A Very Dangerous Woman: The Lives, Loves and Lies of Russia's Most Seductive Spy (75 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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Chapter 19: Not Such a Fool

  
1
   
When she made her visa application, Moura claimed that she had visited Britain before, in 1911, and had stayed at Claridge’s (Moura Budberg MI5 file, notes by British Passport Control, Paris, 13 Jun. 1928). Nothing is known of the details of this visit, including whether or not it really happened.
  
2
   
Lockhart, diary entry for 5 Sep. 1918,
Diaries vol. 1
, p. 41.
  
3
   
Moura, letter to Wells, RBML. Undated: postmarked 1929, probably late Sept.
  
4
   
Moura, letter to Wells, 29 Sept. 1929, RBML.
  
5
   
Alexander,
Estonian Childhood
, p. 148.
  
6
   
Wells,
H. G. Wells in Love
, p. 143.
  
7
   
Moura, letters to Gorky, Mar.–Jul. 1930, GA.
  
8
   
Anthony West, ‘My Father’s Unpaid Debts of Love’,
Observer Review
, 11 Jan. 1976, p. 17.
  
9
   
Rupert Hart-Davis, interview with Andrew Boyle, CUL Add 9429/2B/119.
10
   
Rupert Hart-Davis, interview with Andrew Boyle, CUL Add 9429/2B/119.
11
   
Lockhart, diary entry for 4 Oct. 1930,
Diaries vol. 1,
p. 127.
12
   
Nathalie Brooke (née Benckendorff, daughter of Constantine), interview with Andrew Boyle, CUL Add. 9429/2B/114 (i). The relationship between Constantine and Djon is uncertain, but they appear to have been fourth cousins, their common ancestor being a Johann Michael Ivanovich von Benckendorff (1720–1775).
13
   
Benckendorff,
Half a Life
, p. 150.
14
   
Nathalie Brooke (née Benckendorff, daughter of Constantine), interview with Andrew Boyle, CUL Add. 9429/2B/114 (i).
15
   
Kyril Zinovieff, interview with Andrew Boyle, CUL Add 9429/2B/125.
16
   
Nathalie Brooke, interview with Deborah McDonald.
17
   
Quoted by Michael Burn, interview with Andrew Boyle, CUL Add 9429/2B/115 (ii).
18
   
She found her ‘plump, big boned, forceful, not attractive . . . she repelled me’ (Nathalie Brooke, interview with Andrew Boyle, CUL Add. 9429/2B/114 (i)).
19
   
Nathalie Brooke, interview with Andrew Boyle, CUL Add. 9429/2B/114 (i).
20
   
Nathalie Brooke, interview with Andrew Boyle, CUL Add. 9429/2B/114 (i).
21
   
Nathalie Brooke, interview with Deborah McDonald.
22
   
Wells,
H. G. Wells in Love
, p. 168.
23
   
Lockhart, diary entry for 6 Jan. 1931,
Diaries vol. 1
, p. 145.
24
   
Lockhart, diary entry for 2–4 Aug. 1924,
Diaries vol. 1
, p. 59.
25
   
Moura, letter to Lockhart, 29 Dec. 1931, HIA.
26
   
Moura, letter to Lockhart, HIA. Undated: probably 1931.
27
   
Moura, letter to Gorky, 4 Apr. 1931, GA.
28
   
Kira and Hugh Clegg produced a son, Nicholas. In due course he grew up and married and produced a son, also called Nicholas; he grew up to become a politician, leader of the Liberal Democrats and Deputy Prime Minister.
29
   
Moura, letter to Lockhart, 17 Mar. 1932, HIA.
30
   
Robin Bruce Lockhart,
Reilly: The First Man
, pp. 12, 115.
31
   
Reilly, letter to Lockhart, 24 Nov. 1918, quoted in Robin Bruce Lockhart,
Reilly: The First Man
, p. 115.
32
   
Wells,
H. G. Wells in Love
, p. 159.
33
   
Wells,
H. G. Wells in Love
, p. 162.
34
   
Wells,
H. G. Wells in Love
, p. 163.
35
   
Vaksberg,
The Murder of Maxim Gorky
, pp. 287–9.
36
   
Scheffer, ‘Hungersnot in Russland’,
Berliner Tageblatt
, 1 Apr. 1933; Gareth Jones, ‘Balance Sheet of the Five-Year Plan’,
Financial Times
, 13 Apr. 1933. Both available online at
www.garethjones.org
(retrieved 20 Jun. 2014).
37
   
Sayers & Kahn,
Sabotage
, pp. 17–21.
38
   
Moura, letter to Paul Scheffer, included in Moura Budberg MI5 file, translation by MI5. Undated but probably written in June 1932.
39
   
Moura, letter to Paul Scheffer, included in Moura Budberg MI5 file, translated by Caroline Schmitz.
40
   
Moura, letter to Paul Scheffer, included in Moura Budberg MI5 file. Postmarked Österreich, date unclear but copy dated 11 Jun. 1933. Translated by Caroline Schmitz.
41
   
Lord Willis, letter to Andrew Boyle, 11 Jul. 1980, CUL Add 9429/2B/109.
42
   
Moura, letter to Lockhart, LL. Undated: probably 1933.
43
   
Wells,
H. G Wells in Love
, p. 170.
44
   
Lockhart, diary entry for 3 Oct. 1931,
Diaries vol. 1
, p. 189.
45
   
Berberova,
Moura
, p. 257.
46
   
Bagnold,
Autobiography
, pp. 130–34.
47
   
Moura, letter to Lockhart, LL. Undated: probably 18 Jun. 1932.
48
   
Lockhart, diary entry for 5 Feb. 1932,
Diaries vol. 1
, p. 202.
49
   
Moura, letter to Lockhart, LL. Undated: probably 1933.
 

Chapter 20: A Cheat and a Liar

  
1
   
Smith,
H. G. Wells
, pp. 316–22.
  
2
   
Matheson, letter to Vita Sackville-West, quoted in Carney,
Stoker
, p. 45.
  
3
   
Wells, letter to von Arnim, no. 1,971, 22 Jan. 1934, in
The Correspondence of H. G. Wells vol. 3
, pp. 513–14.
  
4
   
This letter, dated 28 July but with no year, has been inserted into Wells’ published letters as 1930 but this does not fit with the facts. In letter no. 1,941 dated 2 August 1933 Wells comments to a friend about a proposed holiday to Portmeirion. Moura did not specify where she wrote her letter from but did say that she had had the pregnancy confirmed by a doctor whom she had known in Russia. In 1930 Gorky did not go to Russia, Moura was in Berlin in August and wrote to H. G. saying she was missing him and her trips to Britain were very infrequent.

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