@commiearabgirll i was chatting with haideng (soviet rpf enjoyer i met on xhs) and they told me that the chinese translation of sergo beria's book has some significant differences with the english version, including glossing over beria's early education, georgian-russian ethnic tensions, and that one time he scammed people pretending to be a french teacher, but also includes the detail that he went on a hunger strike while in prison and was forcefed via enema by the prison guards 😭
it kinda reminds me of how vasily stalin's memoirs were translated into chinese from the russian and also edited (how much, can't really say, but most of the memoir lines up with artyem's characterization of vasily) and now only exist as a retranslation back into russian
there is also this letter apparently written by sergo beria in the chinese version? skeptical
