History 16/01/20 As the Royal lady-in-waiting Maria Zakrevskaya became a Soviet James bond
In the biography of this woman is difficult to separate truth from fiction. Besides, she liked to think about myself the most incredible stories, and, surprisingly, she believed. A friend of the two great writers of the twentieth century, Maxim Gorky and Hg wells, as well as several politicians and diplomats, Maria Zakrevskaya enjoyed an amazing freedom of movement across the “iron curtain” between the West and the Soviet Union.
In bed with the British resident – the first mission.
In old age Zakrevsky created a legend that she is – a descendant from when Empress Elizabeth of Russia by count Alexei Razumovsky. But even in her youth she had fantasies about himself, though, those fantasies were modest. Maria Zakrevskaya said her great-grandmother was a friend of Pushkin, the wife of Moscow Governor-General Agrafena Zakrevskaya. In fact, as noted by writer Vitaly Woolf, it was nothing more than a coincidence of names.
Maria Ignatyevna Zakrevskaya was born in 1892. She was the youngest child in the family of a prominent lawyer, Senator. In one of the contemporary sources reported that she had received the cipher maid of honor to her Imperial Majesty. Youth she spent mostly abroad, so all my life spoke English (in particular), French and German better than Russian. In 1911 she became the wife of a diplomat, Countess Benkendorf.
a Rich and carefree life was interrupted by the revolution of 1917. Husband, Ivan Aleksandrovich Benkendorf, was killed by peasants in his own estate. Apartment Benckendorff confiscated by Soviet authorities. At this time Zakrevsky broke a whirlwind romance with the English Ambassador to Russia, Robert Bruce Lockhart. But one stormy night (September 1, 1918) the happy couple was arrested by the KGB.
Here begins the first differences of the various versions of Mary’s life ForKrevo. According to Vitaly Woolf, she had nothing to do with intelligence network, which Lockhart was organized in the Soviet Russia. Zakrevsky does not interested the Soviet authorities. After her release, she continued to live in poverty as the representative of the former “exploiting classes”, until she took a job as a Secretary Maxim Gorky.
according to Vitaly Petrov in the magazine “Secret archives” (article “the stormy Petrel of the revolution and a triple spy”), Lockhart used Zakrevsky to meet people and obtain information from them. Lockhart instilled in his beloved Moore (as it is a name) the first skills of spy work. After his arrest, Moore was recruited by Deputy to Dzerzhinsky, Yakov Peters, the Cheka.
And Secretary (as well lover) bitter it was precisely as the informant of the Cheka. In the jargon of people with “clean hands and a warm heart”, it was called “slip mistress”. He had close relationship Zakrevsky and bitter from then until his death in 1936 (though this did not prevent both of them had an affair at the same time with other people). But the cooperation with the bodies of the Cheka, the former lady-in-waiting inspired in the first place, material poverty and hopelessness.
However, all this allows to propose a third version, namely that by Lockhart Zakrevsky could be implemented by the KGB. I wonder what Lockhart was released the next day after the arrest, and immediately began to secure the release panky. The KGB released former times, in three days, but then immediately arrested again Lockhart. It was released on 9 September and personally visit Peters along with Zakrevsky.
the Recruitment of Hg wells
In 1920, the Bolsheviks allowed Zakrevsky to go abroad. The cover for the trip was the marriage of a citizen of Estonia Baron Budberg, whose surname Zakrevsky wore then until the end of life. Moore carried out an extremely important operation for the creation of the Soviet state favorable information background in the world: she fell in love with himself the famous British writer H. G. wells and convinced him to make a trip to Soviet Russia. At the end of this trip, wells wrote a short but famous book “Russia in the shadows” instantly became a bestseller. Popular fiction depict the decline of civilization after the revolution in Russia, however, expressed confidence that the Russian people will overcome this disaster, and drew a vivid, sympathetic portrait of Lenin as an intellectual leader of Russia.
During the trip, wells in Russia, Moore was assigned to him as a translator (in fact, as curator of organs). The relationship that began in London, continued and left a deep trace in the life of an elderly science fiction writer. Wells and Moore were close for many years. Wells repeatedly offered Moore to marry him, but she invariably refused. Wells all my life have continued to Express sympathy for the Soviet Union, once again visiting our country in 1934, and again put on her favorable opinion. He passed away in 1946, he bequeathed his Russian mistress lion’s share of his fortune.
But we should not think that the operation to bring the wells on the side of the Soviet Union was a matter only of the Soviet secret police. Moore in those years, while in Europe, met on several occasions with Lockhart. Later, in the 1950s, she was once arrested on suspicion of having links with open and fled to the USSR agents. But the case against panky hushed. According to the author of the article in the Daily Mail of 21 October 2007, this is indicative of the existence of a special relationship between Zakrevsky-Budberg and British intelligence agencies.
Exclusive heir of bitter and curator of the middle East network of the OGPU
And all these years, Zakrevsky was also next to Bitter. She played a big role in convincing him to finally return to the USSR in 1933. And she then came to him only in 1936, shortly before the death of Alexei Maximovich.
With the Thing connected the mysterious disappearance of the archives of the writer. She definitely brought them in the USSR at the request sovetswho government. The fate of the archives is unknown and still debated. There is a version that the archives were burned. On other assumptions, they are classified as “top secret” in the collections of the Russian President.
whatever it was, Zakrevsky inexplicably received from the Soviet state the exclusive right to royalties from foreign editions of any works of Gorky. This mysterious cosmopolitan person in 1956-1968, he repeatedly visited the USSR, met with officials and dissidents interviewed last.
Another interesting fact: in 1921, in Berlin, Zakrevsky was found with a young, unknown journalist from Lviv native Leopold Weiss. Then began his rapid professional growth. He soon became known in the West, his conversion to Islam, and in 1928 it at the insistence of the British Embassy was expelled from Saudi Arabia as a Soviet agent. After the Second world war Weiss under the name Muhammad Asad represented in the UN, the government of Pakistan.
the truth about double (at least) the life of Maria Zakrevskaya-benckendorff-Budberg still hidden in secret files of the intelligence services of different countries.
Yaroslav Butakov
Source:
© Russian Seven
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