Dominic Lieven (born 19 January 1952) is a research professor at Cambridge University (Senior Research Fellow, Trinity College) and a

Fellow of the British Academy Fellowship of the British Academy (FBA) is an award granted by the British Academy to leading academics for their distinction in the humanities and social sciences. The categories are: # Fellows – scholars resident in the United Kingdom # ...

and of

Trinity College, Cambridge Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1546 by King Henry VIII, Trinity is one of the largest Cambridge colleges, with the largest financial endowment of any college at either Cambridge or Oxford. ...

Education

Lieven was educated at Downside School, a

Benedictine , image = Medalla San Benito.PNG , caption = Design on the obverse side of the Saint Benedict Medal , abbreviation = OSB , formation = , motto = (English: 'Pray and Work') , foun ...

Roman Catholic boarding independent school in Stratton-on-the-Fosse, near

Shepton Mallet Shepton Mallet is a market town and civil parish in the Mendip District of Somerset, England, some south-west of Bath, south of Bristol and east of Wells. It had an estimated population of 10,810 in 2019. Mendip District Council is based ...

in Somerset, followed by

Christ's College, Cambridge Christ's College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college includes the Master, the Fellows of the College, and about 450 undergraduate and 170 graduate students. The college was founded by William Byngham in 1437 as ...

, where he graduated top of the class of 1973 (Double First with Distinction), and was a

Kennedy Scholar Kennedy Scholarships provide full funding for up to ten British post-graduate students to study at either Harvard University or the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Susan Hockfield, the sixteenth president of MIT, described the scho ...

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of highe ...

in 1973/4.

Professor of Russian and International history

Lieven is a writer on Russian history, on empires and emperors, on the Napoleonic era and the First World War, and on European aristocracy. Lieven is on the Editorial Board of ''Journal of Intelligence and Terrorism Studies'.'' He was elected in 2001

, and was head of the History Department at the

London School of Economics , mottoeng = To understand the causes of things , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £240.8 million (2021) , budget = £391.1 milli ...

from 2009 to 2011; he was appointed lecturer there in 1978, and professor in 1993. He was appointed to his current position at the

University of Cambridge , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...

in 2011.

Political views

In May 2016, Lieven was one of 300 historians who were signatories to a letter to ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers '' The Observer'' and '' The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the ...

'' warning voters that if they chose to leave the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are located primarily in Europe, Europe. The union has a total area of ...

in a process called

Brexit Brexit (; a portmanteau of "British exit") was the Withdrawal from the European Union, withdrawal of the United Kingdom (UK) from the European Union (EU) at 23:00 Greenwich Mean Time, GMT on 31 January 2020 (00:00 1 February 2020 Central Eur ...

on 23 June of that year, they would be condemning Britain to irrelevance.

Controversy

Lieven was historical adviser on the BBC's television adaptation of ''

War and Peace ''War and Peace'' (russian: Война и мир, translit=Voyna i mir; pre-reform Russian: ; ) is a literary work by the Russian author Leo Tolstoy that mixes fictional narrative with chapters on history and philosophy. It was first published ...

'', which added incest to the narrative, and was slated by ''

Downton Abbey ''Downton Abbey'' is a British historical drama television series set in the early 20th century, created and co-written by Julian Fellowes. The series first aired in the United Kingdom on ITV on 26 September 2010 and in the United States o ...

'' advisor

Alastair Bruce Major-General Alastair Andrew Bernard Reibey Bruce (born 25 June 1960) is a journalist and television correspondent, and a senior British Army reservist and officer of arms of the Royal Household. He commanded the TA Media Operations Group ...

over its mistaken military costumes. Lieven said:

Personal life and ancestry

Dominic Lieven is the second son and third child (of five children) of Alexander

Lieven The House of Lieven ( lv, Līveni; russian: Ливен) is one of the oldest aristocratic families of Baltic Germans. History The family claims descent from Caupo of Turaida (Latvian, ''Kaupo''), the Livonian ''quasi rex'' who converted to Ch ...

