical Austrian texts on law and legislation. Since Austria in its historical borders is used as a basis, the legal norms of the crown lands are thus also included. The texts do not only document the norm output of the state in past times, but are also an excellent source for questions on history, politics, culture and society. ALEX contains approx. 5 million pages from collections of norms, imperial, state and federal law gazettes, provincial law gazettes, ordinance and official gazettes, stenographic minutes of the House of Deputies as well as of the House of Lords of the Imperial Council and the provincial parliaments.

ALEX Historische Rechts- und Gesetzestexte online

Die Blinken Open Society Archives stellen in diversen Kollektionen 178.888 digitalisierte Materialien zur Zeitgeschichte Ost-, Ostmittel- und Südosteuropas zur Verfügung. Der Fokus liegt auf Ungarn, Polen, der Sowjetunion sowie den Nachfolgestaaten Jugoslawiens. Enthalten sind Text-, Audio- und Videoquellen, welche inhaltlich die Themenbereiche Propaganda, Kriegsverbrechen, Dissidentenbewegung, Medien und Kalter Krieg berühren. Ein Teil der Materialien stammt aus dem Archiv des ehemaligen Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty Research Institute.

Blinken Open Society Archives: Digital Repository

The database contains more than 25,000 photographies and ego-documents of Eastern and Central European Jews, who survived the Holocaust. Moreover, transcripts of interviews with 1,200 survivors are available.

Centropa Archive

 

DiFMOE digitises historical printed works from multi-ethnic cultural landscapes of Eastern Europe, especially those with (formerly) significant German or German-speaking parts of the population, and makes them available online.

Digital Forum Central and Eastern Europe (DiFMOE)

Online source editions of the Herder Institute with texts (documents) and maps, pictures, statistics (materials) on the history of East Central Europe. This standardised and structured online platform caters for lecturers, students and other interested parties and publishes sources that have been difficult to access up to now.

Documents and Materials relating to East Central Europe

A directory of digital sources on European history that also includes a large number of entries on Eastern European countries.

EuroDocs: Online Sources for European History

This database contains news reports, television and radio transcripts from the Foreign Broadcast Information Service on legal and illegal immigration and refugees in the period 1941-1996, and is of great importance for East and Southeast European studies as it provides material on the following topics:

  • 1944-1996 Refugees from the Baltic States
  • 1945-1952 Displaced People after World War II
  • 1946-1952 Jews after World War II
  • 1945-1952 Resettlement and Repatriation after World War II
  • 1950-1996 Gypsies
  • 1956-1957 Refugees after the Hungarian Revolution
  • 1970-1996 Soviet Jews
  • 1990-1996 Refugees from the Former Yugoslavia

Details in the Database Information System (DBIS)
Immigrations, Migrations and Refugees : Global Perspectives, 1941-1996

The database contains sources on various aspects of Jewish life in the USA from the holdings of the American Jewish Historical Society in New York. These include autobiographical records of individual families, collections on important historical figures of American Jewry, but also records of private and governmental organisations. The documents date from 1654-1954. There are numerous sources on the immigration and integration of Jews from Eastern Europe, as well as on the rapprochement of US Jewry with communities throughout the world, including Russian and Romanian ones.

Jewish Life in America, c1654-1954

Read our article on the source collection on the OstBib Blog!

The collection of the Keston Center for Religion, Politics and Society contains materials documenting religious persecution under Communist regimes with a focus on the Soviet Union. It contains rare and one-of-a-kind photos, books, journals, transcripts, and documents.

Keston Digital Archive

The New York Public Library's Slavic and Baltic Collections include thematically selected photos, images and digitised books.

New York Public Library Digital Gallery: Slavic and Baltic Collections

This collection contains more than 100,000 pages of ego-documents (letters, diaries, pamphlets, autobiographies) that document the experiences of immigrants in Canada and the USA. The Ellis Island Oral History Interview collection comprises around 35,000 pages. The experiences of immigrants from a range of different countries spanning Asia, Russia and Central and South Europe are documented. The sources focus mostly on the years 1890-1920.

North American Immigrant Letters, Diaries and Oral Histories

The Online Primary Sources database aims to provide researchers and students with sources from Russia, the Caucasus, Central Asia, Eastern and Central Europe that have been put online in recent years thanks to intensive library digitisation policies in these regions as well as in the West. The database is curated by the Centre for Russian, Caucasian and Central European Studies (CERCEC), in Paris (France).

Online Primary Sources for Russian, Caucasian, Central Asian, Eastern & Central Europe Studies

The Portal Ostpolitik (Portal for Eastern Policy) of the Konrad-Adenauer-Foundation presents over 100 key documents on German policy from 1967 to 1974 from the holdings of the General Secretary of the CPSU, Leonid Il'ich Brezhnev , which are available both as facsimiles of the original Russian-language documents and in German-language translations.

Portal Ostpolitik

 

The main topic of this database is the history of Displaced Persons (DP) in Europe. More than 3,000 documents can be accessed as image files or via full-text search.

Post-War Europe: Refugees, Exile and Resettlement 1945-1950

This digital collection contains a total of 100 works in several Slavic languages, in particular Church Slavonic, created in around 30 Eastern European locations as well as in Berlin and Venice. The digital reproductions are copies of bibles and other religious books from the collection of the Lomonosov State University in Moscow which has one of the most important collections of early and rare Slavic prints in the world.

Slavonic Bibles Online

Read our blog post about the collection on the OstBib blog!

This portal contains around 12,500 digitised documents from a total of 24 international archives and libraries. Among the digitised material are self-testimonies (e.g. diaries, letters, postcards, experience reports, bequests and interviews with contemporary witnesses) as well as personal photos, propaganda materials (e.g. field newspapers, posters and flyers), classified documents (e.g. government and military files, rare printed materials) or art from the war period. Around 1,000 items are directly related to the theatres of war in Eastern Europe or to the warfare in those regions.

The First World War Portal

Read our post about the source collection on the OstBib blog!

This digital collection contains handwritten records and rare printed material from the Wiener Holocaust Library in London, the world's oldest Holocaust museum. It provides access to personal testimonies of life under National Socialism, offering insights into the domestic politics of Nazi Germany, Jewish life in Germany from 1933 to the postwar period, life in the concentration camps, underground, and in exile. All sources are searchable in full text. The majority of the documents are in German.

Testaments to the Holocaust

In total, the "Visual History Archive" contains over 55,000 video interviews from 62 countries in 41 languages, mainly on the local horrors of the Holocaust. The interviewees include involuntary eyewitnesses such as victims of Nazi crimes as well as Jews and members of other groups of people persecuted in the Third Reich, such as Sinti and Roma and homosexuals.

The collection is being continuously expanded and includes interview collections on the following topics: the genocides of the Armenians, genocide in Cambodia 1975-1979, Guatemala 1978-1983 and Rwanda 1994, the massacre of Nanjing 1937/38, the current violent conflicts in South Sudan, Central Africa and the Rohingya in Myanmar as well as current anti-Semitism.

