Maria Ignatievna von Budberg-Bönninghausen (, ''Maria (Moura) Ignatievna Zakrevskaya-Benckendorff-Budberg'', née Zakrevskaya; February 1892 – 1 November 1974), also known as Countess von Benckendorff and Baroness von Budberg, was a Russian adventuress and suspected
double agent
In the field of counterintelligence, a double agent is an employee of a secret intelligence service for one country, whose primary purpose is to spy on a target organization of another country, but who is now spying on their own country's organi ...
of the
Soviet Union secret police (OGPU) and the
British Intelligence Service.
According to the British journalist
Robin Bruce Lockhart, who knew her personally, "she was, perhaps, the Soviet Union's most effective agent-of-influence ever to appear on London's political and intellectual stage".
Biography
Early life
Born in
Poltava
Poltava (, ; , ) is a city located on the Vorskla, Vorskla River in Central Ukraine, Central Ukraine. It serves as the administrative center of Poltava Oblast as well as Poltava Raion within the oblast. It also hosts the administration of Po ...
, in central
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the List of European countries by area, second-largest country in Europe after Russia, which Russia–Ukraine border, borders it to the east and northeast. Ukraine also borders Belarus to the nor ...
, Moura was the daughter of Ignaty Platonovich Zakrevsky (1839–1906), a member of the
Russian nobility and
diplomat
A diplomat (from ; romanization, romanized ''diploma'') is a person appointed by a state (polity), state, International organization, intergovernmental, or Non-governmental organization, nongovernmental institution to conduct diplomacy with one ...
. In 1911, she married Count Johann (Ivan) Alexandrovich von Benckendorff (1882–1919), a member of the
Baltic German nobility, Second Secretary at the Russian Embassy in Berlin, and Gentleman of the Court. They had two children: Paul (born in 1913) and Tatiana (born in 1915), who later married Bernard Alexander and became the mother of the businesswoman
Helen Alexander. Benckendorff owned a large country house and estate in
Estonia
Estonia, officially the Republic of Estonia, is a country in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, and to the east by Ru ...
, the
Jäneda (Jendel) manor. This is where he was shot dead on 19 April 1919 by an Estonian soldier while on a three-day leave from duty.
Arrest
Before the
October Revolution
The October Revolution, also known as the Great October Socialist Revolution (in Historiography in the Soviet Union, Soviet historiography), October coup, Bolshevik coup, or Bolshevik revolution, was the second of Russian Revolution, two r ...
, Moura worked in the Russian embassy in
Berlin
Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...
, where she became acquainted with British diplomat
R. H. Bruce Lockhart. Upon the assassination of her husband in 1919, she was arrested on suspicion of spying for the United Kingdom and was transferred to the
Lubyanka prison. Lockhart, who mentioned her under her given name in his 1932 book ''Memoirs of a British Agent'', tried to vouch for her but was detained as well for a couple of weeks. They had been lovers and she became pregnant by him, but the pregnancy miscarried. (Lockhart's book was made into an American movie in 1934, ''
British Agent'', starring
Leslie Howard
Leslie Howard Steiner (3 April 18931 June 1943) was an English actor, director, producer and writer.Obituary, '' Variety'', 9 June 1943. He wrote many stories and articles for ''The New York Times'', ''The New Yorker'', and '' Vanity Fair'' an ...
as "Stephen Locke" and
Kay Francis as "Elena Moura".)
Shortly after Lockhart's release and expulsion from Russia, in connection with the "Ambassadorial Conspiracy" affair (also known as the "
Lockhart Plot"), Budberg was also released, under the condition that she would co-operate with the intelligence service if the need ever arose. Budberg began to publish "World Literature", where she met the writer
Maxim Gorky
Alexei Maximovich Peshkov (; – 18 June 1936), popularly known as Maxim Gorky (; ), was a Russian and Soviet writer and proponent of socialism. He was nominated five times for the Nobel Prize in Literature. Before his success as an aut ...
through
Korney Chukovsky. She became a secretary and
common-law wife of Gorky, living in his house with a few interruptions from 1920 to 1933 when the writer lived in Italy before returning to the Soviet Union. He dedicated his last major work, the novel ''
The Life of Klim Samgin'', to her.
