A Very Dangerous Woman: The Lives, Loves and Lies of Russia's Most Seductive Spy

by Deborah McDonald

  12 Moura Budberg MI5 file, letter from Ernest Boyce, 28 Jun. 1940.

  13 Moura Budberg MI5 file, note 12 Aug. 1941.

  14 Moura Budberg MI5 file, minute sheet note, 17 Jul. 1941.

  15 Lockhart, diary entry for 24 Jun. 1941, Diaries vol. 2, p. 107.

  16 Sir John Lawrence, interview with Andrew Boyle, CUL Add 9429/2B/120. The Murmansk story is given in his obituary in the Guardian, 2 Feb. 2000.

  17 Moura Budberg MI5 file, F. P. Osborne, letter to Capt. Strong, 11 Aug. 1941.

  18 Moura Budberg MI5 file, Special Branch, Metropolitan Police, letter to Col. E. Hinchley-Cooke, 13 Aug. 1941.

  19 Moura Budberg MI5 file, Richard Butler, note to D.G., 26 May 1943.

  20 Lewis, Prisms of British Appeasement, p. 140. Lewis gives the date of Cooper’s secret appointment as January 1943, but this appears to be a misprint for 1942. The diaries of Guy Liddell, MI5’s Director of Counter-Intelligence, indicate that he was already settling into that role by July 1942 (Liddell, Diaries vol. 1, p. 280). Liddell himself was MI5’s expert on Russia; he later came under suspicion and was blocked from succeeding to the director generalship of MI5. Following the defection of Guy Burgess (to whom he had been very close), Liddell was eased out of the service altogether. He promoted Anthony Blunt and was very close to Duff Cooper during his period with the Security Executive.

  21 Lady Diana Cooper, interview with Andrew Boyle, CUL Add 9429/2B/30.

  22 Martha Gellhorn, letter to Andrew Boyle, 30 Jun. 1980, CUL Add 9429/2B/40. Moura told TV producer Joan Rodker that it was Aldous Huxley’s suggestion that she should see the palmist (Rodker, letter to the editor, Observer, 29 Dec. 1974, p. 8).

  23 Lord Vaizey, letter to Andrew Boyle, 15 Oct. 1980, CUL Add 9429/2B/100.

  24 Flood, ‘Andre Labarthe and Raymond Aron’.

  25 Flood, ‘Andre Labarthe and Raymond Aron’.

  26 Lord Ritchie Calder, interview with Andrew Boyle, CUL Add 9429/2B/124 (i).

  27 Moura Budberg MI5 file, note on minute sheet by K. G. Younger, 8 Apr. 1942.

  28 Wells, H. G. Wells in Love, p. 227.

  29 Lockhart, diary entry for 6 Mar. 1942, Diaries vol. 2, p. 149.

  30 Lockhart, diary entry for Aug. 1944, Diaries vol. 2, p. 348. The Carlton Grill was all that survived of the Carlton Hotel, which had been wrecked by a bomb in 1940. In the 1950s it was demolished and New Zealand House was built on the site.

  31 Wells, letter to Moura, no. 2,747, summer 1944, Correspondence of H. G. Wells vol. 4, p. 500.

  32 Nathalie Brooke (née Benckendorff), interview with Andrew Boyle, CUL Add. 9429/2B/114 (i).

  33 Lockhart, diary entries for 10 May and 3 Aug. 1945, Diaries vol. 2, pp. 431, 480.

  34 Orwell, ‘Wells, Hitler, and the World State’, Horizon, August 1941, pp. 133–8.

  Chapter 24: The Movie Mogul

  1 Phillips, The Stage Struck Me, pp. 130–31.

  2 Will of H. G. Wells. The total amount of £10,240 in 1946 would be equivalent to about £374,000 now.

  3 Korda, Charmed Lives, p. 120. Michael Korda believed that his uncle had first met Moura in Britain in the early 1930s.

  4 Frank Wells, cited in Kulik, Alexander Korda, pp. 126–7.

  5 Lockhart, diary entry for 23 Aug. 1938, Diaries vol. 1, p. 392. £4 million in 1938 is equivalent to about a quarter of a billion now.

  6 Korda, Charmed Lives, p. 156.

  7 Korda, Charmed Lives, p. 154 n.

  8 Kulik, Alexander Korda, pp. 256–7.

  9 Lockhart, diary entry for 21 Sep. 1947, Diaries vol. 2, p. 630.

  10 Lockhart, diary entry for 8 Jan. 1948, Diaries vol. 2, pp. 630–35. £12,000 in 1947 would be equivalent to over £400,000 now.