The database is characterised by an in-depth exploration of sources and the extensive transcription of non-English-language interviews. The database offers users an innovative user interface with detailed search options.

Visual History Archive 

Read our post about the source collection on the OstBib blog!

An extensive collection of digitised sources on the history of international relations with a focus on the Cold War, which means that the portal also contains a large number of documents from and about Russia, East and Southeast Europe.

Wilson Center: Digital Archive. International History Declassified

 

The collection brings together diverse global responses to major social movements of the 20th century into a single fully searchable resource, providing researchers across disciplines with valuable insights into the protests and reforms that changed the course of world history. For Eastern and Southeastern European Studies, it offers reports on the following topics:

Anti-war movements:

  • Sácharov, Andréj, 1921-1989
  • Soviet-Afghan War, 1979-1989
  • War crimes

Workers’ movements:

  • Solidarność
  • Strikes
  • Wałęsa, Lech, 1943-

Nationalist and separatist movements :

  • Bosnia-Herzogovina
  • Lithuanian independence
  • Ukraine/Crimea

Political and economic reforms:

  • Dissedents
  • Hungarian Uprising, 1956
  • Pragua Spring, 1968
  • Solženicyn, Aleksandr, 1918-2008

World Protest and Reform Movements: Global Perspectives, 1945-1996

Baltic States

The website "Electronic archive of Lithuanian partisan documents" (E-partisan archive) provides access to digitised documents of partisans who took part in armed resistance against the Soviet regime in Lithuania from 1944 to 1953.

Lietuvos partizanų dokumentų elektroninis archyvasׅ

Belarus

This collection consists of two parts. The "Belarus Anti-Fascist Resistance Leaflets 1942-1944" includes a total of 97 one to four-page leaflets, most of which are addressed in Belarusian to the entire Belarusian population or to particular groups of the population. The second part, "Belarus Anti-Fascist Resistance Press 1942-1945", contains 30 newspapers with 10 to 20 issues per title which were published in Belarusian or Russian on an irregular basis.

Belarus Anti-Fascist Resistance Leaflets 1942-1944

Belarus Anti-Fascist Resistance Press 1942-1945

Read our post about the source collections on the OstBib blog!

The following databases with digitised ephemera of the most recent parliamentary and presidential elections in Belarus are available free of charge throughout Germany:

Belarus Presidential Election 2010

Belarus Parliamentary Election 2012

Belarus Presidential Election 2015

Belarus Parliamentary Election 2016

Belarus Parliamentary Election 2019

The databases contain the following ephemera and documents which comprehensively document the election procedures in Belarus:

  • laws and regulations governing the conduct of diverse elections;
  • documents of the State Electoral Commission;
  • official election documents of the candidates: CVs, reports on finances and campaign financing, lists of supporters;
  • candidate campaigning material: flyers, brochures, posters, postcards, calendars, stickers, election and party programmes, election newspapers;
  • primary polls and official final election results;
  • reports from election observers, such as OSCE or CIS;
  • candidates’ reactions to the election results;
  • material denouncing rigged election results.

Read our post about the source collections on the OstBib blog!

Bulgaria

The portal "Jewish community in Bulgaria" deals with the question, why Bulgaria refused to deport its Jewish community in 1943. It presents digitised archive material about Jewish life before the Second World War, governmental policies between 1939 and 1945, different persons fighting against the planned deportations as well as ego-documents of surviving Jews.

Jewish community in Bulgaria

 

The portal "Narodnijat săd" (People's court) contains digitised archive materials of the court trials before the so-called People's Court in Sofia in 1944, in which politicians, scientists, journalists and other groups were prosecuted. It offers court records, minutes, witness interviews, speeches by the prosecution and other documents.

Narodnijat săd

The portal "Promjanata 1989. Predi i sled" (Change 1989 - before and after) contains more than 1100 different kinds of archive materials on the end of socialism and democratisation in Bulgaria. The materials belong to different state archives and are sorted by topic as well as document type. Besides official documents, the portal also contains carricatures, posters, newspapers and samizdat publications.

Promjanata 1989. Predi i sled

The portal "Protokoli na Politbjuro i Centralnija komitet na BKP" (Protocols of the Politburo and central comitee of the BKP) contains the digitised minutes of the meetings of the Politburo and the central comitee of the Bulgarian Communist Party from 1944 to 1989. Researchers can access more than 200.000 pages, however only as JPG and not as PDF.

Protokoli na Politbjuro i Centralnija komitet na BKP

 

 

The portal  "Staropečatni evrejski knigi" (Old hewbrew books) contains more than 1500 canonised Jewish old prints, that are in the holdings of the Bulgarian State Archive. The collection consists of mostly religious literature with a focus on 18th and 19th century. A smaller part dates back to the 16th and 17th century.

Staropečatni evrejski knigi

The portal "Vojnite na Bălgarija (1878–1945 g.)" (Wars of Bulgaria (1878-1945)) contains digitised archive materials, ego-documents and photographies on the Serbo-Bulgarien War, the Balkans Wars as well as First and Second World War.

Vojnite na Bălgarija (1878–1945 g.)

 

Georgia

The present database contains ephemera collected in the days leading up to the parliamentary elections in the self-proclaimed Republic of Abkhazia on March 12, 2017. The collection includes newspaper, flyers, and leaflets containing valuable information on the political life in Abkhazia in the context of Russo-Georgian geo-political confrontation.

Abkhazia Parliamentary Election 2017

Read our post about the collection on the OstBib blog!

In South Ossetia, a separatist region of Georgia, presidential elections were held in 2011 which had to be repeated in 2012 due to inconsistencies. The events surrounding these elections give researchers an insight into South Ossetian domestic politics as well as into Russia’s role in the South Caucasus and the "frozen conflict" with Georgia. The collection includes election-related ephemera such as posters, flyers and election campaign newspapers documenting the process of the presidential elections in the separatist "Republic of South Ossetia". The collection contains hundreds of pages of digitised source material collected in South Ossetia and the Ossetian diaspora communities in the Russian Federation.

South Ossetia Presidential Election, 2011-2012

Read our post about the source collection on the OstBib blog!

Greece

The database contains the following two sets:
•    Lexicon Gregorianum Online
Lexicon Gregorianum Online is the most comprehensive Greek-German dictionary of the language used by Gregory of Nyssa. It is the only available dictionary specifically addressing the vocabulary of late Classical Greek. It documents Gregory's complete vocabulary, taking account of the syntax, meaning and connotations of every occurrence of a key word in his writings. The complete Lexicon Online comprises 10 volumes, totalling more than 13,000 entries.
•    Gregorii Nysseni Opera Online
Gregorii Nysseni Opera Online is a critical text edition of Gregory of Nyssa's works based on all available known manuscripts, introduced with a complete discussion of the textual transmission and accompanied by extensive annotations on the biblical, classical and patristic sources, and indices.

Gregory of Nyssa Online

The "IEP Historical Book Collection" contains more than 6.000 digitised school books from Greece, that were used in education in late 19th and 20th century.

