Branko Marušič was born on February 4, 1938 in Gorica. Later on the family moved to Solkan where he completed primary school. He attended high school in Šempeter by Gorica, Solkan, and Nova Gorica, graduating in 1955. At first he followed his father's footsteps and studied medicine at the Ljubljana University, but later switched to history, graduating in 1962. The title of his diploma work was »Slovenes of Gorica from the Kobarid Breakthrough until the End of 1918.« Until 1965 he worked as an assistant at the Institute for Ethnic Studies, then as a curator for history and Head of the Gorica Museum in Nova Gorica. Since 1987, when he got his Ph.D. by publishing the selected opus of his treatises entitled »The Past in Primorsko Region« (Koper 1985), he has been working - first as a senior scientific fellow, later as a scientific advisor - at the Milko Kos Historical Institute at the Centre of Scientific Research of the Slovene Academy of Sciences and Arts in Ljubljana.