On September 1, 1939, World War II broke out with the Nazi attack on Poland. In June 1940, France was occupied by Nazi Germany, and the reactionary Petain government came to power. In Indochina, the French colonialists brutally attacked the communists, dissolved political organizations, and closed progressive newspapers; thousands of members of the Indochinese Communist Party were arrested; democratic rights and minimum freedoms were eliminated; taking advantage of that opportunity, the reactionary colonial forces had a chance to raise their heads. On September 22, 1940, the Japanese army crossed the Vietnam-China border, occupied Lang Son, bombed Hai Phong, and landed in Do Son. The French government in Vietnam quickly surrendered. On January 28, 1941, leader Nguyen Ai Quoc returned to the country to directly lead the Vietnamese revolution. In mid-May 1941, he convened and chaired the 8th Central Conference in Pac Bo (Cao Bang). The conference affirmed the correct policy of the 6th Central Conference and the 7th Central Conference and stated: The contradiction that requires urgent resolution at this time is the contradiction between our nation and the Japanese and French imperialists and fascists; determined that "The Indochina revolution in the current period is a national liberation revolution".
In June 1941, Germany attacked the Soviet Union. In Asia-Pacific, Japanese fascists expanded their invasion of China. On July 23, 1941, Japan and France signed the Indochina Mutual Defense Treaty, forcing France to provide food, arrange barracks, and ensure a safe rear for Japan. In order to carry out their plot to dominate Indochina for a long time, Japanese fascists sought to build up their forces to establish a puppet government to replace and eliminate the French colonial apparatus.
Entering 1943, the world and domestic situation had many changes. The victory of the Soviet Red Army created a new situation of World War II. Domestically, the Party organization and the Viet Minh Front had taken root among the masses and were creating new impulses for the revolutionary movement. Faced with the rapidly changing situation, in the condition that it was impossible to convene a Central Conference, the Party Central Committee Standing Committee met from February 25 to 28, 1943 to discuss the expansion of the National United Front and promote preparations for an armed uprising. The conference advocated further expansion of the National United Front against Japanese and French fascism (Viet Minh Front); advocated alliances with all parties and patriotic groups at home and abroad that had not joined the Viet Minh; decided to establish the National Salvation Cultural Association.(1).
Based on the world and domestic situation, clearly realizing the opportunity to overthrow the fascist-colonial regime of France, Japan and their lackeys, to establish a democratic and republican regime was approaching, in many important and urgent tasks that needed to be prepared and carried out, our Party, Leader Nguyen Ai Quoc, General Secretary Truong Chinh clearly recognized the role and great and important contribution of culture. Because revolution is culture, culture is revolution, is to radically reform the colonial-feudal regime into a democratic and republican regime, to eliminate the policy of keeping people ignorant and enslaved by the fascist and colonialist cliques, the wrong ideological and cultural tendencies, to build a new culture, a new class of people of the new regime. In the context and burning issues of the country, especially in the field of ideology and culture, General Secretary Truong Chinh started to draft the Outline of Vietnamese culture. The cultural outline, though only at the level of “outline”, clearly pointed out the danger of Vietnamese culture under the yoke of Japanese and French fascist domination; analyzed the relationship between political revolution and cultural revolution; affirmed the Party’s leadership role in the cultural revolution. The cultural outline outlined the correct direction of struggle against colonialism, fascism and its lackeys, built a new cultural line of the Party, gathered culturalists, intellectuals, artists to participate in the cause of national liberation.
For the first time, the Indochinese Communist Party issued a document that was like a cultural platform; determining the content, nature, organization, and development orientation of a cultural revolution that could only be linked to the national liberation revolution and the future of that culture after the revolution had succeeded.