IEP Historical Book Collection

 

Croatia

The database contains more than 1.000 oral history interviews with survivors of the Second World War as well the Croatian War of Independence. The focus is on women, ethnical minorities and victims' relatives. The interviews are transcribed, some are also translated into English.

Croatian Memories - Unveiling Personal Memories on War and Detention

Poland

The Pilecki Institute Archives collect digitised documents on the fates of Polish citizens who suffered under two totalitarian regimes – the German and the Soviet – in the 20th century. Digitised original documents from the archives of many Polish and foreign institutions (including the Polish State Archives, the Federal Archives, the United Nations Archives, the British National Archives) are available.

Pilecki Institute Archives

The service "Szukaj w Archiwach" (Search in Archives) provides online access to over 50 million digital copies of historical newspapers, maps, postcards, photos and numerous first-person documents from Polish state archives, archives of numerous cultural institutions as well as scientific institutions.

Szukaj w Archiwach

The Central Jewish Library (Centralna Biblioteka Judaistyczna) provides the digitised collections of the Jewish Historical Institute in Warsaw. It contains, among other things, the Ringelblum Archive, which is on the UNESCO World Heritage List, as well as numerous manuscripts, old prints and periodicals.

Central Jewish Library

The online database of the Pilecki Institute contains testimonies of Polish citizens who were victims of the German and Soviet wartime occupation between 1939 and 1945. 

Chronicles of Terror 39-45

The Archiwum Historii Mówionej (Oral History Archive) contains testimonies of several thousand soldiers of the Home Army who took part in the Warsaw Uprising.

Archiwum Historii Mówionej

The "Polskie Archiwum Filmów Domowych" (Polish Family Film Archive) is a project to collect and digitise private films that provide special insights into the history of Poland after 1945 through visualised family stories.

Polskie Archiwum Filmów Domowych

"Portal 1920.gov.pl" contains selected digitised archive materials (protocols, reports, orders) from the period of the Polish-Soviet War, in particular the Battle of Warsaw of 1920. In addition, the portal offers access to photos, posters, leaflets, maps, as well as scientific articles and short films with explanations by renowned experts on the topic.

Portal 1920.gov.pl

This portal provides digitalized sources on the history of organized workers and employees in the Lower Silesian metropolis from the period before 1933.

Wroclaw Labour Movement Portal

 

The portal "Virtual Shtetl", which is curated by the Museum of the History of Polish Jews "POLIN", is dedicated to the history of shtetls and their inhabitants in Poland before the Second World War, the history of Polish Jews after the Second World War and documents the public memory of them.

Wirtualny Sztetl

Russia

This database contains annotated and digitised sources on Russian and Soviet history.

Details in the Database Information System (DBIS)
100(0) Key documents on Russian and Soviet history (1917-1991)

A web directory of digital source collections on the Russian revolutionary year 1917, compiled by the Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies (ASEEES).

1917: Digital Resources on the Russian Revolution

From the holdings of the archive the following microfilmed record groups or collections can be used at or loaned from the Bavarian State Library:   

 

  • History of Russia's Study of Genetics. 188 Filmrollen. PSM.
  • The Institute of Economics of the Communist Academy, 1925-1936. 74 Filmrollen.

 

Hint:
The finding aids belonging to the microfilmed archival material as well as instructions on how to use the microforms (via interlibrary loan at your home library or on site in Munich at the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek) can be found in the Verzeichnis der Mikroformen zur Geschichte in der Bayerischen Staatsbibliothek (VMG):

Archiv der Russischen Akademie der Wissenschaften (ARAN)

Umfangreiche Dokumentenverfilmungen (ca. 11.500 Filmrollen), welche diese Archivfonds umfasst:

  • RGANI/TsKhSD Fond 6 (Committee for Party Control, 1934-1966)
  • RGANI/TsKhSD Fond 89 (The Communist Party on trial)
  • RGASPI/RTsKhIDNI Fond 17 (Central Committee of the Communist Party, 1903-1971)
  • GARF (Pirogovskaia Street) Fond r-393 (People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs, 1917-1930)
  • GARF (Pirogovskaia Street) Fond r-1005 (VTsIK Revolutionary Tribunal, Supreme Court of the RSFSR, 1918-1940)
  • GARF (Pirogovskaia Street) Fond r-4042 (GULag, 1920-1930)
  • GARF (Pirogovskaia Street) Fond r-5446 (USSR Sovnarkom, 1922-1958; GULag-relevante Materialien)
  • GARF (Pirogovskaia Street) Fond r-8131 (The SSSR Public Prosecutor, 1924-1980)
  • GARF (Pirogovskaia Street) Fond r-8409 (E. P. Peshkova, Aid to Political Prisoners)
  • GARF (Pirogovskaia Street) Fond r-9412 (Ministry of Internal Affairs: Child & Labour Education Colonies)
  • GARF (Pirogovskaia Street) Fond r-9414 (GULag, 1930-1960)
  • GARF (Pirogovskaia Street) Fond r-9479 (USSR MVD: Fourth Special Department, 1930-1959)
  • GARF (Pirogovskaia Street) Fond r-9492 (USSR Ministry of Justice, 1936-1992)

Hinweis:
Die zu den mikroverfilmten Archivfonds gehörigen Findbücher sowie eine Anleitung zur Nutzung der Mikroformen (per Fernleihe an Ihrer Heimatbibliothek oder vor Ort in München an der Bayerischen Staatsbibliothek) finden Sie im Verzeichnis der Mikroformen zur Geschichte in der Bayerischen Staatsbibliothek (VMG):

Archives of the Soviet Communist Party and Soviet State  

This collection of Foreign Office files examines the history of Persia (Iran), Central Asia and Afghanistan from the decline of the Silk Road in the first half of the 19th century to the establishment of Soviet rule over parts of the region in the early 1920s. It covers the era of "The Great Game" – a political and diplomatic confrontation between the Russian and British empires over influence, territory and trade in a vast region, from the Black Sea in the west to the Pamir Mountains in the east.

Central Asia, Persia and Afghanistan 1834-1922: From Silk Road to Soviet Rule

From the holdings of the archive the following microfilmed record groups or collections can be used at or loaned from the Bavarian State Library:   

 

  • Voice of the People under Soviet Rule. 90 Filmrollen.

 

Hint:
The finding aids belonging to the microfilmed archival material as well as instructions on how to use the microforms (via interlibrary loan at your home library or on site in Munich at the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek) can be found in the Verzeichnis der Mikroformen zur Geschichte in der Bayerischen Staatsbibliothek (VMG):

Dokumentationszentrum "Volksarchiv" (Moskau)

Everyday life, landscapes, localities, as well as political events are depicted in pictures from magazines, making this source collection a treasure trove of, for example, lost customs and buildings. Part of the "Primary Sources for Slavic Studies". (In Germany access is free due to a national license)

Details in the Database Information System (DBIS)
Imperial Russia's Illustrated Press Online

The portal contains digitized documents on the losses of the Russian army during the First World War, such as lists of killed of soliders and file cards on individual soldiers. The data can be searched by name, date of birth or death and place of origin of the soldiers.

