Provincial Party Secretary Nguyen Tiem - An excellent cadre of the Nghe-Tinh Soviet

(Baonghean) -Comrade Nguyen Tiem was born on November 10, 1912 in Ha hamlet, Duong Lieu village, Nam Kim commune, now Nam Trung commune, Nam Dan district. His father was Mr. Nguyen Danh Chinh, a studious and patriotic Confucian scholar. When he was young, he took the exams at Nghe school many times but failed, so he stayed home to farm and raise his children. His mother was Mrs. Vo Thi Tieu, a virtuous woman who spent her days and nights tending to the fields and weaving.



Comrade Nguyen Tiem(1912-1932)

During his youth, Nguyen Tiem studied Chinese characters with his father. When his father ran out of words, at the age of 8 he switched to studying the national language at the village school and then transferred to the French-Vietnamese Dan Primary School. In the summer of 1926, Nguyen Tiem passed the entrance exam to the First Class B of the Vinh National School.

As a patriotic young man, with an early sense of national awareness, in early 1927, when Tan Viet sent people to Vinh National School to establish the Sinh Doan organization to unite and gather young people and students to foster a movement to read progressive books, newspapers, and patriotic literature, Nguyen Tiem enthusiastically joined the secret society and was elected to the Sinh Doan Executive Committee.

In mid-1929, the Indochinese Communist Party (one of the three predecessor organizations of the Party) after being established sent comrades Nguyen Phong Sac and Tran Van Cung to Nghe An to build and develop the Party and mass bases. The Student Union of Vinh National School was changed to Student Association, comrade Nguyen Tiem was elected to the Executive Committee of Vinh National School Student Association.

In late 1929, under the leadership of comrade Nguyen Phong Sac, Secretary of the Central Indochina Communist Party, the Indochina Communist Party cell at Vinh National School was established, comrade Nguyen Tiem was appointed as the cell secretary. Based on the cell as the core, the National School Student Association published the newspaper "Hong Sinh" for internal circulation to propagate Marxism-Leninism, "The Revolutionary Path" of leader Nguyen Ai Quoc, and to encourage the establishment of the Nghe An General Student Association. After the Party's founding on February 3, 1930, the Nghe An General Student Association was established, called the Red General Student Association, and Nguyen Tiem was appointed as the secretary.

The newspaper "Hong Sinh" was changed to "Xich Sinh". Although small in stature, Nguyen Tiem still studied and threw himself into association and party activities. In just a short time, the activities of the communist party cell and the Vinh National Student Association attracted a large number of students to participate. However, Nguyen Tiem's ​​activities were monitored by secret agents. On March 3, 1930, following the order of the Vinh Consul, the school principal decided to expel Nguyen Tiem for participating in a "secret society".

On April 25, 1930, Nguyen Tiem and the Nghe An General Student Association mobilized students to boycott the speech of Nghe An Governor Ho Dac Khai.

In June 1930, comrade Nguyen Tiem was appointed by the Central Region Party Committee as a temporary member of the Nghe An Provincial Party Executive Committee, in charge of propaganda and agitation work. To facilitate his activities, Nguyen Tiem took the alias Quang (later also known as Cat, Nhung), dyed his teeth black, wore brown pants, carried a sedge bag, and, while acting as a silk and tobacco merchant, infiltrated worker hamlets and villages to propagate the building of party bases and mass bases.

Together with the cadres in the Provisional Executive Committee of Nghe An Provincial Party Committee, Nguyen Tiem made an important contribution to implementing the policy of the Central Region Party Committee to organize a revolutionary struggle movement of the masses, starting with the struggle of Vinh-Ben Thuy workers and Hanh Lam farmers (Thanh Chuong, May 1, 1930), then developing into demonstrations and struggles on a district-wide scale in Nam Dan (August 30), in Thanh Chuong (September 1) and culminating in the Thai Lao demonstration (September 20), becoming a revolutionary high point, the Soviet government in the form of the Commune Farmers' Committee and Village Farmers' Committee was established in many villages.

To strengthen the Party's leadership to be able to direct the revolutionary movement to develop and fight against the enemy's fierce repression, in mid-October 1930, Nghe An Provincial Party Committee convened the first Provincial Party Congress in Dong Xuan village, Nam Dan district (now Xuan Tuong commune, Thanh Chuong district). The congress reviewed and evaluated the revolutionary situation in the province, discussed measures to direct the movement, fight against enemy terrorism, and protect the Party base and the masses. The congress elected the first official Executive Committee of the Provincial Party Committee consisting of 7 comrades, with comrade Nguyen Tiem as secretary.

At the age of eighteen, he took on the responsibility of Secretary of the Nghe An Provincial Party Committee, while the enemy, after a period of panic, was now concentrating all its forces on carrying out a fierce "white terror" to sabotage the Party's bases and the mass movement. Nguyen Tiem assigned the Provincial Party Committee members to go directly to the districts to stick with the bases and the movement. The Provincial Party Committee office was divided into many parts, sometimes in Thanh Chuong, sometimes in Yen Thanh, sometimes in Anh Son.

