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The Bayerische Staatsbibliothek holds one of the world's largest collections of microfilmed archival documents worldwide. There is a focus on the history of East Europe, in particular the Russian or Soviet and Ukrainian history of the 19th and early 20th century. This unique collection thus offers access to archival documents which are hard to come by for an unforeseeable time, due to Russia attacking Ukraine.

Storage shelf with microfilms | © BSB/A. Štanzel

In order to facilitate using these holdings, the "Register of Microforms on History of the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek" (VMG) compiled by Dr. Freddy Litten in the 1990s has been revised graphically and with respect to content, to make it easier for researchers to find relevant materials. Among other things, the instructions on searching and loaning the microforms and the structure of the individual entries have been fundamentally edited, in order to improve readability. The VMG contains all filmed archive holdings and states the associated finding aid – frequently also in the form of a digital version.

The microforms can be ordered either via interlibrary loan to your local library or they can be studied at modern and comfortable microform reading devices at the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek.

Verzeichnis der Mikroformen zur Geschichte in der Bayerischen Staatsbibliothek
(Register of microforms on History at the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek)

Relevant filmed archival documents for studies of East Europe

Microfilmed archival documents of interest for East European history are available from the large Moscow archives RGANI, GARF and RGASPI among other things. These cover the history of the late Russian Empire, the early Soviet Union and the CPSU, as well as the Russian military history.

From Ukrainian archives, predominantly the CDAVO, CDAGO and DAKO/GAKO, there are numerous documents on the political history of Ukraine, the Holodomor, the Jewish history and the German occupation during the Second World War.

A similarly large number of filmed documents from Soviet, American and British archives held by the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek address the history of the "Cold War", particularly up to the end of the 1960s.

The following post on the OstBib blog (in German) contains a detailed description of these holdings:
Bedeutende ausländische Archivalien per Fernleihe in Deutschland lesen – die Mikroformensammlung der Bayerischen Staatsbibliothek
(Reading important archival documents from abroad in Germany through interlibrary loan – the microform collection of the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek)

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Improved access to microfilmed archival documents: The "Register of Microforms on History of the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek" (VMG) has been revised

Relevant filmed archival documents for studies of East Europe