In Memory of the Heroes of the Great War 1914-1918

Extensive digital source collection on Russian history from the Faculty of History of Lomonosov Moscow State University.

Istoričeskie istočniki

The digital collection contains primary sources and newspapers from the Soviet union, that focus on state policies of the USSR that affected Jews.
 

J-Doc

 

From the holdings of the archive the following microfilmed record groups or collections can be used at or loaned from the Bavarian State Library:   

 

  • Documents from the KGB Secret Archives: Hitler. Unknown Pages of the History of World War II.

 

Hint:
The finding aids belonging to the microfilmed archival material as well as instructions on how to use the microforms (via interlibrary loan at your home library or on site in Munich at the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek) can be found in the Verzeichnis der Mikroformen zur Geschichte in der Bayerischen Staatsbibliothek (VMG):

KGB-Archiv (Moskau)

An extensive collection of digitised museum holdings on Russian and Soviet contemporary history.

Museum of Contemporary History of Russia | Digital Museum

This resource brings together materials by and about Russian Muslims concerning a very eventful, but little-researched period of their history (1861-1918). Part of the "Primary Sources for Slavic Studies". (In Germany access is free due to a national licence)

Details in the Database Information System (DBIS)
Muslims in Russia Online

The portal "Pamjatʹ Naroda" contains digitised archival materials on the Red Army during the Second World War, including materials on individual battles, orders and reports. The portal is curated by the Russian Ministry of Defence.

Pamjatʹ Naroda

Die Präsidentenbibliothek Boris Jelzin hat über 300 Fonds mit Dokumenten zur russischen Geschichte digitalisiert, diese sind online frei zugänglich und umfassen über 300.000 Dokumentenseiten.

https://www.prlib.ru/en/search/archive

The following source collections of digitised ephemera are available under the common title "Russia in the Early 1990s - Ephemera Collections" and document Russia's journey from Soviet republic to nation-state:

Russia in Transition, 1990's

Soviet Coup Attempt, 1991

Russia Referendum, 1993

Russia's Constitutional Crisis, 1993

The following databases feature digitised ephemera concerning the recent parliamentary and presidential elections in Russia, and are accessible free of charge throughout Germany:

Russia Presidential Election 2008

Russia Presidential Election 2012

Russia Presidential Election 2018

Russia State Duma Election 1993

Russia State Duma Election 1999

Russia State Duma Election 2007

Russia State Duma Election 2011

Russia State Duma Election 2016

The databases contain the following ephemera and documents that comprehensively document the electoral processes:

- Laws and regulations governing the conduct of the various elections;

- Documents of the State Election Commission;

- Official election documents of the candidates: CVs, transparency reports on finances and campaign financing, lists of supporters;

- Candidates' campaign materials, including flyers, brochures, posters, postcards, calendars, stickers, election and party platforms, and campaign newspapers;

- Pre-election polls and final official election results;

- Reports from election observers, such as OSCE, GOLOS, or CIS;

- Candidates' reactions to election results;

- Materials denouncing the falsification of election results.

 

Read our blog articles on source collections:

OstBib-Blogbeitrag on presidential and parliamentary elections in Russia 2011-2016

OstBib-Blogbeitrag on presidential elections in Russia in 2018

This collection contains a variety of intelligence documents on Russia's expansion in Asia. Part of the "Primary Sources for Slavic Studies". (in Germany free access through national licence)

Details in the Database Information System (DBIS)
Russian Military Intelligence on Asia: Archive series, 1651-1917

The majority of the secret printed material in the source collection comprises field reports from travellers to remote and little known areas of Asia. Most of them were Russian army officers with training in geography and related disciplines. Part of the "Primary Sources for Slavic Studies". (in Germany free access through national licence)

Details in the Database Information System (DBIS)
Russian Military Intelligence on Asia Online Secret Prints, 1883-1914

The four sub-collections contain rare primary sources on the history of Turkey, Russia, the Middle East and Western Europe. The digitized documents allow not only a detailed insight into the military ups and downs of Russian-Ottoman relations, but also into the impact of these on the European public opinion. Part of the "Primary Sources for Slavic Studies". (in Germany free access through national licence)

Russian-Ottoman Relations Online, Part 1: The Origins 1600-1800
Details in the Database Information System (DBIS)

Russian-Ottoman Relations Online, Part 2: Shifts in the Balance of Power, 1800-1853
Details in the Database Information System (DBIS)

Russian-Ottoman Relations Online, Part 3: The Crimean War, 1853-1856
Details in the Database Information System (DBIS)

Russian-Ottoman Relations Online, Part 4: The End of the Empires, 1857-1914
Details in the Database Information System (DBIS)

The archive portal "Russian Perspectives on Islam" documents the encounter and evolving relationship between the secular/Orthodox state and the Islamic regions, groups, individuals, and ideologies on the territory of the former Soviet Union and neighboring countries. This set of unique materials illuminates the strategies implemented by the Soviet and Russian state to establish authority and legitimacy among predominantly Muslim populations in Central Asia, the Northern Caucasus and Siberia and to enhance Moscow’s influence internationally with nearby Muslim countries.

Russian Perspectives on Islam

From the holdings of the library the following microfilmed collections can be used at or loaned from the Bavarian State Library:   

 

  • Russia through the Eyes of Foreigners. Travel and Personal Accounts from the 16th Century to the October Revolution 1917. 2179 Mikrofiches.
  • Russia and the Holy Land. Orthodox Missions in Palestine. 2562 Mikrofiches.
  • Jewish Cultural Renaissance in Imperial Russia. 678 Mikrofiches.
  • Leaflets of Anti-Bolsheviks Governments. Press of the White Movement, 1917-1920. 192 Mikrofiches.
  • Anti-Soviet Newspapers, 1918-1922/24. 91 Filmrollen.

 

Hint:
The finding aids belonging to the microfilmed archival material as well as instructions on how to use the microforms (via interlibrary loan at your home library or on site in Munich at the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek) can be found in the Verzeichnis der Mikroformen zur Geschichte in der Bayerischen Staatsbibliothek (VMG):

Russische Nationalbibliothek

From the holdings of the library the following microfilmed collection can be used at or loaned from the Bavarian State Library:   

 

  • Documents on the First World War (German Front) from the Russian State Library. 109 Mikrofilme.

 

Hint:
The finding aids belonging to the microfilmed archival material as well as instructions on how to use the microforms (via interlibrary loan at your home library or on site in Munich at the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek) can be found in the Verzeichnis der Mikroformen zur Geschichte in der Bayerischen Staatsbibliothek (VMG):

Russische Staatsbibliothek (Moskau)

From the holdings of the archive the following microfilmed record groups or collections can be used at or loaned from the Bavarian State Library:   

 

  • The Papers of Prince Gregory Potemkin, 1655-1797.
    --- Part 1. 120 Filmrollen.
    --- Part 2. 133 Filmrollen.
  • The Napoleonic Wars, 1805-1815. 92 Filmrollen.
  • The Crimean (Eastern) War, 1853-1856. 104 Filmrollen.
  • The Russo-Turkish War, 1877-1878. 120 Filmrollen.
  • The Russo-Japanese War, 1904-1905 170 Filmrollen.

