A Very Dangerous Woman: The Lives, Loves and Lies of Russia's Most Seductive Spy (77 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 22: A Very Dangerous Woman

  
1
   
Hundreds of writers were present at this dinner, and many of them left behind accounts of it in their memoirs. The general details given here are drawn variously from a selection of these. The details of Moura’s involvement come from Berberova,
Moura
, p. 256.
  
2
   
Moura Budberg MI5 file, letter from Collier to Boyle, 6 Oct. 1936.
  
3
   
Wells, letter to Keeble, no. 2,016, 13 Oct. 1934, in Wells,
Correspondence of H. G. Wells vol. 3
, p. 541.
  
4
   
Moura Budberg MI5 file, note to Maj. V. Vivien, 14 Oct. 1936.
  
5
   
Moura Budberg MI5 file, note by ‘L.F.’, 15 Nov. 1936.
  
6
   
The Times
, 4 Apr. 1936, p. 17.
  
7
   
Moura Budberg MI5 file, Special Branch report, 24 Apr. 1944.
  
8
   
Moura Budberg MI5 file, document 16.Y, 1932, translation of original Russian document; Kyril Zinovieff, interview with Andrew Boyle, CUL Add 9429/2B/125.
  
9
   
Moura Budberg MI5 file, note on Lochner letter to Hanfstaengl, 29 Dec. 1937, cross ref from Hanfstaengl file, 25 Sep. 1939. (Lochner, despite being a pacifist, took a keen interest in the war when it started. He got himself embedded with the Germany army in 1939 and reported on the invasion of Poland.)
10
   
Moura Budberg MI5 file, note on Lochner, letter to Hanfstaengl, 6 Dec. 1938, cross ref with Hanfstaengl file, 25 Sep. 1939.
11
   
Hanfstaengl,
The Unknown Hitler
, p. 312.
12
   
Altoona Tribune
, 27 Jul. 1937, p. 4. Hanfstaengl did eventually publish a memoir in 1957,
Hitler: The Missing Years
.
13
   
Wells,
H. G. Wells in Love
, pp. 217, 219.
14
   
Lockhart, diary entry for 12 Mar. 1937,
Diaries vol. 1
, pp. 368–9.
15
   
Lockhart, diary entry for 22 Nov. 1937,
Diaries vol. 1
, p. 382.
16
   
Quoted in Shentalinsky,
The KGB’s Literary Archive
, p. 254.
17
   
The Times
, 21 Feb. 1940, p. 11.
18
   
Alexander,
Estonian Childhood
, p. 105.
19
   
Tania Alexander obituary,
The Times
, 9 Dec. 2004, p. 74.
20
   
Alexander,
Estonian Childhood
, p. 105.
21
   
Wells, letter to Moura, no. 2,360, 22 Dec. 1938,
Correspondence of H. G. Wells vol. 4
, p. 213.
22
   
Wells, letter to Moura, no. 2,366, 18 Jan. 1939,
Correspondence of H. G. Wells vol. 4
, p. 219.
23
   
Alexander,
Estonian Childhood
, p. 161.
 
 

Chapter 23: ‘Secretly for the Russians’

  
1
   
Wells,
H. G. Wells in Love
, p. 224.
  
2
   
Alexander,
Estonian Childhood
, p. 129; Moura Budberg MI5 file, report on inhabitants of 11 Ennismore Gardens, 21 Jun. 1940; report by Cassandra Coke, a cousin of Mrs Cliff, 5 Mar. 1942.
  
3
   
Carney,
Stoker
, p. 117.
  
4
   
Carney,
Stoker
, p. 119.
  
5
   
Ustinov,
Klop and the Ustinov Family
, p.
  
6
   
Chukovsky, diary entry for 4 Sep. 1919,
Diary
, p. 53.
  
7
   
Dorril,
MI6
, pp. 407–8; Liddell,
Diaries
.
  
8
   
Kathleen Tynan, in an interview with Moura Budberg (
Vogue
, 1 Oct. 1970), mentioned that the actor Peter Ustinov, who was Klop’s son and a close friend of Moura, had known her since childhood (he was born in 1921). If Moura and Klop didn’t know each other in Petrograd, perhaps Moura’s connections to Paul Scheffer and later Ernst Hanfstaengl had caused them to cross paths in the 1930s.
  
9
   
Quoted in Dorril,
MI6
, p. 408.
10
   
Moura Budberg MI5 file, report by agent U35, 8 Mar. 1940.
11
   
Moura Budberg MI5 file, note 106, minute sheet, 26 Jun. 1940. A police registration certificate is still required by foreign nationals from certain countries residing in Britain. Russia is still on the list of countries.
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’.

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