A Very Dangerous Woman: The Lives, Loves and Lies of Russia's Most Seductive Spy (74 page)

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Authors: Deborah McDonald,Jeremy Dronfield

Tags: #Biography & Autobiography, #Historical

BOOK: A Very Dangerous Woman: The Lives, Loves and Lies of Russia's Most Seductive Spy
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5
   
This proposition isn’t mentioned in Lockhart’s memoir and is only alluded to in contemporary letters, but it is referred to by Moura in a letter written to Lockhart some years later (30 May 1933, LL).
  
6
   
Moura, letter to Lockhart, HIA. Undated (labelled ‘Thursday’): probably 7 Aug. 1924.
  
7
   
Moura, letters to Gorky, 4–14 Aug. 1924, GA.
  
8
   
Moura, letter to Gorky, 20 Aug. 1924, GA.
  
9
   
Gorky, letter to Romain Rolland, 15 Jan. 1924, quoted in Vaksberg,
The Murder of Maxim Gorky
, p. 167.
10
   
Gorky, letter to Romain Rolland, 3 Mar. 1924, quoted in Vaksberg,
The Murder of Maxim Gorky
, p. 167.
11
   
Gorky, ‘A Person’, quoted in Vaksberg,
The Murder of Maxim Gorky
, p. 167.
12
   
Khodasevich, ‘Gorky’, p. 238.
13
   
Gorky, letter to Yekaterina Peshkova, Jun. 1924, quoted in Vaksberg,
The Murder of Maxim Gorky
, p. 175.
14
   
Moura, letter to Gorky, 29 Jul. 1925, GA.
15
   
Gorky, letter to Moura, 2 Aug. 1925, GA.
16
   
Moura, letter to Gorky, 5 Aug. 1925, GA.
17
   
Gorky, letter to Moura, 8 Aug. 1925, GA.
18
   
Moura, letter to Gorky, 29 Sep. 1925, GA.
19
   
Researchers who have studied the Budberg/Gorky correspondence (including Vaksberg,
The Murder of Maxim Gorky
, p. 186n, and Barry P. Scherr, unpublished notes) presume that ‘R’ (who is referred to directly just once in a letter from Moura to Gorky, 19 Apr. 1926) was Robert Bruce Lockhart. However, Moura never referred to Lockhart as ‘Robert’ or ‘R’. Intimately, he was always ‘Baby’ (or variations thereof). Early in their relationship he was briefly ‘Locky’ and ‘Bertie’, but never ‘Robert’. Therefore the identity of ‘R’ is a mystery. The only clue is in her alleged confession to H. G. Wells that she had had an (unnamed) Italian lover in Sorrento (Wells,
H. G. Wells in Love
, p. 168). This is the most likely explanation.
20
   
Moura, Preface to Gorky,
Fragments
, p. ix.
21
   
Moura, letter to Gorky, 23 Oct. 1925, quoted in Vaksberg,
The Murder of Maxim Gorky
, pp. 184–5.
22
   
Gorky, letter to Moura, 21 Dec. 1925, quoted in Vaksberg,
The Murder of Maxim Gorky
, p. 185.
23
   
Moura, letters to Gorky, 23 Dec. 1925, GA; and 29 Dec. 1925, quoted in Vaksberg,
The Murder of Maxim Gorky
, p. 185.
24
   
Gorky, letter to Moura, 30 Dec. 1925, GA; extract quoted in Vaksberg,
The Murder of Maxim Gorky
, pp. 185–6.
25
   
Moura, letter to Gorky, 8 Jan. 1926, GA.
26
   
Sergei Yesenin, ‘Goodbye, My Friend, Goodbye’, Dec. 1925.
27
   
Gorky, letter (probably never sent) to Moura, 3 Feb. 1926, GA.
28
   
Moura, letter to Gorky, 19 Apr. 1926, quoted in Vaksberg,
The Murder of Maxim Gorky
, p. 186.
29
   
Alexander,
Estonian Childhood
, p. 84.
30
   
Quoted in Troyat,
Gorky
, p. 160.
31
   
Moura, letter to Gorky, 20 Aug. 1926, GA.
32
   
Alexander,
Estonian Childhood
, p. 93.
33
   
Gorky, in debate with Russian writers, 12 Jun. 1931, quoted in Troyat,
Gorky
, p. 162.
34
   
Moura, letter to Wells, 12 Feb. 1926, RBML.
35
   
Moura, letter to Wells, 4 Oct. 1926, RBML.
36
   
Personal communication from Barry P. Scherr.
37
   
Deuxième Bureau Documents Rapatriés, dossier on ‘Russian Personalities of Emigration Suspected of Informing the Soviets: Countess Benckendorff, Baron Budberg, Trilby Espenberg, 1921–1936’, Carton 608, Dossier 3529. Quoted in Lynn,
Shadow Lovers
, pp.195–6. The reliability of this source is questionable. It specifies no dates (it’s a general summary of 15 years of observation) and appears to conflate several individuals, including one Trilby Espenberg and at one point confuses Moura with Countess Sophie Benckendorff, widow of the late Russian Ambassador to the UK, who settled in England after the Revolution.
38
   
Moura Budberg MI5 file, document 16.Y, 1932, translation of original Russian document.
39
   
Kyril Zinovieff, interview with Andrew Boyle, CUL Add 9429/2B/125.
40
   
Vaksberg,
The Murder of Maxim Gorky
, p. 200.
41
   
Vaksberg,
The Murder of Maxim Gorky
, pp. 200–201; Troyat,
Gorky
, p. 165.
42
   
Quoted in Vaksberg,
The Murder of Maxim Gorky
, p. 200.
43
   
Troyat,
Gorky
, pp. 165–8.
44
   
Wells,
H. G. Wells in Love
, p. 165.
45
   
Moura, letter to Wells, 2 May 1928, RBML.
46
   
Moura, letter to Wells, 10 Feb. 1924, RBML.
47
   
Moura, letter to Lockhart, 4 Jul. 1928, HIA.
48
   
Moura, letter to Lockhart, 28 Jul. 1928, HIA.
49
   
Moura, letter to Lockhart, 1 Nov. 1928, LL.
50
   
Spence,
Trust No One
, p. 483; Cook,
Ace of Spies
, pp. 259–63.
51
   
Moura, letter to Gorky, 21 Aug. 1928, quoted in Vaksberg,
The Murder of Maxim Gorky
, p. 211.
52
   
Scherr, notes on letter from Moura to Gorky, 24 Mar. 1929, GA.
53
   
Alexander,
Estonian Childhood
, p. 119.
54
   
Wells,
H. G. Wells in Love
, p. 140.
55
   
Nicolson, letter to Vita, 12 Apr. 1929, in
The Harold Nicolson Diaries and Letters
, p. 69.
56
   
Wells,
H. G. Wells in Love
, p. 141.
57
   
Lockhart, diary entry for 9 Apr. 1929,
Diaries vol. 1
, p. 81.
58
   
Moura, letter to Lockhart, HIA. Undated: written immediately after reunion in Berlin, 1929.
59
   
Moura Budberg MI5 file: Boyce, letter to Maj. Spencer, Passport Control Office, London, 10 Jun. 1929. Boyce’s retirement, Jeffery,
MI6
, p. 191.

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