Moura Budberg | |
---|---|
Born | Maria Ignatievna Zakrevskaya (Мария Игнатьевна Закревская) February 1892 |
Died | 1 November 1974 | (aged 82)
Nationality | Russian Empire |
Occupation(s) | secretary, screenwriter |
Spouses | Ivan Alexandrovich, Count von Benckendorff
(m. 1911; died 1919) |
Partner(s) | R. H. Bruce Lockhart Maxim Gorky H. G. Wells |
Children | 2 |
Father | Ignaty Platonovich Zakrevsky |
Maria Ignatievna von Budberg-Bönninghausen (Russian: Мария (Мура) Игнатьевна Закревская-Бенкендорф-Будберг, Maria (Moura) Ignatievna Zakrevskaya-Benckendorff-Budberg, née Zakrevskaya; February 1892 – 1 November 1974), also known as Countess von Benckendorff and Baroness von Budberg, was a Russian adventuress and suspected double agent of the Soviet Union secret police (OGPU) and the British Intelligence Service.[1]
According to the British journalist Robin Bruce Lockhart, who knew her personally, "she was, perhaps, the Soviet Union's most effective agent-of-influence ever to appear on London's political and intellectual stage".[2]