Mao Zedong’s eldest son, who fought Germany in the Soviet army and was killed in the Korean War
The eldest son of Mao Zedong and Yang Kaihui, he was born in Changsha. After his mother was executed by the Kuomintang in 1930 he fled to Shanghai, where support for the underground kindergarten dried up and he ended up on the streets. Taken to Moscow in 1936, he grew up at the Interdom, joined the Red Army, graduated from the Frunze Military Academy and the Lenin Military-Political Academy and fought in Poland, Czechoslovakia and the Battle of Berlin as a deputy political officer with a tank unit of the 1st Belorussian Front. Returning to Yan’an in 1946 he served under Kang Sheng, and after 1949 was a secretary and translator in the party’s Central Social Affairs Department. Volunteering for the People’s Volunteers in 1950, he became Peng Dehuai’s secretary and Russian interpreter, and was killed on 25 November when US B-26s dropped napalm on the Volunteers’ headquarters.
Also known as: Sergei Yun Fu
Activities and affiliations
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1943–1945
Soviet Union state institutionsDeputy political officer, tank unit, 1st Belorussian Front
Military command -
1949–1950
People’s Republic of China state institutionsSecretary and translator, Central Social Affairs Department
Security, intelligence and policing -
1950
People’s Republic of China state institutionsSecretary and interpreter, PVA headquartersMain
Military command
Career Timeline
- 1930Fled to Shanghai after his mother Yang Kaihui was executed
- 1936Taken to Moscow; Interdom
- 1943Graduated from the Frunze Military Academy; Red Army service
- 1945Fought at Berlin and in the Soviet war against Japan
- 1946Returned to Yan’an
- 1949Married Liu Siqi at Zhongnanhai
- 1950Secretary at PVA headquarters; killed on 25 November