1. Shortly after Lockhart's release and expulsion from Russia, in connection with the "Ambassadorial Conspiracy" affair, Moura Budberg was released, under the condition that she would co-operate with the intelligence service if the need ever arose.
12 Facts About Moura Budberg
1. 2.
Moura Budberg began to publish "World Literature", where she met the writer Maxim Gorky through Korney Chukovsky.
3.
Moura Budberg became a secretary and common-law wife of Gorky, living in his house with a few interruptions from 1920 to 1933 when the writer lived in Italy before returning to the Soviet Union.
4.
Moura Budberg dedicated his last major work, the novel The Life of Klim Samgin, to her.
5.
In 1920, Budberg met British author H G Wells when he made a celebrated visit to Moscow and they became lovers.
6.
Moura Budberg had asked her to marry him, but Budberg strongly rejected the proposal.
7.
Moura Budberg was widely suspected of being a double agent for both the Soviet Union and British intelligence and has been called the "Mata Hari of Russia", after the famous Dutch exotic dancer and accused spy.
8.
Moura Budberg is known to have visited the Soviet Union at least twice after the 1920s: first in 1936 for the funeral of Gorky and again at the end of 1950, with a daughter of Alexander Guchkov.
9.
Moura Budberg translated Gorky's novel The Life of a Useless Man into English in 1971.
10.
Moura Budberg maintained residences in London at Ennismore Gardens and in Cromwell Road.
11.
Moura Budberg had made her permanent home in England from the time she emigrated there in 1929 until shortly before her death, when she returned to Italy.
12.
Moura Budberg's biography was written by Nina Berberova, who chronicled the emigres.