 

Hint:
The finding aids belonging to the microfilmed archival material as well as instructions on how to use the microforms (via interlibrary loan at your home library or on site in Munich at the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek) can be found in the Verzeichnis der Mikroformen zur Geschichte in der Bayerischen Staatsbibliothek (VMG):

Russisches Militärhistorisches Staatsarchiv (RGVIA)

From the holdings of the archive the following microfilmed record groups or collections can be used at or loaned from the Bavarian State Library:   

 

  • The Archive of the Moscow Printing House. 907 Mikrofiches.
  • Freemasonry in Russia. 158 Mikrofiches.

 

Hint:
The finding aids belonging to the microfilmed archival material as well as instructions on how to use the microforms (via interlibrary loan at your home library or on site in Munich at the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek) can be found in the Verzeichnis der Mikroformen zur Geschichte in der Bayerischen Staatsbibliothek (VMG):

Russisches Staatsarchiv für alte Urkunden (RGADA)
 

From the holdings of the archive the following microfilmed record groups or collections can be used at or loaned from the Bavarian State Library:   

 

  • The Meyerhold Theatre, 1920-1938. 165 Filmrollen.
  • The Association of Workers of Revolutionary Cinematography, 1923-1932. 14 Filmrollen
  • The Moscow “Mosfilm” Studio, 1938-1945. 12 Filmrollen.

 

Hint:
The finding aids belonging to the microfilmed archival material as well as instructions on how to use the microforms (via interlibrary loan at your home library or on site in Munich at the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek) can be found in the Verzeichnis der Mikroformen zur Geschichte in der Bayerischen Staatsbibliothek (VMG):

Russisches Staatsarchiv für Literatur und Kunst (RGALI)

From the holdings of the archive the following microfilmed record groups or collections can be used at or loaned from the Bavarian State Library:   

 

  • Departmental Records of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.
    --- Soviet Union, 1953-1966. 448 Filmrollen.
    --- RSFSR, 1953-1965. 223 Filmrollen.
  • International Department of the Central Committee of the CPSU (Department for Relations with Foreign Communist Parties), March 1953 - February 1957. 126 Filmrollen.
  • General Department of the Central Committee of the CPSU, March 1953 - April 1966 118 Filmrollen.
  • Congresses of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, 1955-1986. 196 Filmrollen, 701 Mikrofiches.
  • Plenums of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, 1941-1990. 181 Filmrollen, 659 Mikrofiches.

 

Hint:
The finding aids belonging to the microfilmed archival material as well as instructions on how to use the microforms (via interlibrary loan at your home library or on site in Munich at the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek) can be found in the Verzeichnis der Mikroformen zur Geschichte in der Bayerischen Staatsbibliothek (VMG):

Russisches Staatsarchiv für neuere Geschichte (RGANI, früher TsKhSD)

From the holdings of the archive the following microfilmed record groups or collections can be used at or loaned from the Bavarian State Library:   

 

  • Leaders of the Russian Revolution. 1858 Mikrofiches, 421 Filmrollen.
  • Comintern Archive. [Fondy 488-495.] 14559 Mikrofiches.
  • Bund Archive, 1874-1926. [Fond 271; Algemeyner Yidisher Arbeter Bund in Lite, Poyln un Rusland.] 2162 Mikrofiches.
  • Poalei Zion (Labour Zionism in Russia and the USSR), 1917-1928. 5039 Mikrofiches.

 

Hint:
The finding aids belonging to the microfilmed archival material as well as instructions on how to use the microforms (via interlibrary loan at your home library or on site in Munich at the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek) can be found in the Verzeichnis der Mikroformen zur Geschichte in der Bayerischen Staatsbibliothek (VMG):

Russisches Staatsarchiv für Sozial- und politische Geschichte (RGASPI, früher RTsKhIDNI)

From the holdings of the archive the following microfilmed record groups or collections can be used at or loaned from the Bavarian State Library:   

 

  • The Military Papers of Leon Trotsky, 1918-1924. 71 Filmrollen.
  • The Papers of the White Army, 1917-1921. 71 Filmrollen.
  • The Papers of the Red Army, 1918-1923 76 Filmrollen.

 

Hint:
The finding aids belonging to the microfilmed archival material as well as instructions on how to use the microforms (via interlibrary loan at your home library or on site in Munich at the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek) can be found in the Verzeichnis der Mikroformen zur Geschichte in der Bayerischen Staatsbibliothek (VMG):

Russisches Staatliches Militärarchiv (RGVA)

From the holdings of the archive the following microfilmed record groups or collections can be used at or loaned from the Bavarian State Library:   

 

  • Special Dynamics Census of the Peasantry, 1920-1929. 278 Filmrollen.
  • Everyday Stalinism. Living Standards, Norms and Values of Various Groups of Soviet People in the 1920s and 1930s. 1141 Mikrofiches.
  • Peasants under Stalinism. Mentality and Way of Life, 1938-1939. 119 Filmrollen.
  • The All-Union Population Census, 1937 & 1939. 319 Filmrollen.
  • All-Union Population Census, 1959. 255 Filmrollen.

 

Hint:
The finding aids belonging to the microfilmed archival material as well as instructions on how to use the microforms (via interlibrary loan at your home library or on site in Munich at the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek) can be found in the Verzeichnis der Mikroformen zur Geschichte in der Bayerischen Staatsbibliothek (VMG):

Russisches Staatliches Wirtschaftsarchiv (RGAE)

From the holdings of the museum the following microfilmed collections can be used at or loaned from the Bavarian State Library:   

 

  • Napoléon, sa famille et son entourage. 20 Filmrollen.

 

Hint:
The finding aids belonging to the microfilmed material as well as instructions on how to use the microforms (via interlibrary loan at your home library or on site in Munich at the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek) can be found in the Verzeichnis der Mikroformen zur Geschichte in der Bayerischen Staatsbibliothek (VMG):

Staatliches Historisches Museum

From the holdings of the archive the following microfilmed record groups or collections can be used at or loaned from the Bavarian State Library:   

 

  • "Perlyustracii" - The Intercepted Letters of the Russian Revolutionaries, 1883-1917. 175 Filmrollen.
  • The Gulag Press, 1920-1937. 649 Mikrofiches.

