Leo Kajewnikoff (Lev Matveevich Kazhevnikov) was born in Saint Petersburg, Russia in 1883. His father, Matvei A. Kazhevnikov, was a judge, and his mother, Aleksandra Nikolaevna Ushakova, was related to Admiral Fedor Fedorovich Ushakov (1745-1817). Kajewnikoff enrolled in the Sea Cadet Corps in 1902, graduating in 1905. Upon completion of his studies, he served aboard the Voiskovoi as part of the Gvardeiskii Ekipazh, the naval component of the Imperial Guard. From 1909 to 1914 Kajewnikoff served as a Navigational Officer (Shturmanskii Ofitser) aboard the Imperial Yacht Shtandart. In 1916, Kajewnikoff served aboard the Variag with the rank of Senior Lieutenant, sailing with the Imperial Fleet from Vladivostok to Murmansk. In 1917, he served aboard the Rasvet, being dispatched to the United States and Canada as escort for a merchant fleet, finally ending in England where the British Admiralty requisitioned his vessel. In 1921 he settled in the Free City of Danzig and began working for a steamship company. In 1930 Kajewnikoff opened his own company that he maintained until the beginning of the Second World War. In the face of the advancing Red Army, Kajewnikoff fled to the south of Germany, and from there to the United States in 1950, settling in Indiana. Upon his retirement 1964, Kajewnikoff relocated to Rommelshausen, near Stuttgart, Germany, where he died in 1970.