  11 Burton, The Richard Burton Diaries, pp. 575–6.

  12 Vickers, Cecil Beaton, p. 307. Beaton’s diaries indicate that his friendship with Moura dated back to at least the early war years (Beaton, The Years Between, p. 69: ‘Moura Budberg dined and we found that with the help of a good bottle of claret the evening went easily. Wars, we agreed, knocked one from one level of age down to another.’).

  13 Moura Budberg MI5 file, Metropolitan Police report, 14 Jul. 1948, written upon her entry to Britain from Warsaw via Prague; Michael Korda, interview with Deborah McDonald, 12 Jan. 2012.

  14 Korda, Charmed Lives, p. 214.

  15 Michael Korda, interview with Deborah McDonald, 12 Jan. 2012.

  16 Moura Budberg MI5 file, Metropolitan Police Special Branch note, 31 Mar. 1947.

  17 Moura Budberg MI5 file, note, 30 Mar. 1950.

  18 Alexander, Estonian Childhood, p. 143.

  19 Moura Budberg MI5 file, Metropolitan Police Special Branch note, 24 Apr. 1944.

  20 Moura Budberg MI5 file, note recording Home Office Certificate of Naturalisation No. B 319, MI5 No. PFR 3736, 19 Jun. 1947. The note states: ‘MI5: A certificate of naturalisation has been granted to Marie Budberg of 68 Ennismore Gardens, London, S W 7 and the Oath of Allegiance has been duly taken.’ It is not known why this surprising decision was reached. The appraisal mentions Professor J. B. S. Haldane, a ‘prominent member of the Communist Party’, which one would expect to count against her. The document then speculates about how truthful her interview had been, noting that what she had said was broadly consistent with the facts as they knew them. Moura’s nocturnal meetings in Felixstowe in 1935 are mentioned. The document notes Wells’ wish to take Moura to Russia with him and his opinion that she ought to be naturalised. Duff Cooper is mentioned as saying that he had refused to allow her to work in Auxiliary War Services. The appraisal also lays out her relationship with Ambassador Maisky and his wife. But it was noted that Moura had apparently passed on some information regarding the Russian Embassy to Duff Cooper, which must have counted in her favour. But on the whole one can only conjecture that Moura used a great deal of her natural charm, or possibly that the approval was a bureaucratic blunder which could not be undone. After the decision was made and she was naturalised, several papers in the MI5 file comment on the mistake that had been made.

  21 Regnery, letter to Moura, 10 Dec. 1947, HIA.

  22 Regnery, letter to Moura, 11 Jul. 1948, HIA.

  23 There is no information on how close the renewed relationship between Moura and Scheffer became; probably not close. He carried on working with Regnery until 1951, living in very modest circumstances and suffering continual pain from the injuries he had sustained during the war. He died in 1965.

  24 Lockhart, diary entry for 26 Aug. 1948, Diaries vol. 2, pp. 672–4.

  25 Lockhart, diary entry for 26 Aug. 1948, Diaries vol. 2, pp. 672–4. Despite her opinion of him (‘the vainest man in the world’) Moura retained Maugham as a friend. Later that year, she had him and Lockhart to dine at Ennismore Gardens. Maugham would soon be seventy-five, but had a physique that Lockhart thought ‘wonderful’. Over dinner, Maugham explained that an attack he had made on Hugh Walpole in Cakes and Ale was due to Walpole having attempted to style himself the ‘father of English letters’; Maugham claimed that he had now achieved that position himself despite having ‘never tried to push myself’ (quoted by Lockhart, diary entry for 16 Nov. 1948, Diaries vol. 2, pp. 684–5).

  Chapter 25: A Russian Patriot

  1 Moura Budberg MI5 file, report by B2a, 9 Oct. 1950.

  2 Weidenfeld, George Weidenfeld, p. 131.

  3 Quoted by Robin Bruce Lockhart, Reilly, p. 84.

  4 Weidenfeld, George Weidenfeld, p. 132.

  5 Lord Weidenfeld, personal communication to Deborah McDonald, 6 Jan. 2012.

  6 Weidenfeld, George Weidenfeld, p. 158.

  7 Quoted in Carter, Anthony Blunt, p. 79.

  8 Weidenfeld, George Weidenfeld, p. 134.

  9 Moura Budberg MI5 file, note on Budberg/MacGibbon, 26 Jul. 1950.

  10 Moura Budberg MI5 file, note from agent B2a to Mr B. A. Hill, 15 Aug. 1950.

  11 MacGibbon related this story in a 12-page affidavit signed on his deathbed in 2000 (see articles by Michael Evans and Magnus Linklater in T
he Times, 30 Oct. 2004, pp. 1–3; also H. MacGibbon, ‘Diary: My Father the Spy’, London Review of Books, 16 Jun. 2011, pp. 40–41).