 

Hint:
The finding aids belonging to the microfilmed archival material as well as instructions on how to use the microforms (via interlibrary loan at your home library or on site in Munich at the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek) can be found in the Verzeichnis der Mikroformen zur Geschichte in der Bayerischen Staatsbibliothek (VMG):

Staatsarchiv der Russischen Föderation (GARF)
 

The guide lists materials that relate to the Russian Empire, former Soviet Union, and the many distinct nationalities that were once a part of those entities. The materials described in the guide cover the broadest possible range of subjects: political, historical, social, economic, diplomatic, artistic, literary, religious, military, musical, and other matters. Among the types of materials listed in the guide are the following: correspondence, reports, organizational records, account books, essays, literary manuscripts, diaries, journals, memoirs, autobiographies, photographs, films, tape recordings, and graphic material. The guide covers public and private institutions, including university libraries and archives, public libraries, museums, ethnic organizations, church and business archives, federal and state governmental archives, and both public and private historical societies. 

The Russian Empire and Soviet Union. A Guide to Manuscripts and Archival Materials in the United States

The full-text archive comprises in digitalized form, among other things, the approximately 28,000 documents on Stalin's life and activities at the places of power in the Soviet Union archived in "Fond 558" of the Russian State Archive of Socio-Political History (RGASPI) in Moscow.

Details in the Database Information System (DBIS)
The Stalin Digital Archive

This database contains digitised archival materials from the Russian State Archive of Literature and Art (RGALI) on the formative phase of the Soviet film industry in the years 1923 to 1935. The collection includes a total of nearly 60 documents, including financial plans, letter correspondence, minutes of meetings, lists of employees at Gosvoenkino, and lists of censored Soviet and foreign films. The archival documents provide a fascinating insight into the production, distribution, and practices of the Soviet film industry and, at the same time, show the centralisation and bureaucratisation tendencies in the Soviet Union, as exemplified by the establishment of the state monopoly in the film sector.

 

Soviet Cinema Online

Read our post about the source collection on the OstBib-Blog!

"World of Children - Artek Pioneer Camp Archives, 1944-1967 Online" contains digitised archival records of the Artek Pioneer Camp in Crimea. This camp was opened in 1925 and was the flagship project of Soviet recreational opportunities for children and young people. The camps there exemplify the attempts, measures, and failures of the Soviet regime to create a "Homo Sovieticus" from childhood.

The digital copies (there are no searchable full texts) from the Russian State Archive of Socio-Political History (RGASPI) allow evaluation of:

- medical reports,

- Pioneer diaries and letters,

- song collections,

- event schedules,

- film recommendations,

- radio broadcasts,

- and many other documents

The collection provides diverse access to the history of everyday life and mentalities, Soviet child, youth and social policy, as well as the history of gender and tourism in the Soviet Union.

 

World of Children – Artek Pioneer Camp Archives, 1944-1967 Online

Read our blog post about the source collection on the OstBib-Blog!

From the holdings of the archive the following microfilmed record groups or collections can be used at or loaned from the Bavarian State Library:   

 

  • Gubernatorial Reports of Russian Imperial Governors, 1855-1864. Ca. 1200 Mikrofiches.

 

Hint:
The finding aids belonging to the microfilmed archival material as well as instructions on how to use the microforms (via interlibrary loan at your home library or on site in Munich at the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek) can be found in the Verzeichnis der Mikroformen zur Geschichte in der Bayerischen Staatsbibliothek (VMG):

Zentrales Staatliches Historisches Archiv (St. Petersburg)

Czech Republic

The website "Čechoslováci v Gulagu" of the Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes in Prague documents political repression against Czechoslovaks in the Soviet Union. In addition to numerous reports by survivors, the website offers, among other things, specialist and popular science articles on the topic as well as databases, virtual exhibitions and links to related projects.

Čechoslováci v Gulagu

The History of Everyday Life Database contains, among other things, memoirs, family chronicles, diaries and letters from the Czech Republic or Czechoslovakia from the 19th century to the present.

Databáze dějin všedního dne

The virtual museum "Gulag Online" explores the system of Soviet prison camps through the life stories of survivors, photographs, objects and further articles on the subject.

Gulag Online – virtuální muzeum

The database "Paměť národa" contains more than 7,000 oral history interviews with contemporary witnesses who lived under the totalitarian rule of National Socialism and Communism. The focus is on the Czech Republic.

Paměť národa

"Porta fontium" – a digitisation project of the Bavarian and Czech archives – offers access to numerous digital sources on the coexistence of Germans and Czechs, including the holdings of the Sudeten German Archive.

Porta fontium 

The portal contains digitized Czech samizdat and exile publications as well as an overview of pseudonyms used by different authors.

Skriptum.cz

The projects "Ženy v disentu" introcudes the often overlooked female dissidents in the Czech civil rights movement Charta 77. Besides interviews with activists, there is also a bibliography.

Ženy v disentu

Ukraine

This archive contains digitised sources about the history of the Organization of Ukrainian nationalists.

Archives of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN)

Das Zentrale Historische Archivs der Ukraine in Kyiv ermöglicht auf seinen Webpräsenz den Zugriff auf digitalisierte Findbücher sowie digitalisierte Archivmaterialien. Einige der Ressourcen sind im Volltext durchsuchbar.

CDIAK - Centralʹnyj deržavnyj istoryčnyj archiv Ukraïny m. Kyïv

This database contains digitised archive material about the history of the Ukrainian liberation movement in the 20th century, including sources about armed resistance, dissidents and the democracy movement.

Digital Archive of Ukrainian Liberation Movement

The e-archive provides access to digitised holdings of the State Archive of Kyiv Regions from 1780 to 1991, including civil status records, holdings of the first general census of 1897, holdings of the Kyiv branch of the Russian-Canadian shipping company RUSKAPA, and maps of the Kiev Governorate.

Electronic Archive of the State Archive of Kyiv Region (DAKO)

 

This database contains an extensive collection of sources and secondary literature about the history, culture and literature of Ukraine and – to a lesser extent – neighbouring states.

Details im Datenbank-Infosystem (DBIS)
Izbornyk 

From the holdings of the archive the following microfilmed record groups or collections can be used at or loaned from the Bavarian State Library:   

