The Baltic Biographical Archive (BaBA I) provides information on over 107,600 people, who lived in or were connected in some significant way with the historical area of the Baltic or the states of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia, created after WW I. The articles originate from 218 biographical reference works, published between 1772 and 1995.
Series II of the Baltic Biographical Archive continues chronologically from the BaBA I. It deals for mainly with the Soviet era after WW II and the period of social upheaval since the mid-1980s, going right up to the forthcoming integration of the Baltic States into the European Union.
By reason of historical circumstance, the BaBA I focuses on the special role of the German-speaking Baltic peoples and Baltic exiles. They account for almost 75 % of the biographies from earlier centuries. In the Baltic Biographical Archive. Series II, beginning with the second half of the 20th century and following the years of independent development of the Baltic States, these proportions have been more than reversed.
Shortly after regaining state sovereignty in the year 1991, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia began to experience far-reaching socio-political and economic changes. The new political and economic elite found their way into biographical encyclopaedia. This process in particular, is mirrored in the Baltic Biographical Archive. Series II. People judged to be of historical significance were also reconsidered, from a national perspective, by Baltic biographers. In the Archive, their counterparts can often be found in the ideologically influenced biographies of the large encyclopaedia dating from the Soviet era. Thus, users of the Archive can establish with speed and precision not only serious differences, but also aspects unexpectedly shared by a number of biographies. The efficiency which the Archive lends to biographical research, results from the careful cumulation of reproductions of the original biographies, common to all K.G. Saur’s biographical archives.
Series II of the BaBA contains approximately 110,000 articles about some 65,000 people from about 95 biographical source works. The latest research findings of the biographical history of the Baltic region are presented, and some new areas of biographical research are included, such as foresters, jazz musicians and persons of regional significance. The biographical source works evaluated were published during the period from 1940 to the year 2003, with the largest part being made up of editions published in the 1990s.
On completion, Series II of the Baltic Biographical Archive will be a unique biographical source work, comparing biographies from a variety of historical perspectives with the latest research, and thereby remaining a standard work on the entire Baltic region for some considerable time to come.
A cumulated index will provide ease of access to the biographical entries of the Baltic Biographical Archive. Series II, when the archive is finished. This index will bring together the articles from the Baltic Biographical Archive I and Series II.