The content of the Vietnamese Cultural Outline has 5 main issues: (I) How to pose the problem; (II) History and nature of Vietnamese culture; (III) Dangers of Vietnamese culture under Japanese and French fascism; (IV) Problems of Vietnamese revolution and culture; (V) Urgent tasks of Indochinese Marxist culturalists and especially Vietnamese Marxist culturalists. The Vietnamese Cultural Outline, right from its inception, affirmed the thinking, vision, intelligence, and mettle of our Party on revolution and culture; like a beacon illuminating the path for communists and all people to see the path they are on and will take; motivating, awakening, guiding intellectuals, artists, those who are deeply devoted to the country, devoting themselves to the Indochinese Communist Party to save the country and save the people, enthusiastically participating in the cultural and ideological front; not pessimistic, wavering, not lulled to sleep by the false and deceitful arguments and theories of the fascist-colonial-feudal regime, of Trotsky. Regarding the "Attitude of the Indochinese Communist Party towards the cultural issue", the Outline affirmed: "Vietnamese national culture will be freed from its shackles by the victorious democratic liberation revolution and will catch up with the world's new democratic culture"(3).
On the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the Cultural Outline (1943 - 1983), General Secretary Truong Chinh said: "Because of the secret operation situation, the Central Committee did not have enough conditions to deeply research issues related to the Vietnamese cultural revolution... But the Cultural Outline captured the basic issues of Vietnamese culture under the light of Marxism - Leninism, in the conditions of Vietnam at that time"(4).
The August Revolution of 1945 was successful. In the first meeting of the Government Council (September 3, 1945), President Ho Chi Minh raised 6 urgent tasks of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, including 2 urgent cultural tasks: "First, along with eliminating hunger, we must eliminate illiteracy. Second, we must educate the people spiritually."(5)In early 1946, the Central Committee for the New Life Movement was established with the participation of many prestigious figures among intellectuals and artists such as Tran Huy Lieu, Duong Duc Hien, Vu Dinh Hoe, and Nguyen Huy Tuong.
The cultural resistance line gradually took shape in the Directive "Resistance and National Construction" issued on November 25, 1945 by the Central Party Standing Committee; clearly shown in the letter on "The mission of Vietnamese culture in the current cause of national salvation and construction" by comrade Truong Chinh sent to President Ho Chi Minh on November 16, 1946.
In a situation where the country was hanging by a thread, the whole nation had to concentrate its efforts to fight against hunger, ignorance, and foreign invaders. Under the direction of President Ho Chi Minh, the first National Cultural Conference opened on November 24, 1946 at the Hanoi Opera House, with more than 200 delegates from all over the country attending. In his opening speech, President Ho Chi Minh affirmed: "The new culture of the country takes the happiness of the people and the nation as the foundation." From the way of posing the question "What is good in the West or the East, we learn to create a Vietnamese culture, cultivate Vietnamese culture with a pure Vietnamese spirit to match the democratic spirit", Ho Chi Minh emphasized: "Culture is closely related to politics. We must find a way to let culture penetrate deeply into the national psychology, that is, culture must correct corruption, laziness, vanity, luxury. Our psychology also wants to take freedom and independence as the root. Culture must make everyone have the ideal of self-reliance, independence, and freedom. At the same time, we must find a way to make the national spirit of forgetting oneself for the country, for the common good and forgetting one's own interests"... He affirmed a truth: "Culture must light the way for the nation to go. Culture leads the nation to realize independence, self-reliance and self-reliance"(6).
In March 1947, President Ho Chi Minh wrote the document “New Life” which explained in an easy-to-understand way the practical issues in the cultural guidelines and policies of our Party and State. From July 16 to 20, 1948, in Viet Bac, our Party and President Ho Chi Minh directed the organization of the second National Cultural Conference. In a letter to the delegates attending the Conference, President Ho Chi Minh emphasized: “In the great resistance and nation-building cause of our nation, Culture plays a very important role. Since the founding of the democratic government, our culturalists have tried and have achieved success. However, from now on, we need to build a culture of resistance and nation-building for all people.”(7).
On July 18, 1948, on behalf of our Party, General Secretary Truong Chinh presented an important report at the Conference entitled “Marxism and Vietnamese Culture”. The report systematized, concretized and developed the viewpoints, principles and mottos of the Party’s 1943 Cultural Outline, which had value as the Party’s Cultural Platform during the period of resistance and nation building.