  • The Polish Uprising of 1830-1831: Documents of the Kiev Governorship Investigative Commission. 36 Filmrollen.
  • Promoting Jewish Education in Russian Empire, 1850-1919. 22 Filmrollen.
  • Documents of Ukrainian Jewish Societies, 1857-1929. 26 Filmrollen.
  • The Jewish Emigration from Ukraine, 1895-1917. Documents of the Kiev Jewish Emigration Society [and predecessors]. 59 Filmrollen
  • Critical Moments in Ukrainian History: Leaflets and Posters, 1905-1945. 3 Filmrollen.
  • Kyiv's Bloody October: Archival Documents of the Jewish Pogroms of 1905. [Fondy 442, 684, 1522.] 20 Filmrollen.
  • The Prosvita Society in Kiev. The Ukrainian struggle for self-identity in 1906-1920. 5 Filmrollen
  • Union of the Russian People. An anti-semitic movement in Ukraine, 1905-1917. 3 Filmrollen.
  • The Assassination of the Russian Prime Minister Pyotr Stolypin, 1911. 4 Filmrollen.
  • The Beilis Case Papers. [Ritualmordprozeß, 1911ff.] 7 Filmrollen
  • The Polish Legions, 1917-1918. 30 Filmrollen.
  • Coalition Council of Kyiv Students, 1917. 1 Filmrolle.
  • The Secret Police of Hetman Skoropadsky. Papers of the Provisional Government of Ukraine, 1918. 53 Filmrollen.
  • The Office of the Kyiv Governorate Commissar of the Provisional Government, 1917. 35 Filmrollen.
  • The Kyiv Military District Commander, 1918-1919. 7 Filmrollen.
  • Jewish Pogroms in Ukraine, 1918-1921. Documents of Kiev District Commission for Relief of Victims of Pogroms. 42 Filmrollen.
  • Emigration from the USSR in the late 1920s. Personal dossiers from the State Archive of Kiev Oblast. 50 Filmrollen.
  • World War II Documents from the State Archive of Kiev Oblast. PSM.
  • Postcards Home: Postcards of Ukrainian Forced Labor Workers from Nazi Germany. 75 Filmrollen.
  • From Bolshevizm to the New Order: Museum-Archive of the Transitional Period in Kyiv, 1942. 16 Filmrollen.
  • The Long Road Home: Documents of Ukrainian Forced Labor Workers in Soviet Filtration Camps in Germany. 180 Filmrollen.
  • Documents of the Nazi Occupation Period of Kyiv Oblast', 1941-1944. 28 Filmrollen.
  • German Occupation of Kiev in 1941-1943. Documents of the Nazi-Controlled City Administration. 150 Filmrollen.
  • German Occupation of Kyiv, 1941-1943. Documents of the Generalkommissariat. 22 Filmrollen.
  •  Occupation Authorities of Kyiv, 1941-1943.15 Filmrollen.
  • Rayon Administrations of the City of Kyiv during the German Occupation, 1941-1943.
    --- Bogdanovka, Pechersk, Kurenevka, Central. 124 Filmrollen.
    --- Podil (Podol). 200 Filmrollen.
  • German Occupation of Ukraine: Documents of the City Administration of Belaia Tserkov, 1941-1944. 159 Filmrollen.
  • Documentary Evidence of Underground and Guerilla Activities during the Nazi Occupation of Kiev and the Kiev Oblast'. 102 Filmrollen.
  • World War II in Ukraine: Provincial Press of Ukraine under German Occupation. 6 Filmrollen.

 

Hint:

The finding aids belonging to the microfilmed archival material as well as instructions on how to use the microforms (via interlibrary loan at your home library or on site in Munich at the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek) can be found in the Verzeichnis der Mikroformen zur Geschichte in der Bayerischen Staatsbibliothek (VMG):

Staatsarchiv des Gebiets Kiew

This collection of digital sources contains almost 130 digitised intelligence reports and documents of the KGB; a total of over 500 document pages are available and can be searched in full text. The archival material included was only recently released to the public and gives fascinating insights into the decision-making processes of Ukrainian and Soviet government agencies in connection with the construction and accident of the nuclear reactor. In the documents from 1971 to 1991, for example, it becomes clear that both governments were aware of the weaknesses of the reactor design.

The Chernobyl Collection: Documents and Maps

Read our post about the source collection on the OstBib blog!

This collection about the history of independent Ukraine contains 69 video interviews with individuals who witnessed or took part in the independence process from 1988 to 1991.

The Collapse Of The Soviet Union. Oral History Of Independent Ukraine – 1988-1991

The geoportal "The Places of Mass Burials of Holodomor-Genocide Victims" offers a map of known mass burial sites of the Holodomor, monuments and memorials, as well as oral history interviews with survivors.

The Places of Mass Burials of Holodomor-Genocide Victims

The collections "Transformation of Civil Society: Oral History of Ukrainan Village Culture of the 1920-30s" offers oral history interviews with 126 villagers, who witnessed rural life before and after the collectivization and during the Holodomor.

Transformation of Civil Society: Oral History of Ukrainan Village Culture of the 1920-30s

 

Under the title "Ukraine Elections and Social Movements 2012-2019", the following databases with digitised ephemera on the recent history of Ukraine are available free of charge throughout Germany:

Ukraine Parliamentary Election 2012 

Euromaidan Protests in Ukraine 2013-2014 

Ukraine Presidential Election 2014 

Ukraine Parliamentary Election 2014 

Ukraine Parliamentary Election 2019

This partial collections provide users with specific access to election posters, brochures, grey literature and important contributions from blogs and social networks. The material is searchable in full text and thus provides a quick and in-depth insight into the latest political and social developments in Ukraine.

The events surrounding the Euromaidan and the annexation of Crimea by Russia brought the Ukraine into the focus of research in recent years. Using material that is otherwise difficult to source, the collection provides valuable insights into new social movements and democratisation processes in Ukraine. The contents of the database is therefore of particular interest to political scientists, contemporary historians, sociologists, and anthropologists.

Read our post about the source collections on the OstBib blog!

The website provides access to 450 digitised unique documents from the national archive holdings of Ukraine. The materials date from the 12th to the 20th century.

Unikalʹni dokumenty Nacionalʹnoho archivnoho fondu

 

 

The Urban Media Archive collects pictures, films and oral history material with a focus on urban history in Central and Eastern Europe from the 19th to the 21st century.

Urban Media Archive

From the holdings of the archive the following microfilmed record groups or collections can be used at or loaned from the Bavarian State Library:   

  • Ukrainian Parliamentary Records on Microfiche (Mai 1990 - August 1997). Ca. 2800 Mikrofiches.

 

Hint:
The finding aids belonging to the microfilmed archival material as well as instructions on how to use the microforms (via interlibrary loan at your home library or on site in Munich at the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek) can be found in the Verzeichnis der Mikroformen zur Geschichte in der Bayerischen Staatsbibliothek (VMG):

Verchovna Rada (Kiew)

From the holdings of the archive the following microfilmed record groups or collections can be used at or loaned from the Bavarian State Library:  

  • Road to Palestine: Zionist Movement in Lviv Region between the World Wars. 104 Filmrollen.

 

Hint:
The finding aids belonging to the microfilmed archival material as well as instructions on how to use the microforms (via interlibrary loan at your home library or on site in Munich at the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek) can be found in the Verzeichnis der Mikroformen zur Geschichte in der Bayerischen Staatsbibliothek (VMG):

Zentrales Historisches Staatsarchiv in Lviv

From the holdings of the archive the following microfilmed record groups or collections can be used at or loaned from the Bavarian State Library:   

  • Cultural Policies and Plunder of the Third Reich in Occupied Europe: Files of the Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg in Kiev. 45 Filmrollen.

