Profound historical lessons from the Nghe Tinh Soviet climax

Through Party documents, especially the work "Nghe Tinh Soviet" of Nghe An Provincial Party Committee, 4 profound lessons were drawn from the Nghe Tinh Soviet movement as follows:

1 - Resolutely affirm the leadership role of the working class and the Communist Party in the Vietnamese revolution; constantly fight against "leftism" and "rightism" to ensure the working class nature of the Party, making the Party strong politically, ideologically and organizationally; strengthen close ties with the masses, and strive to protect the Party in conditions of secret operations.

Vietnamese historical practice shows that without the leadership of the working class and the Communist Party,patriotic movementIn Vietnam, the labor movement will stagnate and become deadlocked, and at most it will lead to unionism.

Only since the leadership of the working class and its vanguard party has the movement undergone a qualitative change and taken on the characteristics of a new form of revolutionary movement, marking a fundamental shift from spontaneous struggle to conscious struggle. The outstanding feature of the revolutionary climax of 1930-1931, culminating in the Nghe Tinh Soviet, was that the new revolutionary class, the working class, stood at the forefront of the revolution and joined hands with the peasantry.

The revolutionary climax of 1930 - 1931 and the Nghe Tinh Soviets showed that: The party leading the national democratic revolutionary movement must be a new type of party, a Leninist type, thoroughly imbued with the nature of the working class and must have the correct line.

Since its inception, our Party has creatively applied Marxism-Leninism to the specific conditions of Vietnam, clearly stating the combination of the two tasks of fighting imperialism and feudalism, achieving "national independence" and "land for the tillers" and then moving forward to the socialist revolution, skipping the stage of capitalist development. To implement that line, our Party has fought very strongly against the reformist ideology of the bourgeoisie and the narrow national ideology of the petty bourgeoisie. In Nghe-Tinh, the "proletarianization" movement was promoted even before the Party was born to train Party members and strengthen the vanguard and class character of the Communist Party.

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During the revolutionary climax of 1930 - 1931, under the direct leadership of the Central Region Party Committee, the Nghe An and Ha Tinh Party Committees had many initiatives in propaganda and education of Party members such as using forms such as reading books, lecturing newspapers, using folk songs and poems... political training classes. In the fire of revolutionary struggle, the Party Committees matured rapidly.

From February 1930, the entire Party had only 500 members. By October 1930, the number of party members increased to 1,600 and by May 1931 it reached 2,400, of which the number of party members of Nghe An Party Committee was 907, Ha Tinh was 376. (Thus, the number of party members of the two Party Committees of Nghe An and Ha Tinh accounted for 53.5% of the total number of party members nationwide).

Data according to "Nghe-Tinh Soviet" of the Central Party History Research Board, published 1962, page 35.

Soviet practice in Nghe TinhIt proves that most communist party members have clearly demonstrated the vanguard nature of the working class, are extremely loyal to the revolution, have a spirit of heroic struggle, and are indomitable in sacrificing themselves in front of the enemy. When arrested and imprisoned, most party members have shown themselves to be steadfast, determined, resilient, courageous, and optimistic about the revolutionary cause of Vietnam.

Our Party was not only tested and trained in the climax of the mass struggle but also matured in the struggle for self-criticism and criticism to bolshevize the Party. One month after the Nghe Tinh Soviet was established, the first plenary meeting of the Party Central Committee (October 1930) set out the task of bolshevizing the Party as the central step of all Party building work at that time. The Party Central Committee clearly stated the motto and method of criticism and self-criticism within the Party.

The Party Central Committee severely criticized the "leftist" and "rightist" mistakes manifested in the political, ideological and organizational aspects to varying degrees by the Northern, Central and Southern Regional Party Committees.

In particular, regarding the Nghe Tinh Soviet movement, the Party Central Committee promptly issued directives to correct the "leftist" mistakes of the Central Region Party Committee, most clearly manifested in the issue of party purification.

The Central Committee has criticized:"The Central Region Party Committee... issued a directive to purify the Party, writing clearly word by word: eliminate the wealthy and powerful, dig up the roots, so where is the root to dig up, where is the root to uproot, what a vague idea, an arbitrary directive...." (Complete Party Documents, Volume 3, National Political Publishing House, 1999).

