Zhu Min (Russian language professor)

Zhu Min was born on 18 April 1926 on the outskirts of Moscow in what was then the Soviet Union. Her father Zhu De and her mother He Zhihua (贺治华) had met in Shanghai, then moved to Germany and to Moscow together. Zhu De gave her the milk name Sixun (四旬), Zhu Min later wrote that she could never forgive her birth mother for abandoning her and her father in this way. Zhu did not see her father again for 14 years, until Zhou Enlai and Deng Yingchao urged her to travel to Yan'an to meet him. They were reunited in November 1940. == World War II and the concentration camp ==

In January 1941 Zhu was sent to the Soviet Union to study. Though she was 14 years old, her father registered her as being only 12. She used the alias Chì Yīng (赤英), which her father chose for her. The character 赤 (chì) means "red", as does 朱 (zhū), her real surname, and 英 (yīng) means "hero"; thus her alias meant "Red hero", representing the aspiration Zhu De had for his daughter. She flew to Moscow with the children of other Communist Party leaders, who were accompanied to the airport by Zhu De, Zhu Min's stepmother Kang Keqing, Mao Zedong, and Jiang Qing. Conditions in the camp were terrible: Zhu was forced to eat moldy bread and was frequently beaten. In recognition of her tenacity and endurance in the concentration camp, the Russian government awarded her a medal in 1995 for heroism in the Great Patriotic War. She was one of 18 people from China to be so honored. == Later life and career ==

From 1949 to 1953, Zhu studied at Lenin Teachers' College in Moscow. After Zhu graduated in 1953, she returned to China and began teaching at Beijing Normal University, where she stayed for decades, first in the education department and then in the Russian department. From 1979 to 1980 she assisted the Military Museum of the Chinese People's Revolution in compiling information about revolutionaries, and in 1980 she was temporarily transferred to the research room of the embassy of China in Moscow. She rarely spoke about her time in the concentration camp, even to her family. The memories were too painful. She was cremated at Babaoshan Revolutionary Cemetery in Beijing on 19 April. == Family ==

Zhu Min was Zhu De's only daughter. She had six children, five sons and one daughter: • Zhu Chenghu (朱成虎) (originally Liu Jian 刘建), vice president of the People's Liberation Army antichemical research institute (wife Wang Ling, son Liu Ning) • Liu Kang (刘康), international businessman who traded with Germany • Liu Min (刘敏), French translator == Publications ==

• Remembering My Father Chairman Zhu De (《回忆我的父亲朱德委员长》) • Chairman Zhu De Teaches Us to Make a Revolution (《朱委员长教育我们干革命》) • My Father Zhu De (《我的父亲朱德》) == See also ==