Moura: The Dangerous Life of the Baroness Budberg

by Nina Berberova, Marian Schwartz (Translator), Richard D. Sylvester (Translator)

Baroness Maria Ignatievna Zakrevskaya Benckendorff Budberg hailed from the Russian aristocracy and lived in the lap of luxury—until the Bolshevik Revolution forced her to live by her wits. Thereafter her existence was a story of connivance and stratagem, a succession of unlikely twists and turns. Intimately involved in the mysterious Lockhart affair, a conspiracy which almost brought down the fledgling Soviet state, mistress to Maxim Gorky and then to H.G. Wells, Moura was a woman of enormous energy, intelligence, and charm whose deepest passion was undoubtedly the mythologization of her own life.

Recognized as one of the great masters of Russian twentieth-century fiction, Nina Berberova here proves again that she is the unsurpassed chronicler of the lives of Soviet émigrés. In Moura Budberg, a woman who shrouded the facts of her life in fiction, Berberova finds the ideal material from which to craft a triumph of literary portraiture, a book as engaging and as full of life and incident as any one of her celebrated novels.

Genres: Russia, Biography, Nonfiction, History, Russian Literature, Memoir, Biography Memoir

360 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1988

About the author

Nina Nikolayevna Berberova was a Russian writer who chronicled the lives of Russian exiles in Paris in her short stories and novels. She visited post-Soviet Russia and died in Philadelphia.

Born in 1901 to an Armenian father and a Russian mother, Nina Berberova was brought up in St Petersburg.[1] She left Russia in 1922 with poet Vladislav Khodasevich (who died in 1939). The couple lived in several European cities before settling in Paris in 1925. There Berberova began publishing short stories for the Russian emigre publications Poslednie Novosti ("The Latest News") and Russkaia Mysl’ ("Russian Thought"). The stories collected in Oblegchenie Uchasti ("The Easing of Fate") and Biiankurskie Prazdniki ("Billancourt Fiestas") were written during this period. She also wrote the first book length biography of composer Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky in 1936, which was controversial for its openness about his homosexuality. In Paris she was part of a circle of poor but distinguished visiting literary Russian exiles which included Anna Akhmatova, Vladimir Nabokov, Boris Pasternak, Tsvetaeva and Mayakovsky.

After living in Paris for 25 years, Berberova emigrated to the United States in 1950 and became an American citizen in 1959. She began her academic career in 1958 when she was hired to teach Russian at Yale. She continued to write while she was teaching, publishing several povesti (long short stories), critical articles and some poetry. She left Yale in 1963 for Princeton, where she taught until her retirement in 1971. In 1991 Berberova moved from Princeton, New Jersey to Philadelphia.

Berberova’s autobiography, which details her early life and years in France, was written in Russian but published first in English as The Italics are Mine (Harcourt, Brace & World, 1969). The Russian edition, Kursiv Moi, was not published until 1983.

Reviews

[Kalliope · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book comes with an Annex of 50 pages listing--with almost ten entries per page-- a brief entry on all the personalities that are mentioned in the text. I think this will give you an idea of the kind of attention and knowledge its reading requires.

It is not an easy read either in the sense that with such a cast and given the highly complex times and settings during which these peripatetic people lived, the author, who presumes a deeper knowledge of the times and people than I have, does not present a very well ordered unfolding of events in terms of chronology – at a time when chronology hugely mattered.

Nonetheless, this was a fascinating read because I came of it with a general sense of the breadth and intricacy of the period and of the puzzling personalities with which this biography engages.

I will focus, then, on just five of these people.



Nina Berberova (1901-1993): the author. We learn little about her in this book; to get to know her better one would have to read her C'est moi qui souligne : Regards d'une passante de notre siècle, which I did years back and thoroughly enjoyed it, and may reread. In this book she mixes her own direct testimonies with other aspects or facts she must have learnt from others. Her time in Europe, first Berlin and then Paris, span of almost thirty years, she emigrated to the US where she taught at Yale and Princeton. About eight years younger than Moura, she gave me the impression of having a mixture of respect for and curiosity about Moura, but that she never really liked her. She does not claim to have been very close to her, but did know relatively well the world in which Moura moved and had very many common friends and acquaintances.



R.H. Bruce Lockhart (1887-1970). I did not know anything about him before but have now ordered his 1932 memoirs Memoirs Of A British Agent: Being An Account Of The Author's Early Life In Many Lands And Of His Official Mission To Moscow In 1918. This Scott who at first seems somewhat of a drop out, managed to find himself an undefined position in the precarious Foreign Office that Britain had in Russia when the 1917 Revolution began. This passage in the book was fascinating because it helps the reader to realize how intricate and insecure had to be the diplomatic efforts of the Western powers with this country that had pulled out of the war, but which was in the midst of perplexing political changes. Lockhart and Moura became lovers. But this remains an elusive story.



HG. Wells (1866-1946). Apart from his The War of the Worlds and that he was an idealist, I knew little else about him. He went to Russia in 1920 to meet Gorky and became a lover of his lover, that is, the considerably younger Moura. But he and Moura remained longtime friends and she looked after him in London when he became very ill at the end of his life.