The Central Region Party Committee's directive to purify the party had a great impact on the movement at a time when the French imperialists were carrying out brutal terror, and the party committees and revolutionary masses were facing extremely difficult and fierce challenges. Although the localities did not expel party members, the relocation and work infrastructure of most of the party members who were subject to party purification were removed from key positions in the Party Committees and replaced by party members from the poor peasantry, with very low qualifications in the situation of fighting the enemy's white terror at that time, caused no small obstacle and loss to the Nghe Tinh revolutionary movement.

The Central Party Committee's directive to purify the Party revealed a narrow-minded and isolated ideology and immature thinking about the principles of Party building and the perception of the characteristics of our Party. The Party Central Committee also criticized the Central Military Commission for immaturely proposing the "Battle Strategy" in April 1931 and ordered the withdrawal of that directive.

In addition to those shortcomings and mistakes, the Nghe An and Ha Tinh Party Committees also had some shortcomings such as being isolated, narrow-minded, and "leftist" in developing the Red Trade Union, Communist Youth Union, Women's Liberation Association, or not establishing the Anti-Imperialist Alliance...

On the other hand, there are also ambiguous manifestations of class and right-leaning positions such as admitting rich farmers into the Farmers' Association...

From the above mistakes and shortcomings, the Party has drawn useful lessons: It is necessary to constantly struggle for self-criticism and criticism within the Party; to strengthen the cultivation of proletarian ideology, to fight against petty bourgeois ideology expressed in both "leftist" and "rightist" aspects; to strengthen the education of Party members belonging to non-proletarian elements, and at the same time to avoid sectarianism.

Why are Party cadres often exposed? The reason is that when the movement is at its height, in Soviet areas, the distinction between the Party, the Peasant Association and the Soviet is erased. When the movement declines, when the enemy brutally terrorizes, the timid elements temporarily attracted by the movement will be the first to desert. That is why Party cadres are easily exposed, in some cases the entire members of a Party committee fall into the enemy's net.

In the circumstances of our country at that time, there was not a bit of freedom and democracy, the enemy was terrorizing fiercely, in the work of Party building we had to make the Party a party of the masses, having close relations with the masses, but at the same time the Party had to keep it completely secret.

It is necessary to clearly draw a line between the Party and mass organizations in terms of tasks and organization and to establish a broad national united front - that is the only way to ensure that the Party has both a mass character and protects the Party's secrets.

In each Party Committee and each Party cell, we must keep complete secrecy for a number of key comrades, even when the movement is at its peak and even in places where the government is completely ours. For mass organizations, in which many Party members are active, we must also maintain the same principle of secrecy. Party organizations must be absolutely secretive, extremely compact, selecting the most outstanding, resilient people, with experience in counter-terrorism, being extremely alert and strict, and guarding against enemy plots to take advantage of surrendered and traitorous elements to destroy the Party organization.

Maintaining a secret revolutionary organization in the context of white terror by the enemy is a basic condition to ensure the existence and development of the revolutionary movement, to ensure the Party's leadership over the masses, and at the same time to ensure the masses' trust in Party members.

Regarding the relationship between the Party and the masses, the Nghe Tinh Soviet left extremely beautiful impressions. In the fierce trials caused by the enemy's savage terror when the movement was on the decline, in the life-or-death moments, the Party committees and Party members did not abandon the masses. They did not abandon the masses - even when they were not fully aware of their own interests and acted against those interests. They did not abandon the masses and made them feel that they were not abandoned, that they always had the protection and care of the Party, that was the correct attitude of a Marxist-Leninist Party. Once the Party did not abandon the masses, the masses would never leave the Party, no matter how severe the hardships.

That has been proven by the practice of the Nghe Tinh Soviet and is a painful lesson in Party building work.

2 - Mobilize the peasant and worker masses to rise up against imperialism and feudalism, combine revolutionary movements in urban and rural areas, and build a STRONG ALLIANCE OF WORKERS AND FARMERS under the leadership of the Communist Party.

According to Marxism-Leninism, the worker-peasant alliance is the solid foundation and highest principle of the dictatorship of the proletariat.

