The Siberian stage of the life journey of Mao Zedong’s translator Shi Jae

   The article is devoted to an interesting and important episode in the history of Siberia of Soviet-Chinese relations - the Siberian period of the life of the Chinese Shi Jae, who later became Mao Zedong’ personal translator of the Russian language. Nine years of experience in the Soviet secret services in Novosibirsk allowed him to become the chief expert on the Soviet Union in the leadership of the CPC. In recent years, Russian researchers have shown great interest in the personality of Shi Jae, but the Siberian period of his biography remains insufficiently studied. The study is based on office documents from the funds of the Russian State Archive of Socio-Political History (RGASPI) and the State Archive of the Novosibirsk Region (GANO), as well as the memoirs of Shi Jae himself published in China. This Chinese came to Novosibirsk to work for the OGPU in 1929 under the surname Karsky, already having experience of studying and working in different cities of the European part of the Soviet Union. After an unsuccessful attempt to return to China in 1931, he worked in Siberia until 1938, making a good career in the Soviet secret services. In Novosibirsk, Shi Jae married a girl from Achinsk, where his children were born. Working in Siberia, he kept in touch with the Chinese in Moscow and relatives in China, never abandoned his intentions to return to his homeland as soon as possible. Shi Jae was involved in the arbitrariness of the secret services and political repressions against local and interned Chinese, but did not take part in the so-called “Chinese operation” - organized in early 1938, repressions against immigrants from China. At this time, he was dismissed from the internal organs and left for Moscow, and in 1940 he returned to China. Thanks to the experience gained in Siberia, during the key period of the communist struggle for power in China and the construction of the People's Republic of China, Shi Jae became the main translator and expert on the Soviet Union in the CPC Central Committee.

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