Was Mao popular within the USSR?

by mustaphamondo

I ask because in Andrei Tarkovsky's The Mirror there's what appears to be documentary footage of men (East Asian-looking, for what it's worth) waving Mao's Little Red Book, while being restrained by (white-looking) Soviet soldiers or possibly policemen. I was wondering if anyone had any insight into what this might be about.

bawng

Follow-up question: was there a difference in perception of Mao before and after the Sino-Soviet split?