Marx, Engels, and Lenin learned from the Paris Commune the lesson of worker-peasant alliance. However, that was a lesson from failure, a cause of great loss for the Paris Commune. In his works "Class Struggle in France" and "Civil War in France", Marx analyzed that the reason why the French proletariat at that time could not ally with the French peasants was because the historical development was not yet complete enough to make the peasants lean completely towards the revolution. The French peasantry at that time did not understand or believe that the French proletariat could bring them any benefits. Moreover, in France at that time there was not yet a unified Marxist party leading, but only a few people belonging to the International branch (mostly belonging to the Proudhon faction).

In "Two Strategies of the Social Democratic Party", Lenin also criticized the leaders of the Paris Commune for confusing the bourgeois democratic revolution with the socialist revolution. In the situation of the Paris Commune at that time, the proletariat should have raised the national flag, attracted the middle class, especially the peasants, isolated the reactionaries, and attacked Versailles. Because there was no correct alliance policy, although the Commune wrote many leaflets and distributed them to the countryside, they were all ineffective.

From this, it can be seen that not every class, including the proletariat, that wants to ally with the peasants will immediately have the peasants follow spontaneously. The alliance must have conditions, and the first condition is that the proletariat must be able to ally with the intermediate classes, and secondly, there must be a unified Marxist party leading and having specific policies towards the peasants.

During the revolutionary climax of 1930 - 1931 and the Nghe Tinh Soviet, it was thanks to the Vietnamese proletariat's ability to ally with the peasants, and thanks to our Party's correct policies, responding to the aspirations and interests of the peasants; on the other hand, thanks to the peasants' inherent patriotism and revolutionary spirit, a solid worker-peasant alliance was built.

Imbued with the principle that "the colonial national problem is essentially a peasant problem", right from its inception, our Party has emphasized the peasant problem, organized and led tens of millions of peasants and workers to rise up and fight against imperialism and feudalism. The collusion between imperialism and feudalism is a characteristic of the colonial regime.

Therefore, the contradiction between our nation and the invading imperialists is closely linked to the contradiction between our people and the feudal regime, the basis for imperialist domination and exploitation. Therefore, the task of fighting imperialism and the task of fighting feudalism cannot be separated. The national liberation revolution must necessarily include democratic content. Our country is an agricultural country, with farmers accounting for more than 90% of the population. Imperialism, based on the feudal regime, exploits our people, basically exploits the farmers. Therefore, national liberation is first and foremost the liberation of the farmers.

During the period 1930 - 1931, our Party attacked the weakest link of the feudal colonial government in the countryside, mobilizing millions of farmers to rise up and fight under the hammer and sickle flag of the Communist Party, the vanguard of the working class.

During the Nghe Tinh Soviet movement, the two Party Committees of Nghe An and Ha Tinh knew how to exploit the natural relationship between Vinh - Ben Thuy workers and farmers to mobilize the worker-peasant masses to closely coordinate the struggles right from the beginning of the movement.

In the revolutionary furnace, the worker-peasant alliance became increasingly solid and unshakable. In Nghe-Tinh, two basic types of Party cells, the factory Party cell and the rural Party cell, and two basic mass organizations, the Trade Union and the Farmers' Association, were built simultaneously and one step ahead, forming the basis for the leadership and coordination of the struggle between the workers' movement and the peasants' movement.

In leading the struggle, the two Party Committees had appropriate forms and methods of combination, making the workers' and peasants' movements closely linked together into a unified front under the banner of the vanguard Party of the working class. In each workers' struggle, there were slogans demanding the rights of their own class and slogans demanding the rights of the peasants. Whenever the workers went on strike, the peasants responded; whenever the peasants demonstrated, the workers supported them; workers and peasants relied on and helped each other when they were oppressed by the enemy. In the long workers' strikes, farmers raised money and contributed food to help the workers fight to victory.