 

Hint:
The finding aids belonging to the microfilmed archival material as well as instructions on how to use the microforms (via interlibrary loan at your home library or on site in Munich at the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek) can be found in the Verzeichnis der Mikroformen zur Geschichte in der Bayerischen Staatsbibliothek (VMG):

Zentrales Staatsarchiv der obersten Machtorgane und Regierung der Ukraine (Kiew)

From the holdings of the archive the following microfilmed record groups or collections can be used at or loaned from the Bavarian State Library:  

  • Holodomor: Famine in Ukraine, 1932-1933. 158 Filmrollen.

 

Hint:
The finding aids belonging to the microfilmed archival material as well as instructions on how to use the microforms (via interlibrary loan at your home library or on site in Munich at the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek) can be found in the Verzeichnis der Mikroformen zur Geschichte in der Bayerischen Staatsbibliothek (VMG):

Zentrales Staatsarchiv der Massenorganisationen (Kiew)

Hungary

"The Hungarian Reformation online" contains 98 titles on the reformation in Hungary, which are not widely accessible in Germany, and comprises about 35,000 pages. This source collection documents the diverse Reformation currents in early modern Hungary from the 1540s to the middle of the 17th century. The original writings shed light on a facet of the Reformation Age that has been little researched to date and offer an invaluable resource for historians interested in the Lutheran Reformation, the development of international Calvinism, the Catholic Reformation and the emergence of anti-Trinitarianism. (In Germany access is free due to a national licence)

Details in the Database Information System (DBIS)
The Hungarian Reformation Online

Western sources about Eastern Europe

This is the most extensive collection of essential primary documents on U.S. foreign and military policy since 1945 and is of interest for the history of the Cold War, among other things. The following collections are included: The Cuban Missile Crisis, 1962, The Soviet Estimate: U.S. Analysis of the Soviet Union, 1947-1991 (Soviet Estimate). (In Germany access is free due to a national licence)

Details in the Database Information System (DBIS)
Cold War Intelligence

It is the most extensive collection of essential primary documents on US foreign and military policy since 1945 and is of interest for the history of the Cold War, among other things. The following collections are included: The Cuban Missile Crisis, 1962, The Soviet Estimate: U.S. Analysis of the Soviet Union, 1947-1991 (Soviet Estimate). (In Germany free access through national license)

Details in the Database Information System (DBIS)
Digital National Security Archive

[Translate to English:]

Die General Records of the Department of State (Record Group 59) enthalten die Berichte der US-Botschaften an das US-Außenministerium zur Situation in den einzelnen Ländern und geben so Einblicke zur dortigen Politik und Gesellschaft aus US-amerikanischer Perspektive.

 

Zu folgenden ost-, ostmittel- und südosteuropäischen Ländern liegen Mikroformen vor:

This source collection contains over 30,000 digitised pages of original documents from the reign of British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan (1957-1963) and thus represents an important source base for international relations and conflicts during this phase of the Cold War. (In Germany access is free due to a national licence)

Details in the Database Information System (DBIS)
Macmillan Cabinet Papers

An online edition of the monthly reports published by the SPD's "Ostbüro" between 1956 and 1965.

Monthly reports about the developments in Poland

 

This database provides access to British government intelligence and foreign policy documents from 1873 to 1953, with the majority of files dating from the 1930s and 1940s. The database is based on documents from the Permanent Under-Secretary's Department (PUSD), which was the link between the Foreign Office and British Intelligence. "Secret Files from World Wars to Cold War" includes nine segments that together provide a near-complete history of World War II and the early Cold War period from the perspective of the British government and intelligence services.

Secret Files from World Wars to Cold War

 

This service provides access to documents released by US government agencies. It is an authoritative source on post-World War II American domestic and foreign policy issues, including Cold War history. (In Germany access is free due to a national licence)

Details in the Database Information System (DBIS)
U.S. Declassified Documents Online

This database contains around 4,000 digitised documents of the U.S. intelligence about European countries, including Eastern Europe, Turkey and Cyprus, from 1945 to 1995.

U.S. Intelligence on Europe, 1945-1995

Microfilms and Microfiches on history in the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek (VMG-BSB)

The Bayerische Staatsbibliothek (BSB) holds one of the largest and thematically broadest collections of microfilmed and otherwise unpublished archival documents worldwide. Among them are also archival documents which are not (no longer) accessible to the public in their countries of origin for political reasons. Especially with regard to the history of the Soviet Union, Russia and Ukraine, the collection can be considered outstanding.

The finding aids are gradually being digitised, processed with text recognition and made available in open access via the subject repository OstDok, which will allow the archive material to be accessed more quickly and conveniently. In addition, the Specialised Information Service for Russian, East and Southeast European Studies is working on the modernisation of the index itself.

At the present time, all microforms can be searched in both the VMG-BSB and the BSB catalogue OPACplus and ordered via the latter. A detailed introduction provides information on the structure and use of the VMG-BSB.

The following options are available for working with the microforms:

  • modern microfilm/microfiche readers with the possibility of scanning for use on site;
  • interlibrary loan to the reading room of your home library.

Bayerische Staatsbibliothek | OPACplus
Bayerische Staatsbibliothek | Verzeichnis der Mikroformen zur Geschichte in der Bayerischen Staatsbibliothek
Keyword index to the Verzeichnis der Mikroformen zur Geschichte in der Bayerischen Staatsbibliothek

Archival guides

  • The Archives Portal Europe offers access to archival cataloguing information as well as further information about Central, Eastern and Southeastern European countries. This comprehensive search facility comprises over 257,000,000 file units (some with links to digitised documents), over 21,000 descriptions of persons, corporations and families, and almost 7,000 descriptions of archives and their holdings.: Archive Portal Europe
  • The Archive Pilot on East and Southeast European Archives is offered by the Graduate School for Eastern and Southeast European Studies (Munich/Regensburg). It was launched as a platform to collect and share important information on archival research in Eastern and Southeast Europe. The contents are provided by doctoral students from the Graduate School for Eastern and Southeast European Studies, by doctoral students of the partner institutions of the Graduate School and by students of the élite programme of Eastern European Studies: East and Southeast European Archives. A Web Guide
  • The guide covers university and non-university institutions, governmental and non-governmental, private and regional institutions as well as archives and museums of Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Kosovo, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Romania, Serbia and Slovenia: History Research Institutes in Southeast-Europe. A Handbook

Tutorials

Die Tutorialreihe "Arbeit mit Archivalien" der Fachinformationsdienste Ost-, Ostmittel- und Südosteuropa sowie Nordeuropa führt in die Recherche und Nutzung von Archivmaterialien ein.

Youtube-Playlist "Arbeit mit Archivalien"

 

More digital source collections

Further digital source collections can be researched via the Database Information System (DBIS) and in OstNet, our catalogue of Internet resources.

Database Information System (DBIS)

OstNet

 

Suggest digital source collections

You are welcome to recommend to us digital source collections that are subject to a fee for acquisition. Please use our Wish List service for this purpose.

Wish list: digital collection

 

Instructions for using the microforms of the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek

How to search for archival documents in the microforms of the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek and how to use them? Instructions in German:

Anleitung "Verzeichnis der Mikroformen zur Geschichte"