(of the Baltic German princely family, tracing ancestry to Liv chieftain Kaupo) by his first wife, Irishwoman Veronica Monahan (d. 1979). He is the elder brother of Anatol Lieven and Nathalie Lieven QC, and a brother of

Elena Lieven Elena Lieven (born 18 August 1947) is a British psychology and linguistics researcher and educator. She was a Senior Research Scientist in the Department of Developmental and Comparative Psychology in Leipzig, Germany. She is also a professor in ...

and Michael Lieven and distantly related to

Christopher Lieven Prince Christoph Heinrich von Lieven (russian: Христофор Андреевич Ливен, Khristofor Andreyevich Liven; 6 May 1774 – 10 January 1839) was a Baltic German nobleman, Russian general, ambassador to London in 1812–1834, and ...

(1774–1839), who was Ambassador to the Court of St James from

Imperial Russia The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. The ...

over the period 1812 to 1834, and whose wife was Dorothea von Benckendorff, later Princess Lieven (1785–1857), a notable society hostess in

Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...

and influential figure among many of the diplomatic, political, and social circles of 19th-century Europe. Lieven is "a great-grandson of the

Lord Chamberlain The Lord Chamberlain of the Household is the most senior officer of the Royal Household of the United Kingdom, supervising the departments which support and provide advice to the Sovereign of the United Kingdom while also acting as the main c ...

of the Imperial Court" of Russia. Lieven is a friend of

Simon Sebag Montefiore Simon Jonathan Sebag Montefiore (; born 27 June 1965) is a British historian, television presenter and author of popular history books and novels, including ''Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar' (2003), Monsters: History's Most Evil Men and ...

, and has read at least one of the latter's manuscripts.

Awards and honours

* 1973-4: Kennedy Scholar, Harvard * 1985: Humboldt Fellow * 1998-9: British Academy Research Fellow * 2005-8: Leverhulme Major Research Fellow * 2009: Prix de la Fondation Napoléon * 2010:

Wolfson History Prize The Wolfson History Prizes are literary awards given annually in the United Kingdom to promote and encourage standards of excellence in the writing of history for the general public. Prizes are given annually for two or three exceptional works ...

, "Russia Against Napoleon" (Selected by The Economist as one of its "History Books of the Year") * 2013:

Order of Friendship The Order of Friendship (russian: Орден Дружбы, ') is a state decoration of the Russian Federation established by Boris Yeltsin by presidential decree 442 of 2 March 1994 to reward Russian and foreign nationals whose work, deeds ...

, Russian Federation *2016:

Pushkin House The Pushkin House (russian: Пушкинский дом, Pushkinsky Dom), formally the Institute of Russian Literature (), is a research institute in St. Petersburg. It is part of a network of institutions affiliated with the Russian Academy of ...

Prize, London, "Towards the Flame"

Bibliography

* ''Russia and the Origins of the First World War'', Macmillan Press (1983). * ''Russia's Rulers Under the Old Regime'', Yale University Press (1989). * ''The Aristocracy in Europe 1815/1914'', Macmillan/Columbia University Press (1992). * ''Nicholas II: Emperor of all the Russias'', John Murray/St Martin's Press/Pimlico (1993). * * ''Empire: The Russian Empire and its Rivals'', John Murray/Yale University Press (2003). * ''Russia Against Napoleon: The Battle for Europe, 1807 to 1814'' Allen Lane/Penguin (2009). * ''Towards the Flame: Empire, War and the End of Tsarist Russia'' Allen Lane/Penguin (May 2015). * ''The End of Tsarist Russia: The March to World War I and Revolution'', Penguin Random House (2015).Previously published in Britain as ''Towards the Flame: Empire, War and the End of Tsarist Russia''. * ''In the Shadow of the Gods: The Emperor in World History'', Viking (2022)

References

External links

Official Page
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lieven, Dominic 1952 births Living people Baltic-German people British political scientists Alumni of Christ's College, Cambridge People educated at Downside School English people of Russian descent Historians of Russia Fellows of the British Academy Fellows of Trinity College, Cambridge Foreign Members of the Russian Academy of Sciences Harvard University alumni Kennedy Scholarships Lieven family