The Baltic Archive

Yury Abizov was one of the initiators of the anthology „The Baltic Archives”, in which materials on the history of Russian culture of the three Baltic states – Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia – would be printed. The first three volumes of „The Baltic Archives” come out in mid-1990s in Tallinn, edited by professor Irina Belobrovtseva. Among the first publications, which appeared in „The Baltic Archives” and were related to Latvia, we must mark out MARTIROLOG by the representatives of Russian intelligentsia of Latvia, who undergone repressions, compiled by Y. Abyzov, B. Plyukhanov, G. Tailov; the memoirs of Boris Engelgardt (1877-1962) – the former chamber-page of the Empress–mother Maria Fyodorovna, the deputy of the 4th State Duma, an active participant in the February revolution, the first commandant of Petrograd, a participant of the White movement, an emigrant (first in Paris, then in Riga ). Also the reminiscences of Sergey Sidyakov (1893-1965): „Chronicle of the refugee-life”, telling about the afflictions of a Russian merchant family during the years of the Civil War. The 4th -6th volumes of „The Baltic Archives” were published already under supervision of the international editorial board. Irina Belobrovtseva was joined by Pavel Lavrinets (Lithuania) and Yuri Abizov (Latvia). In comparison with the previous volumes, the new ones were thicker and had illustrations. The most interesting were the articles by V.Doroshenko „Inhabitants of Old Riga in 1786” and Y. Abyzov „The Concept of Euroasianism and Latvia’s Russians”, the publication of Y. Abyzov and T. Feigmane „Unjust Justice over the Lawyer Yakoby”. Memoirs of Pyotr Pilsky were also extremely popular. The seventh volume was edited in Vilnius. Here we can mark out - of the articles on the Russian-Latvian theme - „The novel by Austra Ozolinya-Krauze about the Russian emigration” written by Lyudmila Sproge and Vera Vavere. The eighth volume was again edited in Riga. Here again one can find reminiscences of Boris Engelgardt, but, this time, they are about the years of „hard times” and emigration, as well as reminiscences of the former colonel of the General Staff Boris Yordan (1888-1956): „My family chronicles”, where he, by the way, recalls his childhood spent in Riga. Moreover , the last 10th volume, came out also in Riga, thanks to the untiring work of Y. Abyzov (at that time already very ill) and to the work of the editorial board of the magazine „Daugava”. Extracts from reminiscences of the artist Eugene Klimoff (1901-1990) were included into this volume. His artist’s career had started in the pre-war Riga. During the War, he emigrated to the West. The reminiscences offered to the reader tell about the first stage of his life as in artist. The letter selection of Tatyana Erenstein-Litvina (for 1938-1939) is also of great interest. She has been an active participant of the Orthodox Unity of Russian Students , working in Riga from 1928 until 1934. Being a member of the „Unity”, she was keen on icon-painting. At the end of the 1930s she had the luck to perfect herself in icon-painting in the Holy Land, to be more precise, she took part in decorating the Temple on the Eleon mountain in Jerusalem. In the presented letters, the reader gets in touch with the personal perception of the holy places and events connected with them. The last volume of „The Baltic Archives” for now came out in Tallinn in 2006. Eleven volumes of „The Baltic Archives” have filled many laccunae, that have existed before concerning the history and culture of Russians in the Baltics. “The Baltic Archives” have introduced into scientific usage a considerable number of earlier unknown sources, have helped to draw together scientists, working in this field in Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia.

To date (2020), the last 13th issue was released in 2013.

Tatyana Feigmane. Latvian Russians in Historiography of Latvia from 1990-2010