Abstract: The documents published below are preserved in the former Institute of Marxism-Leninism Central Party Archives in Moscow recently renamed Russian State Archives of Social and Political History. They are locked in the fifteen-volume Mao Zedong personal dossier collected by the Comintern and Soviet Communist Party officials (collection 495, depository 225, file 71). Even today public access to them is highly restricted. These documents deal with Mao Zedong’s first visit to Moscow in December 1949 – February 1950. They demonstrate that Stalin paid an enormous amount of attention to Mao as the new leader of China whom he did not know personally. He wanted to know everything about him: his political views, his attitude to the Soviet Union and Stalin himself, and even the condition of his health. The information he received was overall positive. Mao seemed to be healthy and loyal to Stalin, and he appeared likely to remain a close partner for a long time. Stalin had to take this into account.