Background and History When Mao went to Jinggang Mountain in 1927, he left his wife Kaihui, behind in Changsha with three baby sons. In October 1930 the KMT seized her with eight-year-old Anying and put them in prison. Anying was forced to look on as they tortured her and eventually killed her. A few weeks later they released Anying and he went to live with his grandmother. They sent him to Shanghai in 1931. After the KMT roundup of the Communists he became an urchin begging in the street. The Party eventually smuggled Anying to Moscow where he was educated. Mao Zedong returned him to live in Beijing. Relations with his father became edgy and demanding.

Anying and his brother Anqing later studied in the Soviet Union, under the name 'Sergei Yun Fu'. During the Second World War, Anying and his brother Anqing joined the Russian Red Army as a show of international Marxist solidarity. Anying served as an artillery officer in the fight against Nazi Germany.