RUSSIAN REVOLUTION. A SERIES OF SEVENTEEN REMARKABLE HISTORIC PHOTOGRAPHS BY LEO STEVENI OF THE BRI

RUSSIAN REVOLUTION. A SERIES OF SEVENTEEN REMARKABLE HISTORIC PHOTOGRAPHS BY LEO STEVENI OF THE BRITISH MILITARY MISSION TO RUSSIA, MARCH-JULY 1917 vintage silver prints, c 9 x 12cm and smaller, all but one captioned in green ink or pencil by Steveni on the reverse, the other with typewritten caption and a contemporary unused suede photograph album inscribed in pencil CAPT L STEVENI (18)Provenance: Colonel Leo Oscar Steveni, OBE, MC (Petrograd [St Petersburg] 1893-1972 London)These unique images of Russia at a pivotal point in its history were taken by Leo Steveni, a man whose clandestine activities arguably influenced the course of Russian history. Steveni was appointed to the British Military Mission at Petrograd in 1915. In 1917-18 his role was one of liaison with the various fledgling anti-bolshevik groups. A fluent Russian speaker born to an old British-Petrograd family, his father was involved in the timber trade. In Siberia, at Omsk where he was quartered in a railway carriage in the square, he is described by one historian as having played "an over zealous" part in Admiral Kolchak's coup d'etat in 1918. From 1942-44 he was Director of the British Secret Intelligence Service in Asia and subsequently Egypt, retiring in 1945. Steveni's typescript memoirs for the period 1893-1969 is in King's College, London.Please note some of these images are taken by press photographers and in part attributed to Steveni.