Born and raised in Saint Petersburg in 1894. In a noble family. Her father was a captain, and her mother was a wealthy landowner. When the First World War began, her father Vladimir went to the front and in 1916 died during the Brusilov breakthrough. Maria, having learned about the death of her father, fell into depression and stayed in this state for a couple of months. In 1917, the Bolsheviks overthrew the Provisional Government, and a civil war broke out in Russia.