The report emphasized six main tasks of culture: (1) Determine the relationship between culture and national liberation revolution, promote national salvation culture; (2) Build a new Vietnamese democratic culture with national, scientific, and popular characteristics, with the practical slogan at this time being nation and democracy; (3) Actively eliminate illiteracy, open universities and high schools, reform education in a new spirit, eliminate brainwashing teaching methods; (4) Re-educate the people, promote the practice of a new life; (5) Develop the good in national culture, while eliminating the bad and corrupt, prevent the infiltration of colonial and reactionary cultural remnants, learn the good and good of world culture; (6) Form a new team of intellectuals to actively contribute to the resistance war and national construction and to the Vietnamese revolution.
Three days after the second National Cultural Conference, the National Arts Conference was held from July 23 to 25, 1948, with the participation of more than 80 artists from all resistance paths across the country. At this important event, the Vietnam Arts Association was established, a successful continuation of the National Salvation Culture Association established in 1943. The Association's leaders and Executive Committee were introduced, with the participation of comrade Truong Chinh, General Secretary of the Party, Head of the Central Propaganda Department; comrade To Huu was assigned by the Central Committee to directly organize and direct the arts work. President Ho Chi Minh always had strategic guidelines on cultural and artistic policies: “Letter to the cultural and intellectual brothers of the South” (May 25, 1947), “Letter to the Second National Cultural Conference (mentioned above). In “Letter to the artists” on the occasion of the exhibition of resistance paintings (December 10, 1951), Ho Chi Minh affirmed: “Culture and art are also a front. You are soldiers on that front.”(8)He emphasized: “Culture and art, like all other activities, cannot stand outside but must be within economics and politics”; “politics, economics, and culture must all be considered equally important.” (9)During that period, a number of cultural and artistic conferences were held to discuss urgent issues: the Army Literature and Arts Conference (April 1949), the Viet Bac Literature and Arts Debate Conference (September 1949), the Viet Bac Theatre Debate Conference (May 1950), and the Southern Literature and Arts Cadres Conference (January 1951).
After peace was restored in the North, the people and soldiers of the South continued to fight for national liberation and unification. Many important documents of the Party, articles and speeches of President Ho Chi Minh and other Party and State leaders on culture and arts were welcomed by cadres, party members and people: Letters from the Party Central Committee to the Second National Congress of Literature and Arts (1957) and the Third (1962). Documents of the Third Party Congress (September 1960) determined the path to building a culture with socialist content and national character. In the process of building socialism, the Party determined that culture and ideology are a revolution, carried out simultaneously and closely linked with the revolution in production relations and the revolution in science and technology. The path of carrying out the cultural and ideological revolution and building a socialist culture with national, scientific, and popular characteristics continued to be developed and supplemented in the first years of the whole country's move toward socialism.
After the liberation of the South and the reunification of the country, the 4th National Congress of the Party (December 1976) determined to build a new man, a new culture... to fight against reactionary and harmful cultural ideologies and products. The 5th National Congress of the Party (March 1982) pointed out that the new culture we are building is a culture with socialist content and national character, with deep Party and people character, imbued with patriotism and proletarian internationalism. The 5th Congress clearly stated the connotation of the concept of "New socialist man" and the motto "The State and the people together do culture". During the period from 1986 to 1994, the field of culture and literature continued to receive deeper and more comprehensive attention from the Party and the State.
The Platform for National Construction in the Transitional Period to Socialism adopted at the 7th Congress (June 1991) identified the culture we are building as “an advanced culture, imbued with national identity”, as one of the six basic characteristics of the socialist regime in Vietnam: “(1) It is a society owned by the working people; (2) There is a highly developed economy based on modern productive forces and public ownership of the main means of production; (3) There is an advanced culture, imbued with national identity; (4) People are liberated from oppression, exploitation, injustice, work according to their ability, enjoy according to their work, have a prosperous, free, happy life, and have conditions for comprehensive personal development; (5) The ethnic groups in the country are equal, united and help each other to progress together; (6) There are friendly and cooperative relations with the people of all countries in the world” (10).