Maxim Gorky (1868-1936). In spite of the beguiling and slippery personality of Moura, Gorky remains the backbone in this account. This account pays most attention to Gorky’s years in Sorrento, about ten years and starting in 1922, where he went for health reasons, since he suffered from tuberculosis. Earlier he had lived in Capri but in his second Italian stay Mussolini forbid him from settling in the island. He and Moura had met not much earlier when she was first hired as his secretary but soon became his wife de facto. This was another baffling relationship. She chose not to return to the Soviet Union with him but was allowed to go to his funeral. Berberova thinks Gorky was assassinated.



Moura Ignatievna Budberg or Countess Beckendorff or Baroness Budberg (1893-1974) was a sphynx of a lady. Berberova begins her book with: “Who was she? and the best summary will be a quote from the book: In Moscow Moura had once been considered a secret agent of England; in Estonia, a Soviet spy. In France the Russian émigrés thought she was working for Germany, and later, when she lived in England, it was thought she was an agent of Moscow. Peters, who changed his mind about her, wrote in 1924 that she was a German spy who had worked for the Cheka. What Mussolini government suspected we don't know (page 201).

This reading was then both frustrating and enlightening. It has opened a door and issued an invitation to learn further. Apart from Lockhart’s memoirs, I now want to explore some of the works by Gorky.

[Margarita Garova · Rating 4 out of 5]

Всъщност, в книгата не става съвсем дума за тази “Желязна жена”/Мура/руската Мата Хари или както там се е наричала с хилядите си имена Мария Закревска (по баща). И Слава Богу! Защото нейният образ ми беше блед, неясен и безличен. Самата Мура изгражда внимателно легендата за себе си, култивира личния си мит и се доизмисля като аристократка, интелектуалка, завършила Кеймбридж и безценен помощник на велики хора (нито едно от тези неща не е съвсем вярно).

Много по-ценна е тази документална книга с възкресяването на неистовата епоха на Октомврийската революция, Червения терор, сталинските чистки и европейската реакция на всичко това. Ленин, Каменев, Зимовиев, Троцки и останалите дейци на Октомври - погледнати през очите на руска авторка, емигрирала след 1917 г. Много редове, изписани за Горки (излишно, според мен) и за Хърбърт Уелс (не чак толкова излишно). Но най-интересното - образът на Брус Локхарт, английски агент, дипломат и писател (англичаните умеят да съвместяват писателството и шпионажа), авантюрист и най-добър приятел на трагичния Ян Масарик.
Най-силните моменти в книгата - писмото на дипломата Расколников (посланик в София в края на 30те), в което разобличава Сталин с най-точните и силни думи на света, и писмото на Хърбърт Уелс до бедстващия Джеймс Джойс, епитом на толерантността и правото на този с различно от твоето мнение да съществува, твори и получава признание.
И макар че е леко обременяваща с хиляди имена, действащи лица, бивши съпруги, заварени деца, руски емигранти, не съжалявам, че я прочетох.

[Marina the Reader · Rating 3 out of 5]

Learned a lot! Well documented. Well written. Got a glimpse into the terrifying world of the Soviet Power as it was flexing its tentacles abroad. The close, almost promiscuous mingling of the emigre world with the world of those that had remained behind. The travels to and from USSR: Gorky, Babel, Pasternak, Mayakovsky, Bukharin, Ehrenburg. The suspicions attached to everyone, the impossibility of knowing the truth, the endless and complicated possibilities of betrayal. Shudder…

And, from one reference to another, I found another book on Moura - A very dangerous woman, by Deborah Mcdonald.

A few days later: revising my rating from 4 to 3 stars. The book was extremely informative, but very cold. The author says she attempted to be impartial on purpose, but still - there was absolutely no heart in the rendering of Moura’s and Berberova’s own tragic era.

[Yooperprof · Rating 2 out of 5]

Fascinating life, but poorly executed biography. Baroness Budberg was a survivor of the Russian Revolution and an enchanting woman who was successively the mistress/companion of Robert Bruce Lockhart, Maxim Gorky and H.G. Wells. Nina Berberova knew Moura personally, as well as most of the main personages of Russian emigre life, but this book presumes such a wide knowledge of 20th century literature and politics that most readers will be left rather in the dark about several key events and individuals.

There's a great book to be written about this interesting muse and lover, but this isn't it.

[Daria · Rating 5 out of 5]

Муреночек, конечно, персонаж. Отлично для понимания политической конъюнктуры 20х-30х годов и что там за люди были интересные. Два брата-акробата Горький и Уэллс тоже хороши сил нет.

