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The Mysterious Life and Loves of a Russian Baroness

The Mysterious Life and Loves of a Russian Baroness

Russian aristocrat Moura Budberg lived through turbulent times. But was she a Soviet spy?

Witness History: Archive 2014 · BBC World Service

June 18, 20148m 53s

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Show Notes

Among the mourners at the funeral of the great Soviet writer, Maxim Gorky, in 1936 was a mysterious baroness. Moura Budberg had been Gorky's lover and, before that, the lover of a British secret agent who'd been thrown into a Soviet jail. Her extraordinary life led some to call her the Russian Mata Hari. But was she really a spy?

(Photo: Baroness Moura Budberg. Credit: Hulton Archive/Getty Images)