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The Mysterious Life and Loves of a Russian Baroness

Russian aristocrat Moura Budberg, lover of a British secret agent and of the great Soviet writer Maxim Gorky, who was herself accused of being a Soviet spy.

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)

9 minutes

Last on

Sun 22 Jun 2014 09:50GMT

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  • Wed 18 Jun 2014 07:50GMT
  • Sun 22 Jun 2014 09:50GMT

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