Loewenson , Lev Sergeevitch , 1885-1968 , Russian scholar

Lev Sergeevich Loewenson (1885-1968) was born in Moscow of German Jewish parentage. He studied at the Universities of Moscow, St Petersburg and Berlin. When World War One broke out he was in Berlin and was conscripted into the German Army because of his father's German nationality. Loewenson served as a medical orderly and Russian interpreter before being taken prisoner by the Romanian Army. After the war and his release he decided not to return to Russia because of the revolution. He instead settled in Berlin where he taught history, first at a grammar school and later at Berlin University. The coming to power of the Nazis forced Loewenson to leave Germany for England in 1933, where he made his living teaching Russian and was often known as Leo rather than Lev Loewenson. In 1940 he was briefly imprisoned in an internment camp as a German citizen. SSEES, where Loewenson had previously given a series of public lectures on Russian history obtained his release in order that he could work as first a library assistant and from 1942, acting librarian. He also taught Russian at SSEES summer schools and gave some classes in Russian history. During World War Two Loewenson collected material for a Russian-English military dictionary, much of this material is contained in this collection. It was hoped that this dictionary would be published by the War Office but in the end it was decided that such a work was no longer needed. He remained at SSEES until his retirement in 1956. He wrote many bibliographical and historical articles including revising many articles dealing with Russian history in "Encyclopaedia Britannica". Some of the material in this collection relates to Loewenson's research on these topics including copies of manuscripts (the originals are held at the British Museum Library and Bodleian Library, Oxford).