My wife, Clare, and I were wandering around Brompton cemetery while waiting for an event at Earls Court when we came upon an intriguing grave stone of a Colonel in the 'Soviet Forces' who died in February 1918. The only thing I could find about him was that he was a military attache. Possibly he died while in London of some illness, could have been Spanish flu but I speculate. His death was before the Treaty of Brest Litovsk took the Russians out of the Great War.

It is reasonable to assume that Stepanoff was a military attaché considering that Brompton Cemetery is only a couple of miles from the Imperial Russian Embassy which was located on Chesham Place. But that’s just an assumption and he is not the only Russian colonel buried at Brompton. There’s an N Beliakoff, who died the previous year, who is also recorded as being buried there by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC). Beliakoff, however, although recorded by the CWGC, is not afforded a CWGC headstone. This could be because Stepanoff died after the Bolshevik Coup of October 1917 and so the subsequent Soviet regime claimed him as their own regardless of his technical status or personal allegiance. The headstone saying ‘Soviet Forces’ was almost certainly erected at a much later date, although exactly when that was and at whose request is not clear. It also seems to be unique because, as far as I know, no other First World War era grave of a Russian soldier is marked as such (i.e. ‘Soviet Forces’) by the CWGC.  



What’s puzzling is that the CWGC should mark and maintain the graves at all. It’s the Commonwealth War Graves Commission after all – not the ‘Allied War Graves Commission’. It could be that the Commission also covers the graves of allied personnel who died on British territory but there doesn’t seem to be anything to that effect in the CWGC mission statement. The Commonwealth War Graves Commission website says that it ‘commemorates personnel who died whilst serving in a Commonwealth military force or specified auxiliary organisation’. That would presumably include the likes of Colonel Leon Fouks of the Russian 9th Cavalry Division who was attached to II Corps of the British Army during the Battle of the Somme. And unlike Beliakoff, Fouks does indeed have a Commonwealth headstone: 



The CWGC maintains the graves of over 520 Russians who died in France. Presumably these were all attached to British forces in some way or another. But the Stepanoff headstone at Brompton remains something of an enigma.

There's a CWGC twitter thread and discussion between CWGC and James Hoare (a military historian) about both Col. Stepanoff and Col. Beliakoff, dating from July 2018, which may be of interest:

@CWGC - THe CWGC wasn't asked to mark the graves of Russian forces until the 1950's and at that time it was requested that Russian fallen like Colonel Stepanoff were marked as Soviet Forces. We hope that helps answer the question. Thanks, CWGC.

@JDHoare - According to the England & Wales, Civil Registration Death Index, 1916-2007 Vladimir Stepanoff was born circa 1875 and died aged 43. His death in 1918 was registered to the parish of St George Hanover Square.

@JDHoare - The parish is significant because it includes Belgravia, the home of the Russian embassy Chesham House. A Soviet ambassador arrived in February 1918 BUT he worked from his home in Hampshire, the embassy was in the hands of the old charge d’affairs, Konstantin Nabokov

@JDHoare - A liberal and Anglophile who supported the Kerensky government, Konstantin Nabokov remained in post with the support of the British government until 1920, and in his memoir he describes Bolsheviks trying to turf him out of Chesham House with threats and intimidation.

@JDHoare - The memoir is The Ordeal of a Diplomat, 1921

@JDHoare - (Konstantin Nabokov’s dad Dimitri Nabokov was Justice Minister under Alexander II, and his nephew was critically acclaimed/controversial Lolita novelist Vladimir Nabokov, but this is a segue upon a segue)

@JDHoare - To get back to the point, Colonel Stepanoff was most likely attached to the Kerensky embassy as a military attache. He most likely wasn’t a Soviet officer. So is there interest in a new headstone @CWGC  or @RussianEmbassy ? And how about one for Colonel Beliakoff?

@JDHoare - I am also VERY OPEN to the idea that Colonel Stepanoff was murdered by the Bolsheviks, but I've got nothing to hang that on...

@JDHoare - Looking at CWGC’s Graves Registration form from 1920, Stepanoff - along with Colonel Nicholas Beliakoff, who shot himself on a Scottish sleeper train in 1917 - is described as "Russian Army." https://cwgc.org/find-war-dead/casualty/6017423/stepanoff,-/#&gid=null&pid=1

@JDHoare - And Colonel Beliakoff, as it happens, he left a note saying he was killing himself because of "tuberculosis raging in my body." The Coroner confirmed that he didn't have TB and the verdict was "Suicide whilst of unsound mind"

That’s very informative MM – thanks for posting the link. It seems as though that James Hoare fellow has been like dog at a bone with this one. Presumably he retrieved the details regarding Beliakoff’s death ‘on a Scottish sleeper train’ and the suicide note from the coroner’s inquest records at the National Archives.
 
Most significant, perhaps, is the tweet from the CWGC suggesting that the ‘Soviet Forces’ headstone dates from the 1950s at the earliest. (I’ll ignore the apostrophe used in the writing of that decade by the CWGC tweeter.) Being post-1945, however, one would imagine that the Commission’s records would surely hold details of exactly when and how the request to mark Stepanoff’s grave as ‘Soviet Forces’ was made. It really shouldn’t be that difficult to locate and divulge. Yet, the CWCG does seem to be unnecessarily cagey about some of its extra-curricular activities. For example, also missing from the CWGC mission statement is the fact that it sometimes maintains the graves even of enemy personnel such as those of the German prisoners-of-war buried at the Deutscher Soldatenfriedhof on Cannock Chase in Staffordshire. It does this on behalf of the German War Graves Commission.

Vizzer wrote:

Being post-1945, however, one would imagine that the Commission’s records would surely hold details of exactly when and how the request to mark Stepanoff’s grave as ‘Soviet Forces’ was made. It really shouldn’t be that difficult to locate and divulge.

The information certainly exists but it seems to be somewhat involved: in answer to the same question asked by James Hoare, the CWGC response was,  
@CWGC - Jul 19, 2018 - Hello James, the answer to that question is quiet a lengthy one. As such we have sent you a direct message. Thanks, CWGC.

(NB in my above copy-and-paste from twitter I seem to have missed out some of the nested replies, such as the one where James Hoare says that Beliakofff shot himelf on a Scottish sleeper train. They are however all visible from the above twitter link).

Also I assume James Hoare is not this one, the ex-diplomat ...  but rather this one, with an interest in war, witchcraft and weirdness (his words).

Just to say thank you to those who looked into this, most informative

Tim