H. G. Wells
In 1920, Budberg met British author
H. G. Wells
Herbert George Wells (21 September 1866 – 13 August 1946) was an English writer, prolific in many genres. He wrote more than fifty novels and dozens of short stories. His non-fiction output included works of social commentary, politics, hist ...
when he made a celebrated visit to Moscow and they became lovers. She was briefly married, on 13 November 1921, to Baron Nikolai (Rotger Emil Arthur Friedrich) von
Budberg-Bönningshausen (born 1896). The union was in the nature of a marriage of convenience, and they soon divorced. (It provided her with a passport, however, and thus an ability to leave Russia to visit both her children in Estonia and Gorky, who then lived near
Sorrento
Sorrento ( , ; ; ) is a City status in Italy, city and overlooking the Gulf of Naples, Bay of Naples in Southern Italy. A popular tourist destination, Sorrento is located on the Sorrentine Peninsula at the southern terminus of a main branch o ...
. It is said that the Baron Budberg, a shady character, eventually disappeared in
Brazil
Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...
.) Moura's relationship with Wells was renewed in 1933 in London, where she had emigrated after parting with Gorky. The close relationship continued until Wells's death in 1946. He had asked her to marry him, but Budberg strongly rejected the proposal.
Double agent?
Budberg was widely suspected of being a
double agent
In the field of counterintelligence, a double agent is an employee of a secret intelligence service for one country, whose primary purpose is to spy on a target organization of another country, but who is now spying on their own country's organi ...
for both the Soviet Union and British intelligence and has been called the "
Mata Hari of Russia", after the famous Dutch exotic dancer and accused spy. She is known to have visited the
Soviet Union
The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...
at least twice after the 1920s: first in 1936 for the funeral of Gorky (which made people call her an agent of the
NKVD
The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (, ), abbreviated as NKVD (; ), was the interior ministry and secret police of the Soviet Union from 1934 to 1946. The agency was formed to succeed the Joint State Political Directorate (OGPU) se ...
) and again at the end of 1950, with a daughter of
Alexander Guchkov.
An
MI5 informant said of her, "she can drink an amazing quantity, mostly gin".
Writing career
Among many other activities, Budberg wrote books and was the script writer for at least two films: ''
Three Sisters'' (1970), directed by
Laurence Olivier and
John Sichel, and ''
The Sea Gull'' (1968), directed by
Sidney Lumet
Sidney Arthur Lumet ( ; June 25, 1924 – April 9, 2011) was an American film director. Lumet started his career in theatre before moving to film, where he gained a reputation for making realistic and gritty New York City, New York dramas w ...
. She translated Gorky's novel ''
The Life of a Useless Man'' (1908) into English in 1971.
Moura Budberg maintained residences in London at
Ennismore Gardens and in
Cromwell Road
Cromwell Road is a major London road in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, designated as part of the A4 road (Great Britain), A4. It was created in the 19th century and is said to be named after Richard Cromwell, son of Oliver Cromwel ...
. She had made her permanent home in England from the time she emigrated there in 1929 until shortly before her death (31 October 1974), when she returned to Italy.
Family
Budberg's older half-sister, Alexandra "Alla" Ignatievna Zakrevskaya (1887–1960), who married Baron Arthur von
Engelhardt (1875–1909) in 1908 but divorced in 1909, was the great-grandmother of
Nick Clegg
Sir Nicholas William Peter Clegg (born 7 January 1967) is a British retired politician and media executive who served as Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2010 to 2015 and as Leader of the Liberal Democrats from 2007 to 2015. H ...
, the leader of the
British political party the Liberal Democrats between December 2007 and May 2015, and
Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
The deputy prime minister of the United Kingdom is an honorific title given to a minister of the Crown and a member of the British Cabinet, normally to signify a very senior minister, the deputy leader of the governing party, or a key political ...
from 2010 to 2015.
Legacy
In May 2008 a television film, ''My Secret Agent Auntie'', directed by Dimitri Collingridge, was released in England.
My Secret Agent Auntie (2008)
IMDB Her biography was written by Nina Berberova, who chronicled the émigrés.
References
Further reading
*
*
*
*
*
* ''The Murder of Maxim Gorky. A Secret Execution'' by Arkady Vaksberg. (Enigma Books: New York, 2007. .)
*Translated Penguin Book – at
Penguin First Editions
reference site of early first edition Penguin Books.
External links
{{DEFAULTSORT:Budberg, Moura
1892 births
1974 deaths
Nobility from the Russian Empire
Writers from Poltava
People from Saint Petersburg
Soviet spies
British spies against the Soviet Union
British spies for the Soviet Union
Clegg family