During the fierce days of the revolutionary movement, Nguyen Tiem proposed wise policies such as borrowing rice from rich people to help the poor, building mass organizations such as the Red Peasant Association, the Red Self-Defense Force, the Communist Youth Union, the Women's Liberation... to support the party organizations. In particular, comrade Nguyen Tiem was very interested in propaganda and agitation work. He was directly in charge of the Provincial Party Committee's "Tien Len" newspaper, synthesizing the situation, writing articles, organizing printing, and transporting them to the bases. For the district party committees, he advocated building the district party committee's newspapers into sharp propaganda weapons to encourage the movement, exposing the feudal imperialists. Based on his close relationship with his old friend from the same hometown, Dang Chanh Ky (at that time, comrade Dang Chanh Ky was the Secretary of the Nam Dan District Party Committee, later became a delegate of the Regional Party Committee to direct the movement in Yen Thanh and Dien Chau districts), he composed poems, verses...

Thanks to that, revolutionary press developed throughout the districts: Hung Nguyen had the newspaper "Sanh Nghiep", Nam Dan had the newspaper "Giac Ngo", Thanh Chuong had the newspaper "Nha Que", Anh Son had the newspaper "Guong Vo Lan", Quynh Luu had the newspapers "Tia Sang", "Lao Dong", Nghi Loc had the newspaper "Dan Keu"... The Party's guidelines and policies were transformed into press, poetry, word of mouth, becoming the spiritual food of the masses. Never before had revolutionary press and revolutionary poetry developed as in the years 1930-1931. These were the outstanding contributions of Secretary Nguyen Tiem on the ideological and political front through press, propaganda, the front using culture to build and encourage the movement, educate party members and the revolutionary masses.

At the end of May 1931, the Central Region Party Committee was terrorized by the enemy, many key officials of the Central Region Party Committee such as Nguyen Phong Sac, Nguyen Duc Canh, Le Mao were captured by the enemy, Nguyen Tiem was assigned by the Central Region Party Committee to join the Standing Committee of the Central Region Party Committee in charge of propaganda work. Under the direction of comrade Le Viet Thuat - Secretary of the Central Region Party Committee, together with comrades Nguyen Phuc and Nguyen Loi, they went to the districts and provinces in the Central Region to overcome many difficulties and challenges of the revolutionary recession period, firmly maintaining the leadership and direction of the Party.

Due to overwork and study, and poor diet, Nguyen Tiem suffered from severe lung disease, but he still tried his best to work. When the comrades in the agency found out, his illness was already serious. The comrades in the Regional Party Committee borrowed the house of Ve's mother in Ben Den, next to the Cua Tien River, near where he stayed during his years at Quoc Hoc Vinh to take care of his medicine. The loyal people of the bases, the traditional medicine shops in Vinh and Ve's mother's family took care of him and treated him very devotedly, and his health gradually recovered.

On the night of October 17, 1931, secret police and soldiers came to arrest Nguyen Tiem on his hospital bed. Knowing that he was the Secretary of the Nghe An Provincial Party Committee and the Standing Member of the Central Region Party Committee, although his body was still weak, the chief secret police officer Bi-e directly interrogated him and commanded his henchmen at Vinh prison to use all kinds of torture to make Nguyen Tiem die and come back to life many times over the course of two months, but Nguyen Tiem resolutely refused to confess.

In the political prisoner trial on January 18, 1932, the Southern Court sentenced comrade Nguyen Tiem to death. Right at the trial, many revolutionary soldiers, including French officials who sympathized with the revolution, admired Nguyen Tiem and protested against the verdict, demanding humane treatment for prisoners with serious illnesses. Under pressure from the masses, on June 24, 1932, the Resident of Central Vietnam was forced to make a decision to reduce Nguyen Tiem's ​​sentence to life imprisonment. On July 23, 1932, they exiled him to Lao Bao prison.

Lao Bao Prison (Quang Tri), a place of wild forests and poisonous waters bordering Vietnam and Laos, even healthy people find it difficult to survive the harsh prison regime, and with a sickly and weak body like Nguyen Tiem, it is even more difficult. The enemy locked him in a Casso (a secret cellar) with the intention of slowly killing him. But Nguyen Tiem remained calm and optimistic, still participating in activities in the prison, and when he was healthy, he still composed poems to encourage his fellow prisoners to remain steadfast in their revolutionary spirit.

Due to severe torture during his serious illness, comrade Nguyen Tiem breathed his last at Lao Bao prison on October 11, 1932, at the age of 20.

In recognition of the great contributions and sacrifices of a revolutionary leader, the Party and the State recognized the Memorial House of Comrade Nguyen Tiem in Hamlet 1, Nam Trung Commune, Nam Dan District as a National Historical and Cultural Relic. In Vinh City, there is a street in Doi Cung Ward named after Nguyen Tiem.

Duc Chuyen