[Patrick · Rating 3 out of 5]

Moura Zakrevskaya Benckendorff Budberg was, foremost, a survivor, twice married into the aristocracy - neither time for love - and mistress to Robert Bruce Lockhart, Maxim Gorky, and H.G. Wells, as well as a translator, screenwriter, and fabulist when it came to her own life. Apparently most of Moura's papers were burned in a house fire later in her life, so Nina Berberova doesn't have that much to go on here besides here own recollections when they lived together in Gorky's household in the mid-20s. Instead, this book is a reflection of Moura in her relation to the three literary men in her life. How she really felt, what she believed, what she really wanted - these things are as elusive for the author as they are for us. Still, it's a worthwhile read if you have an interest in any of these writers, or in the Russian Revolution and its aftermath in the lives of emigres.

[Ekaterina Okuneva · Rating 3 out of 5]

Все очень странно, по большому счету книга про Локкарта, Горького и Уэллса, которым Закревская была фактической женой в разное время, а про официальных ее мужей при этом почти ничего. А в промежутках истории, кем она не была и что с ней не происходило, вопреки тому, что она сама о себе насочиняла. Не баронесса, не графиня, не переводчица, не писательница, зато хороший самопиар.
Повтор на повторе, все-таки маловато материала на книгу, пришлось ходить кругами.

[Nicole · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting less as a biography of Moura than as first-hand sketches of Gorky and Wells, and of Berberova herself.

[AiK · Rating 4 out of 5]

Признаюсь, до этой книги я не имела понятия, кто такая Мария (Мура) Закревская-Бенкендорф-Будберг. Хотя книга посвящена ей, в первых трех четвертях книги она появляется эпизодически, что наводит на мысль, что сама Нина Берберова знала ее довольно шапочно, не была посвящена в ее тайны, внутренний мир. Мура была авантюрной, но не авантюристкой. У нее все всегда было на грани. Она умела влюблять в себя успешных мужчин, и при этом не терять самой голову. Берберова, очевидно, изучила огромное количество материалов и воспоминаний Муриных любовников – Брюса Локкарта, Максима Горького, Герберта Уэллса, и можно было бы даже подумать, что более точным названием было бы «Мужчины Железной женщины». Надо отдать должное автору, что она привела много интересных биографических и исторических фактов, особенно мне были интересны детали жизни Горького и я не знала, что его отравили, как и его сына Максима. Берберова набросала штрихи к портрету той эпохи. К примеру, для меня было новостью, что в страшные репрессивные 1930-е находились люди, открыто писавшие Сталину о его деспотизме и узурпации власти. Таким человеком был Федор Раскольников, дипломат-невозвращенец.
Хотя Берберова пытается выглядеть объективной и основываться на документальных источниках, что касается личной характеристики своей героини, она рисует ее сексуальную свободу со скрываемым, но высокомерным осуждением. Да. Мура спала со знаменитыми мужчинами. Но это они в нее влюблялись, она лишь пыталась выжить в то ужасное время и в том ужасном месте – послереволюционной России, терзаемой гражданской войной и голодом. Когда Горький вернулся в СССР, она предпочла не возвращаться. Ее нельзя назвать содержанкой, она была практична и умна, она умела строить отношения и быть полезной. Ее обвиняли в шпионаже, причем сразу для разведок трех стран. Возможно, что данные о деятельности Локкарта действительно в первые годы после революции имели огромную ценность для ВЧК, но информация о Горьком или Уэллсе явно значительно менее ценны. На мой взгляд, личность Закревской настолько мала, что не заслуживает отдельной биографии. Она лишь обрамление к неполным биографическим наброскам о Локкарте, Горьком, Уэллсе.

[Nataša Milić · Rating 4 out of 5]

Biografija jedne tajanstvene žene koja je u velikoj meri ostala tajna i za svog biografa. Nećete saznati da li je Mura bila sovjetska Mata Hari, britanski ili ko zna još čiji agent. Nećete dobiti dokaze da je učestvovala u aferi preprodaje zlata belih Rusa u Talinu. Nema neposrednog uvida niti golicavih priča vezanih za njene veze sa Gorkim i Velsom (a i još nekim relativno značajnim momcima). Ne ostaje razjašnjeno kako je preživela i poživela do duboke starosti. Da li je moguće da je Staljin nekom ''oprostio''?! Za uništavanje građe pobginula se upravo glavna junakinja koja je zapalila vlastitu arhivu - tako je u samoj knjizi napisano.
Ipak, Nina Berberova je ono malo informacija koje su joj bile dostupne vešto plasirala u niz poetskih slika, koristeći obilato lično iskustvo i poznanstva sa mnogim bitnim akterima jednog uzbudljivog vremena.
Uživala sam u čitanju, vraćala se na određene lepo napisane delove.
Ako zanemarimo okolnost da se ova knjiga predstavlja kao biografsko delo, mogla bi se smatrati - ne vrlo dobrom - nego odličnom.

[Derek · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wonderful to write a biography of an important Russian emigre by an even more important Russian emigre.

[Margarita · Rating 1 out of 5]

I thought this book will be about Moura, but it was mostly about Gorkii

[Lou]

This is one of five spy novels from the WSJ list. I am taking a break from this book....I am looking at it again...

[Janet · Rating 3 out of 5]

Again, the shaping aspect of good fiction is what's missing

[Marina]

Adorable reading: vivid, fascinating, clever.