The 'rearranging the country' campaign before the 1986 Renovation Congress

More than 30 years ago, 60 provinces and cities across the country were merged into 29 with the expectation of becoming 'economic fortresses'.

Professor Dao Xuan Sam (former lecturer at Nguyen Ai Quoc School, now Ho Chi Minh National Academy of Politics), who was a member of the advisory team of General Secretary Truong Chinh, described the Vietnamese economy before 1986 as a house built according to theCentral planning model.

"This is the blueprint"It was implemented in most socialist countries at that time; in the North of our country since the 60s and then applied nationwide after 1975," he recalled.

Rice threshing machines are distributed to cooperative members in Ha Bac (old). Photo: VNA.

According to Professor Sam, when the country was unified, there were voices considering applying the "blueprint" to the South due to its unique characteristics - where the seeds of a market economy had been planted many years before. But at this time, the belief that "victory in a fierce war can lead to victory in building a socialist economy" had become mainstream.

In the house above, all production and business activities are mainly planned and standardized at the central and local levels, through the State Planning Commission system. And the only door of the house is almost only opened toCouncil for Mutual Economic Assistance (SEV), an economic cooperation organization among socialist countries that Vietnam joined in 1978.

Rearrange the country

Economic historian Dang Phong spent 15 years of his life searching for documents and conducting research on the "house" of centralized planning. According to him, the basic viewpoint established in 1976 was "socialist large-scale production".

This means transforming all non-socialist elements into state-owned and collective enterprises, and at the same time transforming the industrial and commercial bourgeoisie and individual peasant agriculture. In industry and commerce, state-owned enterprises will be the mainstay. In agriculture, state-owned farms and high-level cooperatives will be the core.

There are many different types of food vouchers. According to regulations, this B voucher is for deputy ministers. Photo: Tien Dung.

In particular, to build a large-scale socialist production, it is not only necessary to reform economic components, but alsorearrange the country. Districts will be the basic level, like basic economic units, and if so, the old provinces will become too small and have to be merged. At this time, more than 60 provinces and cities nationwide will be merged into 29 with the expectation of becoming "economic fortresses" with large-scale production.

In Nghe Tinh, Quynh Luu district abolished all old villages, cut down hundred-year-old fruit gardens, farmers moved to high hills to convert residential land into rice fields, forming thousands of hectares of fields for tractors to operate. Hanoi expanded to the West to Ba Vi to raise dairy cows, providing milk for the elderly and children in the capital...

According to the Documents of the 6th Congress, the way of socialist reform at that time "was often in the form of a campaign". During the campaign to reform the industry and commerce of the South, many merchants were brought from the cities to the new economic zones to reclaim land and organize production. Private enterprises were converted into joint-stock companies, private wholesale trade was completely eliminated... Only street vendors and small services such as car repair and hair cutting still existed.

In agricultural reform, many southern provinces carried out collectivization in a command-style manner, forcing farmers into production groups or cooperatives, even though they had previously been accustomed to production and living according to market mechanisms.

Hanoi in the 1980s, the main means of transportation were bicycles and trams. Photo: Michel Blanchard.

Crisis

Mr. Vu Oanh, former member of the Politburo, recounted in his memoirs: In the mid-1980s, the socio-economic situation continued to be extremely difficult. The economic crisis arose in the late 1970s, due to excessive bourgeois reform in the South, due to the nearly 10-year-long war on the Southwest and Northern borders, and became even more severe when the currency exchange incident occurred in 1985.

The ban on markets and rivers has made the shortage of food and consumer goods more serious. Mr. Vu Oanh often receives many troubling stories from officials on business trips and from people in his hometown. His old mother brought 5-10 kg of rice to visit her son in another province, but when she reached the provincial border, it was confiscated. She cried and begged but to no avail.

At rural markets, when the market management team wearing red armbands comes to confiscate pork illegally butchered for sale, the people around protect the pork sellers and do not support the state market management team. Ironically, because when the pigs are slaughtered for sale by private individuals, the price of pork is cheap and affordable for the people, but when the meat is confiscated, the price skyrockets, making it impossible for ordinary people to buy. Meanwhile, the state only distributes low-priced meat coupons to officials, workers and employees (the actual quantity is very small, about 0.3-0.5 kg/person/month) and to people in the city (0.1 kg/person/month).

The famine of consumer goods lasted for a long time, there was a shortage of even needles and threads, a shortage of every grain of salt, and prices increased sharply.

Many people who saved money in savings fell into dire straits because the currency lost a lot of value compared to before the currency exchange. Some people sold a cow to get the money to save, but after the currency exchange they could only buy a few chickens.

The whole country struggles to make ends meet.

In 1980, instead of expecting a food surplus of 21 million tons, Vietnam had to import the most food in history: 1.57 million tons. During the period 1976-1980, Vietnam's annual GDP growth rate was only 1.4%, even -1 in 1980, national income growth was only 0.4%.

Refilling ballpoint pen ink - a job that only existed during the subsidy period. Photo: Documentary.

All those difficulties and congestions affected the lives of all classes of people. "A hundred things are divided", "a sad face as if losing the rice book" were popular sayings at that time. The rice book became a more valuable asset than gold, any family that lost it would go hungry for a month.

"The standard of 13 kg of rice per month dropped to less than 5 kg. There was a time when rice ran out, so the trading stores gave out bread or flour for people to take home to boil or steam. Most of the aid rice that arrived in Hanoi was moldy and lumpy," said Ms. Pham Thi Minh Tam (Hoan Kiem), who used to be a food trader.

Struggling with the hardships of the subsidy period, people came up with all kinds of ways to improve their lives: Civil servants raised pigs in collective housing areas and high-rise buildings; teachers created side jobs such as removing bicycle tires, refilling ballpoint pen ink, and turning up shirt collars...

Soldiers returning from the war also plunged into the vortex of making a living, entering the folk song of the time: At the beginning of the street, the colonel pumps the tire/ In the middle of the street, the lieutenant colonel sells black bean tea/ The lieutenant colonel sells ice cream/ The major is busy playing the trumpet at funerals...

The risk of prolonged food shortages and other extreme difficulties have led to "barrier-breaking" in agriculture, trade, food price decisions and business operations, which has helped improve the situation in some localities, gradually breaking the "golden ring" of production.

In the winter of 1986, exactly 30 years ago, the 6th Congress took place in Hanoi with the spirit of "looking straight at the truth, correctly assessing the truth, clearly stating the truth", deciding to change the strategic direction: Innovation!

According to VnExpress.net