The Resolution of the Fourth Conference of the Party Central Committee (7th tenure) first introduced the concept: “Culture is the spiritual foundation of society, a driving force for socio-economic development, and at the same time a goal of socialism”… “The culture that our Party leads the entire people to build is an advanced culture, imbued with national identity”(11). The 5th Conference of the Party Central Committee (VIII term) issued a Resolution on "Building and developing an advanced Vietnamese culture with strong national identity". The 9th National Congress of the Party continued to affirm: "Building an advanced culture with strong national identity is both a goal and a driving force for socio-economic development". These are not only documents of the Party's guidelines, policies and strategies in the cultural field, but also demonstrate a comprehensive and profound cultural theoretical thinking in the new revolutionary period.
To promote the development of literature and art, the Politburo (10th tenure) issued Resolution No. 23 NQ/TW, dated June 16, 2008 on "Continuing to build and develop literature and art in the new period". The Resolution emphasized: “Literature and art are very important and particularly delicate fields of culture; they are essential needs, expressing the human aspiration for truth, goodness and beauty; they are one of the great driving forces directly contributing to building the spiritual foundation of society and the comprehensive development of the Vietnamese people. Vietnamese literature and art in the period of promoting industrialization, modernization of the country and international integration must develop comprehensively and strongly, deeply imbued with the spirit of humanity and democracy. Strive to create many literary and artistic works of high ideological and artistic value, which have a great effect on building people; both having an orientation effect and meeting the increasingly high cultural and spiritual needs of the people”.
The 10th National Party Congress (April 2006) affirmed: "Continue to develop extensively and improve the quality of an advanced culture imbued with national identity, closely and more synchronously linked with socio-economic development, making culture permeate all areas of social life". The basic spirit of the Central Resolution 5 (VIII term) continues to be affirmed in the documents of the 10th and 11th National Party Congresses, especially affirmed in the Platform for national construction in the transitional period to socialism (amended and supplemented in 2011): "Build an advanced Vietnamese culture imbued with national identity, improve people's lives, and achieve social progress and justice". In the development orientation, our Party affirms: "Building an advanced Vietnamese culture, imbued with national identity, comprehensive development, unity in diversity, deeply imbued with the spirit of humanity, democracy, and progress; making culture closely linked and deeply permeating the entire social life, becoming a solid spiritual foundation, an important endogenous strength of development".
Based on the country's reality after nearly 30 years of innovation and development, the 9th Conference of the Party Central Committee (11th tenure) discussed and issued Resolution No. 33-NQ/TW dated June 9, 2014 on "Building and developing Vietnamese culture and people to meet the country's sustainable development requirements". Through Resolution 9 of the Central Committee, the development of the Party's theoretical thinking, the Party's creativity in recognizing the position and role of culture, especially the human factor; determining the direction, characteristics, nature, motivation and specificity of activities to build and develop culture and people. The Resolution of the 12th National Party Congress determined: “Building a comprehensively developed Vietnamese culture and Vietnamese people, aiming at truth, goodness, beauty, imbued with national spirit, humanity, democracy and science... Building a comprehensively developed Vietnamese people must become a goal of the development strategy. Summarizing and building a system of cultural values and a system of standard values of Vietnamese people in the period of industrialization, modernization and international integration”.
The Resolution of the 13th National Party Congress requires: “Focus on researching and implementing the construction of a national value system, a cultural value system and human standards associated with preserving and developing the Vietnamese family value system in the new period. Pay attention to the education, nurturing and protection of children, teenagers and children. Strengthen education on patriotism, national pride, national traditions and history, and a sense of social responsibility for all classes of people, especially the youth”; “Continue to comprehensively innovate the content and methods of the Party's leadership, improve the effectiveness and efficiency of State management of industrialization, modernization and international integration culture”.