  12 Moura Budberg MI5 file, note, 26 Jul. 1950.

  13 Moura Budberg MI5 file, extract from note by B2a on ‘Developments in the MacGibbon Case’, 18 Aug. 1950.

  14 Macintyre, A Spy Among Friends, pp. 169–70. Skardon’s reputation was probably overinflated by his success with Fuchs. He failed to break both Kim Philby and Anthony Blunt, despite interrogating them both multiple times.

  15 Moura Budberg MI5 file, note from B2a, 28 Aug. 1950.

  16 Moura Budberg MI5 file, note marked Top Secret, 2 Oct. 1950.

  17 Moura Budberg MI5 file, interview with Rebecca West, 30 Jan. 1951.

  18 West, H. G. Wells, pp. 139–40. West recalls his mother’s jealousy in ‘My Father’s Unpaid Debts of Love’, Observer Review, 11 Jan. 1976, p. 17.

  19 Moura Budberg MI5 file, minute sheet, no. 239, 12 Feb. 1951.

  20 Moura Budberg MI5 file, report by U35, 19 Jun. 1951.

  21 Moura Budberg MI5 file, report by U35, 28 Jun. 1951.

  22 West & Tsarev, The Crown Jewels, p. 180; Carter, Anthony Blunt, pp. 321, 331.

  23 Moura Budberg MI5 file, report by U35, 2 Jul. 1951. Klop gave a detailed account of this vital meeting in his report.

  24 Moura Budberg MI5 file, report by U35, 10 Aug. 1951.

  25 Kyril Zinovieff, interview with Andrew Boyle, CUL Add 9429/2B/125.

  26 Moura Budberg MI5 file, report by U35, 28 Aug. 1951.

  27 Moura Budberg MI5 file, report by U35, 25 Oct. 1951.

  28 Drazin, Korda, pp. 346–7.

  29 Korda, Charmed Lives, p. 323.

  30 Korda, Charmed Lives, p. 403.

  Chapter 26: The End of Everything

  1 Weidenfeld, George Weidenfeld, p. 132.

  2 Boothby began a relationship with Kray in 1963 and later campaigned for the brothers’ release from prison. In 1964 the Sunday Mirror ran a story suggesting a sexual relationship between the two. Boothby sued and won. Decades later, letters came to light confirming that there was a close relationship (see Sunday Telegraph, 26 Jul. 2009).

  3 Boothby, Boothby, p. 199. Moura’s discernment, in Boothby’s opinion, was confirmed by her sharing his love of Turgenev.

  4 Michael Burn, interview with Andrew Boyle, CUL Add 9429/2B/115 (i).

  5 David Lean, interview in The Times, 9 Dec. 1981, p. 8.

  6 L. P. Hartley, ‘The Sheep and the Goats’, Observer, 25 Jun. 1939, p. 6; Edward Crankshaw, ‘Russian vignettes’, Observer, 18 Jun. 1972, p. 33.

  7 Some who knew Moura’s work claimed that she was generally not a good translator. For instance, Nina Berberova makes derogatory remarks about her translations into Russian. Likewise, Moura’s friend Hamish Hamilton, from whom she obtained a lot of work, said that her translations were not always good. In Hamilton’s case, it may be that he conflated the translations she did in old age (when, according to George Weidenfeld, she lost her ability to work so diligently and began farming out to her relatives) with her earlier work. Archived reviews of her translations between the 1930s and 1960s are generally excellent. When she felt that the source material warranted it, she exerted herself and produced fine work; in other cases, it was alleged, she would fail to pin down the true meanings of idioms, and even passages if they were difficult.

  8 Roger Machell, interview with Andrew Boyle, CUL Add 9429/2B/118(i).

  9 Pendennis, The Observer, 5 May 1963, p. 13.

  10 Quoted by Michael Burn, interview with Andrew Boyle, CUL Add 9429/2B/115(ii).

  11 Equivalent to about £110,000 now.

  12 Hamish and Yvonne Hamilton, Roger Machell, Baron Robert Boothby, interviews with Andrew Boyle, CUL Add 9429/2B/113 & 118(i).

