Editing Puyi (section)

=== Soviet imprisonment and trial ===
[[File:Soviet Union Military Officer and Puyi.JPG|thumb|Puyi (right) and a Soviet military officer]]

The Soviets took Puyi to the [[Siberia]]n town of [[Chita, Zabaykalsky Krai|Chita]]. He lived in a [[sanatorium]], then later in [[Khabarovsk]] near the [[China–Russia border|Chinese border]], where he was treated well and allowed to keep some of his servants. As a prisoner, Puyi spent his days praying and expected the prisoners to treat him as an emperor and slapped the faces of his servants when they displeased him.{{sfnp|Behr|1987|p=271}}

He knew about the [[Chinese Civil War|civil war in China]] from Chinese-language broadcasts on [[Radio Moscow]], but seemed not to care.{{sfnp|Behr|1987|p=271}} The Soviet government refused the Republic of China's repeated requests to extradite Puyi; the [[Kuomintang]] government had indicted him on charges of high treason, and the Soviet refusal to extradite him almost certainly saved his life, as Chiang Kai-shek had often spoken of his desire to have Puyi shot.{{sfnp|Behr|1987|p=279}} The Kuomintang captured Puyi's cousin [[Yoshiko Kawashima|Dongzhen]] and publicly executed her in Beijing in 1948 after she was convicted of high treason.{{sfnp|Behr|1987|p=197}} Not wishing to return to China, Puyi wrote to Stalin several times asking for asylum in the Soviet Union, and that he be given one of the former tsarist palaces to live out his days.{{sfnp|Behr|1987|pp=281–282}}

In 1946, Puyi testified at the [[International Military Tribunal for the Far East]] in Tokyo,<ref name="Former Manchurian Puppet">{{cite news |title=Former Manchurian Puppet |newspaper=The Miami News |date=16 August 1946}}</ref> detailing his resentment at how he had been treated by the Japanese. At the Tokyo trial, he had a long exchange with defence counsel Major [[Ben Bruce Blakeney]] about whether he had been kidnapped in 1931, in which Puyi perjured himself by saying that the statements in Johnston's 1934 book ''[[Twilight in the Forbidden City]]'' about how he had willingly become Emperor of Manchukuo were all lies. When Blakeney mentioned that the introduction to the book described how Puyi had told Johnston that he had willingly gone to Manchuria in 1931, Puyi denied being in contact with Johnston in 1931, and that Johnston made things up for "commercial advantage".{{sfnp|Behr|1987|pp=274–276}}

Puyi had a strong interest in minimising his own role in history, because any admission of active control would have led to his execution. The Australian judge [[William Webb (judge)|Sir William Webb]], the President of the Tribunal, was often frustrated with Puyi's testimony, and chided him numerous times. Behr described Puyi on the stand as a "consistent, self-assured liar, prepared to go to any lengths to save his skin", and as a combative witness more than able to hold his own against the defence lawyers. Since no one at the trial but Blakeney had actually read ''Twilight in the Forbidden City'' or the interviews Woodhead had conducted with him in 1932, Puyi had room to distort what had been written about him or said by him. Puyi greatly respected Johnston, who was a surrogate father to him, and felt guilty about portraying him as a dishonest man.{{sfnp|Behr|1987|pp=274–281}}

[[File:溥仪写给斯大林的信.jpg|thumb|right|upright=1|Puyi's letters to [[Joseph Stalin]]]]

After his return to the Soviet Union, Puyi was held at Detention Center No. 45, where his servants continued to make his bed, dress him and do other work for him. Puyi did not speak Russian and had limited contacts with his Soviet guards, using a few Manchukuo prisoners as translators. One prisoner told Puyi that the Soviets would keep him in Siberia forever because "this is the part of the world you come from". The Soviets had promised the Chinese Communists that they would hand over the high value prisoners when the CCP won the civil war, and wanted to keep Puyi alive. Puyi's brother-in-law Rong Qi and some of his servants were not considered high value, and were sent to work at a Siberian rehabilitation camp.{{sfnp|Behr|1987|pp=280–282}}