Following the great success of the 13th National Congress of the Party, on the occasion of the 131st anniversary of President Ho Chi Minh's birthday (May 19, 1890 - May 19, 2021) and important political and cultural events of the country in 2021, General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong wrote an important article: "Some theoretical and practical issues on socialism and the path to socialism in Vietnam". After a general assessment of the world and domestic situation, mentioning the issue of culture and people, comrade Nguyen Phu Trong affirmed: “We consider culture as the spiritual foundation of society, the endogenous strength, the driving force for national development and national defense; determining that synchronous and harmonious cultural development with economic growth and progress, social justice is a fundamental orientation of the process of building socialism in Vietnam. The culture we build is an advanced culture, imbued with national identity, a culture unified in diversity, based on progressive and humanistic values; Marxism-Leninism and Ho Chi Minh thought play a leading role in the spiritual life of society, inheriting and promoting the fine traditional values of all ethnic groups in the country, absorbing the achievements and quintessence of human culture, striving to build a civilized and healthy society for the true interests and dignity of people, with intellectual level, morality "Ethics, physical strength, lifestyle and aesthetics are increasingly improved"; "People hold a central position in the development strategy; cultural development and human development are both the goal and the driving force of innovation; education - training and science - technology development are the top national policies; environmental protection is one of the vital issues, the criterion for sustainable development; building happy and progressive families as healthy and solid cells of society, and achieving gender equality are the criteria for progress and civilization".
Looking back over the past 93 years since our Party was founded on February 3, 1930, to today and the 80th anniversary of the Party's 1943 Cultural Outline, we have gone through a long journey full of sacrifices and hardships. The Party's basic viewpoints on national independence associated with socialism; on our country's path to socialism; on building an advanced culture imbued with national identity; people having a prosperous, free, happy life, with conditions for comprehensive development; ethnic groups in the Vietnamese community being equal, united, respecting and helping each other to develop together; having a socialist rule-of-law state of the people, by the people, for the people led by the Communist Party; having friendly and cooperative relations with countries around the world have been supplemented and perfected in a scientific, revolutionary, and humane manner, with the consensus and support of the entire Party and the entire people. Viewpoint: The cultural cause belongs to all people, under the leadership of the Party; the nature of the new Vietnamese culture is national in form, neo-democratic in content; the three principles of the new Vietnamese culture are "Nationalization"; "Popularization"; "Scientification" and summarized by President Ho Chi Minh "Culture lights the way for the nation" will forever be the viewpoint, the goal, the motto and the principle to, together with politics and economics, help our nation, our people under the leadership of the Party go from one victory to another, all for a rich people, a strong country, democracy, fairness, civilization.
1) Chronological history of the Communist Party of Vietnam, volume 2, pp.808-810, National Political Publishing House, Hanoi, 2008.
2) According to the printed version in Party Documents: Complete Works, National Political Publishing House, Hanoi, 2000, pp. 316-321. Before 1945, this Document was circulated secretly, and was first published publicly in Tien Phong newspaper, No. 1, published on November 10, 1945.
3) Complete Party Documents, National Political Publishing House, 2000, vol. 7, p. 470
4) Truong Chinh, Selected Works, vol. 3, National Political Publishing House, Hanoi, 2009, p. 559.
5) Complete Party documents, National Political Publishing House, Hanoi, 2000, vol.8, pp.1-3.
6) Ho Chi Minh: Complete Works, vol. 7, National Political Publishing House, Hanoi, 2011, pp. 246, 247/ or Cuu Quoc Newspaper, No. 416 published on November 25, 1946.
7) Ho Chi Minh Complete Works - National Political Publishing House, volume 5, page 677.
8) Ho Chi Minh Complete Works, vol. 7, National Political Publishing House, Hanoi, 2011, p. 246.
9) Ho Chi Minh Complete Works, vol. 7, National Political Publishing House, Hanoi, 2011, p. 246.
10) Communist Party of Vietnam: Complete Party Documents, op. cit., vol. 51, p. 134.
11) Communist Party of Vietnam, Complete Party Documents, volume 52, National Political Publishing House, Hanoi, 2010, p. 516.