IDENTITY STATEMENT
Reference code(s): GB 0099 KCLMA Steveni
Held at: Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives, King's College London
Title: STEVENI, Colonel Leo (1893-1972)
Date(s): 1963
Level of description: collection level
Extent: 1 file or 0.01m3
Name of creator(s): Steveni | Leo | 1893-1972 | Colonel
CONTEXT
Administrative/Biographical history:
Born 1893, St Petersburg; educated at Rugby; worked in father's business, 1912-1914; appointed to the British Military Mission, Russian War Office, Petrograd, 1915 March; liaison officer at Russian Front, 1917; joined M1 Directorate, War Office, 1918; liaison officer with the White Army in Eastern Siberia, 1918-1920; Lieutenant, 4 Battalion Middlesex Regiment, 1921; General Staff Officer Grade 3 (Russian Section), Army Headquarters, India, 1922-1928; Military Attaché, Persia (Iran), 1928-1931; Captain, 8 Punjab Regiment, 1932-1935; War Staff, India Office, 1939-1942; Lieutenant Colonel, 1941; Director of British Secret Intelligence Service in Asia, 1942-1944; posted to Political Intelligence Centre, Middle East (PICME), Cairo, Egypt, 1944-1945; retired, 1945; died 1972.
CONTENT
Scope and content/abstract:
Unpublished typescript memoirs, 1893-1969, including: accounts of life in the British colony in St Petersburg before World War One; work in the British Military Mission at the Russian War Office; events witnessed during the Russian Revolution and conditions for the Russian Army during the Revolution, 1917-1918; evacuation of British personnel from Russia, February 1918; negotiating with Finnish Red and White commanders while travelling through Finland during the Civil War; liaising with Admiral Aleksandr Vasiliyevich Kolchak and the White armies in Harbin, China, 1918; liaising with General Mikhail Konstantinovich Dieterichs, Czechoslovak Legions, and a special mission to Ataman Grigory Mikhaylovich Semyonov (or Semenov) in Chita, Transbaikalia, November 1918; activities as General Sir Harry Knox's liaison officer at the White Army Headquarters in Omsk, November 1918 - November 1919; the retreat from Omsk to Vladivostock following the success of the Bolshevik army, November 1919 - March 1920; stationing in Gibraltar and Egypt, 1921-1922; life and work in Simla, Waziristan and Kamptee, India, 1922-1928; work as an intelligence officer, Meshed, Persia (Iran), 1928-1931; life and work in Bombay, Ajmer, Jhansi, Alwar and Delhi, India, 1932-1935, including description of rioting under the Maharajah of Alwar; experiences working in India, China and Egypt during World War Two, including visit to Palestine; account of working in the post-war timber trade and as a consultant in the Russian Section of the London Chamber of Commerce. Also article `Anglo-Russian Timber Trade: Personal Reminiscences and Reflections of Col L Steveni', The Timber Trades Journal, 11 March 1961, and article by Richard J Aldrich, University of Nottingham, from Modern Asian Studies 32, 1 (1998), pp. 179-217, entitled "Britain's Secret Intelligence Service in Asia during the Second World War" including analysis of Steveni's role as Director of British Secret Intelligence Service (SIS) in Asia.
ACCESS AND USE
Language/scripts of material: English
System of arrangement:
1 file
Conditions governing access:
Open, subject to signature of Reader's undertaking form, and appropriate provision of two forms of identification.
Conditions governing reproduction:
Copies, subject to the condition of the original, may be supplied for research use only. Requests to publish original material should be submitted to the Trustees of the Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives, attention of the Director of Archives and Information Management.
Physical characteristics:
Finding aids:
Summary guide entry on-line.
ARCHIVAL INFORMATION
Appraisal, destruction and scheduling information:
Accruals:
Archival history:
Immediate source of acquisition:
Placed in the Centre by Professor Richard Aldrich, 2002
ALLIED MATERIALS
Existence and location of originals:
Existence and location of copies:
Related material:
Publication note:
Peter Flemming, The Fate of Admiral Kolchak (London, Rupert Hart-Davies, 1963)
DESCRIPTION NOTES
Note:
Decorations: OBE, MC
Archivist's note: Entry compiled by Katharine Higgon
Date(s) of descriptions: Feb 2007