(Ecns.cn)--Amid the chaos of the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976)，a remote village in Heilongjiang Province became notorious for the number of "Soviet spies" it supposedly harbored.
78-year-old Xu Weiyi was accused of being one of them, but managed to survive the ordeal. Today he still lives in the "spy village" of Hongjiang, located in Chelu County, Xunke.
Xu is half Chinese but resembles a Russian, with his blue eyes, big nose and whiskers.
His mother was a typical Russian woman who fled to China in the wake of the country's October Revolution in 1917. She never went back, however, and eventually married a Chinese man from Shandong Province.
"I am a capitalist"
Xu, a strong and affectionate man, was a group leader during the Cultural Revolution, and often went hunting in the hills to satisfy his children's appetites.
When he was later arrested under suspicion of espionage, Xu was imprisoned in a cowshed, where he was subjected to various kinds of torture and forced to admit guilt for crimes he had not committed.
Though innocent, Xu finally made up a case against himself, claiming that he was a capitalist.
"On the eighth day (of torture)，I almost attacked the interrogators," recalled Xu. "Seeing that I had gone mad, they got scared and stopped torturing me."
Death of a "Soviet intelligence agent"
Xu's older sister also lives in the village. When speaking of the Cultural Revolution, her mood darkens--her husband, Zhang Yunshan, was persecuted to death in the "Soviet spy" incident.
To his children, Zhang was capable, knowledgeable and easy-going. "We had guests almost every day in our house. Dad usually drank with them while mom prepared food," said Zhang Yufu, Zhang's second son.
Zhang was head of the village militia and responsible for transporting goods for the local supply and marketing cooperatives. Possibly because of this he was among the first to be arrested under suspicion of being a Soviet intelligence agent from 1945 to 1947.
"My father was kept under house arrest. I delivered food to him every day, but was not allowed to see him," said Zhang Yufu.
Zhang's home was searched from top to bottom. "If he were an intelligence agent, shouldn't he have had weapons at home, like guns? So why was nothing found?" Zhang Yufu asked.
Zhang's family was later forced to move into a small, shabby room with only a brick bed.
Finally, one day Zhang could no longer bear the torture and humiliation, and committed suicide by jumping into a well.
