Moura, the Baroness Budberg, "Red Mata Hari" Maria Zakrevskaya
Her life, full of adventure, could serve as a plot for a novel. She, intelligent multilingual, alluring, and invincible woman with a feline smile was a mistress of
Maxim Gorky,
Sir Robert Hamilton Bruce Lockhart,
Herbert Wells.
Korney Chukovsky, the leaders of the
Cheka Yakov Peters, and even Josef Stalin was fascinated by her.
For her ability to attract people and influence their destiny she was called Russian Milady and being widely suspected of spying for both the Soviet Union and British intelligence she was called "Red Mata Hari". Her magnetism was a combination of exceptional intelligence with a strong character and a rare charm.
Alexander Blok dedicated poems to her, Maxim Gorky dedicated a novel to her, and Joseph Stalin once gave her flowers.
She was born in 1892 in a family of Chernigov landowner Platon Zakrevsky. When she was 19 y.o. she was sent to London for improvement of her English. In London she met Count Djon (Johann) Benckendorff, a high-ranking Czarist diplomat whom she married in 1911. The newly married couple were leading a usual high life for diplomats striking up an acquaintance with interesting and famous people. Among that people were Sir Robert Hamilton Bruce Lockhart and Hebert Wells, two men who played an important role in her life.
Moura, the Baroness Budberg, "Red Mata Hari" Maria Zakrevskaya
After a year the couple moved to Berlin due to Benckendorff's position at the Russian embassy. But after two years the First World Was begun and the couple returned to Saint Petersburg. In 1917 they found themselves in the center of Revolution events. Maria's husband took children and left Russia for Estonia, where he had his mansion called Yendel in Jäneda. Maria stayed in St. Petersburg because of her mother's illness. Later, in 1919, she learned a terrible news: her husband was shot dead, the mansion was looted and the neighbors gave her children a shelter. Maria did not have any possibility to see her children. German army occupied Estonia and was close to St. Petersburg. She was in a critical situation without any means for living and an accommodation. Her home in St. Petersburg was expropriated by the new Soviet government. Maria was arrested being under suspicion in espionage for Britain and taken to
Lubyanka. Probably the suspicion had a base because it was her lover Lockhart who was in hurry to rescue her. Lochhart was arrested and even condemned to death. Soon Maria was released. There was a rumor that she secured her own release from the Lubyanka by offering Yakov Peters sexual favors and by her agreement to collaborate with
NKVD. Lockhart was exchanged for a Soviet agent held by the British.
Maria got position of a secretary at the Soviet publishing house "All-World Literature". It was Korney Chukovsky who acquainted her with Maxim Gorky with whom she had a civil marriage. Maria's wayward nature and her independence captured Gorky's heart. Moura that was a name given her by Maxim Gorky. Later he devoted her his novel "Life of Klim Samgin".
When Herbert Wells visited USSR he was accommodated at Gorky's home and Moura was officially appointed to a position of interpreter.
Moura, the Baroness Budberg, "Red Mata Hari" Maria Zakrevskaya
Herbert George Wells, Maxim Gorky and Moura (Maria) Before Wells' leaving she asked him to help to find her children. Later Wells informed her that her children, son and daughter, were staying with her first husband's relatives. Maria could not wait to see her children and in 1920 she went to Estonia illegally. She was arrested on the boarder but thankfully to Gorky's interference and help she was freed and got an official right of entry to Estonia. In 1921, in Tallinn, when she left the train she was arrested again but at that time as a "Red spy". Soon she was not only freed but got the visa extension for three months. Maria's lawyer organized a marriage of convenience with Baron Nikolai von Budberg-Bönningshausen who had financial difficulties and wanted to leave Estonia. It said that Gorky payed Dudberg's debts in exchange for the marriage. The alliance benefited both sides: Maria got the Estonian citizenship and the title of Baroness, and Budberg got a possibility to leave Estonia for Germany and later for South America. Maria and Budberg never saw each other again.
When Gorky moved to Italy to improve his health (he developed tuberculosis) he invited Maria. Gorky absolutely trusted her and she was helping him in bookkeeping and publishing of his works traveling around Europe. Every three months she was visiting her children in Estonia.
In 1932 Maxim Gorky decided to return USSR. Maria did not share his desire and she with her children settled down in London. Leaving Sorrento for USSR Maxim Gorky left his archive to Maria and asked her never to give it to anybody.
Moura, the Baroness Budberg, "Red Mata Hari" Maria Zakrevskaya
Valentin Kataev (a Russian and Soviet novelist and playwright), Maxim Gorky, Moura, Nikolai Koltsov (a Russian biologist) and Leonid Leonov (a Soviet novelist and playwright) in Sorrento, 1927.Gorky was in correspondence with Lenin,
Korolenko and many great people, writers and scientists, who emigrated to Europe, and Stalin of course was interested in that correspondence. In 1939 Maria suddenly was visited by Gorky's first wife Ekaterina Peshkova who asked for Gorky's archive, but Maria did not give her the documents. Later Maria received a letter from Gorky with his request to visit him before his death. Maria consulted with Lockhart, who also was living in London, and he advised her to give the archive to Stalin otherwise the archive would be taken from her by force.
On June 18, 1936 Gorky died holding Maria's hands. Her portrait always was near his bed. At Stalin's request Maria stayed longer in Moscow and as a member of Gorky's archive commission she helped with archive. When the work was done Stalin personally brought her flowers before her departure for London.
In London she resumed her relationship with Herbert Wells, who was madly in love with her and she was with him till his death in 1946.
Moura, the Baroness Budberg, "Red Mata Hari" Maria Zakrevskaya
Moura and Herbert Wells, 1935.After the World War Two she visited USSR several times.
When she moved from London to Italy in early autumn of 1974, she was going to write her memoirs, but the fire caused by an electrical short-circuit destroyed her archive.
Maria Zakrevskaya-Benckendorff-Budberg died in November of 1974. There waw a long obituary for her under headline "Intellectual Leader"
Moura, the Baroness Budberg, "Red Mata Hari" Maria Zakrevskaya
Among her many activities, she wrote books and was the writer for at least two films: Three Sisters directed by Laurence Olivier and John Sichel (1970), and The Sea Gull directed by Sidney Lumet (1968).
She was the great-great aunt of Nick Clegg, the British Member of Parliament for Sheffield Hallam and, since 18 December 2007, leader of the Liberal Democrats.
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