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Archive Collection description: LOE
Loewenson Collection (1631-1963) (circa)
An online catalogue for this collection is available.
Lev Sergeevich Lowenson (1885-1968) was born in Moscow of German Jewish
parentage. He studied at the Universities of Moscow, St Petersburg and
Berlin. When the First World War 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 the Second World War 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).
Ref: "Slavonic and East European Review" vol 47, no 108, 1969, pp 2-5
Contents
- LOE/1 - Loewenson's Russian-English military dictionary
(circa) (1940-1945) (circa)
- LOE/2 - Papers re Loewenson's studies of Russia and Eastern Europe
(1648-1964) (circa)
- LOE/3 - Papers re Loewenson's studies of British history (1631-1963)
11 boxes, 1 outsize envelope, 1 roll
(Language) English & French & German & Italian & Latin & Russian
Unrestricted access
See also: SSEES archive collection ref. HES, which contains some Loewenson correspondence
A record for this collection is also available on the UCL Archives web site. To see it, please type LOE into the search field.
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This page last modified Wednesday 28 April 2010.