In the rural movement, the Party Committees sent capable workers to directly organize and lead the peasant struggle. The workers' movement and the peasant movement were always closely linked together, promoting and supporting each other to develop together, forming the main army of workers and peasants, increasingly large in number and stronger in fighting power. It was a conscious, organized, and self-conscious alliance between the two working classes and peasants under the unified and close leadership of the Central Region Party Committee and the two Party Committees of Nghe An and Ha Tinh. Thanks to the harmonious combination of the workers' and peasants' struggles, the two Party Committees mobilized a large number of people to participate in the struggle, bringing the movement to its peak, leading to the birth of the Nghe Tinh Soviet.

The Soviet government formed in the countryside was the "Peasant Soviet" under the leadership of the Party, the vanguard of the working class. It can be said that the Nghe Tinh Soviet was a product of the alliance under the leadership of the Communist Party.

Besides the great and fundamental achievements mentioned above, in the revolutionary climax of 1930 - 1931 and the Nghe Tinh Soviet, our Party made a number of mistakes and shortcomings such as: Not fully recognizing the unity of the two aspects of nationality and democracy in the national democratic revolution, somewhat underestimating the national factor; therefore, besides workers and peasants, it has not gathered a large number of other classes. In the working class, the Party only paid much attention to the industrial workers, while the agricultural workers (plantation workers) have not received due attention. In combining the two struggles of workers and peasants, the Party Committees had advantages in the early period, but later, when the peasant movement had risen, the leadership of the Party Committees was too biased towards the peasant movement, lacking the close leadership as in the early period of the movement. These are shortcomings in the process of maturity.

3 - In the national democratic revolution, it is necessary to promote the national factor to the highest level, attracting all classes of people to participate.TH NATIONAL FRONTTUBEFIRST against imperialism and feudalism, gain national independence.

The revolutionary climax of 1930 - 1931 and the Nghe Tinh Soviet had a major weakness: they had not yet built a united national front against imperialism. This weakness was deeply rooted in the "leftist" direction of the Communist International from 1927 - 1928, which only emphasized class struggle, neglected the national factor, neglected the broad anti-imperialist front of the entire nation, and considered all landlords, mandarins, and bourgeoisie as enemies of the national liberation revolution.

The Central Region Party Committee, whose core force consisted of comrades who were formerly key leaders of the Indochina Communist Party, directly directed the 1930-1931 revolutionary movement in Nghe Tinh in that direction.

Although since the beginning of February 1930, the Party's Platform and brief strategy outlined by leader Nguyen Ai Quoc were approved at the Party Unification Conference, returning to the spirit of broad national solidarity into a unified national front against French imperialism of the Youth Association's Central Committee in the early period, that correct line had not had enough time for practice to confirm it. On the one hand, the Party's Platform and brief strategy were transferred from abroad to the country under the conditions of that time and it took many months to be transferred to the domestic bases. On the other hand, the inconsistency in the class line of the leadership made it difficult for the spirit of the Party's Platform and brief strategy to be implemented smoothly in the localities.

By the October 1930 Central Conference, a number of strategic issues and correct tactics had been outlined in the Platform, but the brief strategy was denied. At that time, the Nghe Tinh Soviet had been formed, and in reality, when the Political Platform of the Indochinese Communist Party reached Nghe Tinh, the movement had already begun to decline.

In the Nghe Tinh Soviet, a vivid reality took place beyond the direction of the Party Committees. That is, the law of natural development, in reality, the image of a united national front against imperialism had begun to take shape. That was proven in the Directive of the Central Standing Committee on the establishment of the Anti-Imperialist Alliance on November 18, 1930. Obviously, the practice of the Nghe Tinh Soviet was the living material reflected in that directive: "In Central Vietnam, Nghe Tinh had become a red revolutionary high tide, in which the upper classes were divided, there was a group that closely clung to the imperialists and betrayed the nation, acting as gangs and militias to kill the movement. However, not many, but on the contrary, the intellectual classes and some scholars, some middle and small landowners had clear revolutionary tendencies. Through fierce white terror, they still tried to cling to the revolution and secretly supported the revolution, especially the small owners and rich farmers, upper middle farmers. Some poor Confucian scholars also sympathized with the revolution...