  13 The Times, 11 Dec. 1964, p. 5.

  14 Baron Robert Boothby, Hamish Hamilton, interviews with Andrew Boyle, CUL Add 9429/2B/113 and 118.

  15 Hamish and Yvonne Hamilton, interview with Andrew Boyle, CUL Add 9429/2B/118(i).

  16 Rebecca West, letter to Andrew Boyle, 9 Sep. 1980, CUL Add 9429/2B/106(i).

  17 Moura, letters to Lockhart, 29 Dec. 1931, 17 Jan. 1932, HIA.

  18 Mrs A. Knopf, letter to Baroness Budberg, 14 Sep. 1951, AAK.

  19 Moura Budberg, letter to Blanche Knopf, 27 Dec. 1952, AAK.

  20 Joan M. Rodker, letter to the editor, Observer, 29 Dec. 1974; obituary of Joan Rodker, Daily Telegraph, 23 Jan. 2011.

  21 Hamish Hamilton, interview with Andrew Boyle, CUL Add 9429/2B/118; Robin Bruce Lockhart, Reilly, p. 83.

  22 The Times, 24 Apr. 1962, p. 14.

  23 The Times, 8 Apr. 1967, p. 9; reviewed in the Guardian, 5 Jul. 1967.

  24 Quoted in Robin Bruce Lockhart, Reilly, p. 84.

  25 Weidenfeld, George Weidenfeld, pp. 133–4.

  26 Chukovsky, diary entry for 30 Apr. 1962, Diaries, p. 464.

  27 Ustinov, Dear Me, p. 345.

  28 Graham Greene, letter to Robert Cecil, 14 Feb. 1989, papers of Robert Cecil in possession of his daughter, via Andrew Lownie.

  29 Lord Ritchie Calder, interview with Andrew Boyle, CUL Add 9429/2B/124 (ii).

  30 West, H. G. Wells, p. 142.

  31 Moura, letter to Lockhart, LL. Undated: probably Mar. 1953.

  32 Marina Majdalany, interview with Andrew Boyle, CUL Add 9429/2B/121(ii).

  33 Obituary, Sir Robert Bruce Lockhart, The Times, 28 Feb. 1970, p. 8.

  34 The Times, 4 Mar. 1970, p. 20; Robin Bruce Lockhart, Reilly, p. 84.

  35 Hamish Hamilton, interview with Andrew Boyle, CUL Add 9429/2B/118(ii).

  36 Included in his anthology Out on a Limb.

  37 Michael Burn, letter to Andrew Boyle, 20 Jun. 1980, CUL Add 9429/2B/14(i).

  38 Michael Burn, extract from ‘For Moura Budberg: On her proposed departure from Britain’, Out on a Limb, pp. 40–41.

  39 Vaksberg, The Murder of Maxim Gorky, p. 396.

  40 Michael Burn, interview with Andrew Boyle, CUL Add 9429/2B/115(ii).

  41 Moura, letter to Lockhart, 13 Feb. 1919, LL.

  Bibliography

  AAK Alfred A. Knopf Records

  CUL Cambridge University Library

  GA Gorky Archive

  HIA Hoover Institution Archives, Stanford, California.

  LL Lilly Library, Indiana University Bloomington, Indiana

  RBML Rare Book & Manuscript Library of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Illinois

  Archives and unpublished materials

  Budberg, Moura (aka Benckendorff, Zakrevskaya), letters to R. H. Bruce Lockhart. R B Lockhart mss, Boxes 2 and 5: Correspondence of Moura Budberg and R. H. Bruce Lockhart, LL.

  Budberg, Moura (aka Benckendorff, Zakrevskaya), letters to R. H. Bruce Lockhart. Robert H. B. Lockhart papers, Box 1: Correspondence of Moura Budberg, HIA.

  Budberg, Moura (aka Benckendorff, Zakrevskaya) and others, letters to H. G. Wells. Correspondence of H. G. Wells, RBML.

  Gorky Archive: Letters between Moura Budberg and Maxim Gorky. Russian state archives, translations and notes via Professor Barry P. Scherr.

  Knopf, Mrs A., letters to Baroness Moura Budberg, Alfred A. Knopf Records, Harry Ransom Center, University of Texas at Austin.

  Lockhart, R. H. Bruce, unpublished diaries and papers. Beaverbrook Papers, House of Lords Record Office.

  Lockhart, R. H. Bruce, ‘Baroness Budberg’ (with emendations by Moura Budberg), unpublished essay, ca 1956. Robert H. B. Lockhart papers, Box 6, Folder 14, HIA.

  Regnery, Henry, letters to Baroness Moura Budberg, Henry Regnery archive, HIA.

  MI5 file on Moura Budberg, 1922–1952. KV2/979, KV2/980, KV2/981, National Archives, Kew.

  Interviews and correspondence

  Conducted by Deborah McDonald, 2010–2012

  Nathalie Brooke (née Benckendorff), 16 May 2012

  Miranda Carter, 13 January 2012

  Philip Day, 13 January 2012

  Michael Korda, 12 January 2012

  Jamie Bruce Lockhart, 1 February 2012


  Andrea Lynn, December 2010

  Professor Barry P. Scherr, Dartmouth College, New Hampshire, January 2012

  Teresa Topolski, 1 April 2012

  Karen Vaughan, Royal Academy of Music (pupil of Maria Korchinska, wife of Count Constantine Benckendorff), 13 May 2012

  Lord George Weidenfeld, 6 January 2012