In Nghe-Tinh, landlords and rich farmers along with a number of small officials, or rather small scholars in the countryside, were divided and a large number were inclined towards the revolution. They showed their admiration and respect for the Communist Party and the worker-peasant movement. The small bourgeoisie in Nghe-Tinh, such as those doing well in business, were all conscious of revolutionary tendencies" (according to Party Documents, Volume 2 - 1930, National Political Publishing House 1998).

Thus, although the movement was dominated by the "left" tendency, the national element still arose in the Nghe Tinh Soviet movement: "The experience of the Nghe Tinh Soviet, in which the unified national front began to be implemented, although on a small scale and to a limited extent, was also a historical contribution, a significant creation. (Nguyen Khanh Toan - Some lessons about the Nghe Tinh Soviet).

We regret that, if at that time the movement had not been dominated by the "leftist" tendency and there had been a broad national united front formed on the basis of the worker-peasant alliance, attracting all patriotic forces, the achievements of the Nghe Tinh Soviet would certainly have been much greater. The directive of the Party Central Committee Standing Committee on the establishment of the Anti-Imperialist Alliance was issued late, in the difficult conditions of transportation and communication at that time, when the directive reached Nghe Tinh, the Soviet regions were already in a state of decline.

Mass organizations in general in Nghe-Tinh and other places still have only one "red" color: Red Labor Union, Red Farmer's Association, Red Student Association, Red Relief Association, Communist Youth Union... so they cannot attract other classes of people. While implementing policies, there is a lack of differentiation strategies for the upper class. These shortcomings not only limit the depth, breadth and sustainability of the revolutionary movement but also make the newly formed front image quickly collapse, especially when it is fiercely terrorized by the enemy.

4 - Know how to use forms and methodsrevolution appropriate to each specific historical situation.

In order to translate the Party's line into reality, the use of revolutionary forms and methods appropriate to the practical conditions of the movement is a matter of special importance. This is not only a science but also an art.

The practice of the revolutionary climax of 1930 - 1931 and the Nghe Tinh Soviets has clearly shown that distinguishing between the two forms and methods of struggle when there is no revolutionary situation and when there is one is an essential requirement of revolutionary methods in the period of struggle for power.

When there is no revolutionary situation, the most appropriate method is to mobilize the masses to fight for practical rights, depending on the specific situation, to put forward "small part" slogans such as demanding salary increase, shorter working hours, tax reduction, debt deferral... If we use too high forms and methods such as armed uprising, it is "leftist", exposing our forces for the enemy to suppress and destroy. But if we accumulate forces to gather the political masses in a simple organizational way, "organize and then fight", then we cannot train the masses.

When a revolutionary situation arises, the Party must put forth higher slogans such as: arming workers and peasants, seizing power. The most appropriate method of struggle at that time is to use revolutionary violence with mass political forces and armed forces, creating a combined strength to overwhelm the enemy and gain decisive victory.

In the Nghe Tinh Soviet, party committees at all levels from the Regional Party Committee to the grassroots used many vivid, rich, and diverse forms to mobilize the masses to fight.

Just talking about the use of press media, it can be said that Nghe-Tinh was the press center of the whole country in the period of 1930 - 1931. From the Regional Party Committee, Provincial Party Committee, to District Party Committees, there were regular press agencies from the beginning to the end of the movement. In addition to the press, the Soviet regions also used other forms of propaganda such as folk songs, poems, parallel sentences, eulogies... to sensitively reflect the reality of the movement to encourage and motivate the masses to fight.

In the direct confrontation with the enemy, party committees at all levels have put forth very specific and practical slogans for fighting in each place, each time, and appropriate to each social class.

Regarding the form of struggle, the Party committees at all levels have guided and organized the masses to struggle from the lowest forms such as rallies and demonstrations to higher forms such as market strikes, school strikes, and labor strikes. The working class in Nghe-Tinh has taken advantage of their strong form of struggle, which is the strike.

Through the struggles on those anniversaries, the proletarian international spirit among cadres, party members and the masses was enhanced, making the Vietnamese revolution more closely linked with the world revolutionary movement.

The above mentioned flexible forms and methods of struggle in the revolutionary climax of 1930 - 1931 and the Nghe Tinh Soviet contributed to enriching the art of leadership and direction of our Party's revolution in the following historical stages.