Comrade Le Doan Suu with his mark in the Nghe Tinh Soviet movement

In the middle of Spring of the year Tan Suu (1901), Le Doan Suu was born in De Thap ward, Vinh city (now Ben Thuy ward - Vinh city), Nghe An province. The couple Le Doan Xuong and Nguyen Thi Chat named their son Le Doan Suu so as not to forget the year of birth of their first son.

In Vinh City in the early 20th century, French capitalists took advantage of their domination to rob the land of farmers around the area to build factories. Farmers did not have a single inch of land to plant their trees, and in addition, they had to endure high taxes and they fell into poverty. Every day, men had to work for hire in factories while women stayed home to sell small items or work for hire, planting rice for a fee but still did not have enough to eat. Growing up in a difficult family situation like many other families in the area, Le Doan Suu had to work for hire with his father in the Match Factory at the age of 16.

The Match Factory was established in 1907 under the anonymous Forest and Match Company (abbreviated as SIFA) with a workforce of about 750 workers, of which 1/4 were male, 2/4 were female and 1/4 were children. The factory had 6 main departments: the chiseling house, the zinc house, the table-holding department, the shell drying department, the stick-dispensing department, the chalk-sweeping department and the labeling department. In addition, there was a small department in charge of repairing the buildings and workshops. Each department had a foreman and a deputy foreman to manage the workers. The factory director and deputy director were French through the management of the contractor Truong Dac Lap. Children working in the Match Factory were usually in the stick-dispensing department (completed matches put into bags).

Le Doan Suu witnessed workers being beaten by their bosses every day for small mistakes. Children worked 17 to 18 hours a day but were paid very low wages and were often beaten: if they were slow in putting matches into the box, they were beaten, or if they were not tight enough, they were also beaten... The foreman Hoc always had a long whip ready to inspect the workers in the factory.

Together with his friends in the neighborhood working at the Match Factory such as Le Mao, Le Viet Thuat, Nguyen Phuc, Nguyen Viet Luc... seeing the factory owner treating the workers like that, Le Doan Suu was very angry, but did not know what to do. The enthusiastic youth wanted to find a way to punish the supervisors, but if they failed, they would be fired...
In 1921, Le Doan Suu and his friends heard about a youth movement to go to Siam and China to participate in revolutionary activities against the French, but his family was too poor, there was not enough food to eat, so where would they get money for travel expenses? Every day, they heard whispers in their ears: abroad there was a very talented Ma Khac Tu (Karl Marx), Mr. Ly Ninh (Lenin) overthrew the Russian Tsarist regime... in our country there was a Mr. Nguyen Ai Quoc in the West, but the West could not find him...

At that time, Le Mao, a relative living 2 km from his house, younger than Le Doan Suu but loved by the workers in the Match Factory, the workers considered Le Mao as an older brother, the older class considered him as a relative, discussed with him and his friends the need to organize a form of spiritual activity to broaden their minds. They bought books and newspapers such as "Tieng Dan" and "Tan The Ky" to learn more about the revolutionary movement in the world and the lives of workers in the country.

During the years 1923-1924, Le Doan Suu, Le Mao and young people working in the Match Factory, Truong Thi, and Sawmill... often went to Quang Tri Hall in Vinh City to listen to teachers Tran Van Tang, Ha Huy Tap and Tran Phu talk about human history and patriotic heroes. Step by step, Le Doan Suu and the young people in the factories were nurtured with patriotism and the will to fight against tyranny.

In mid-1924, Le Doan Suu and his friends heard the workers in the factory whispering about Pham Hong Thai carrying a bomb to kill Mer Lanh, the Governor General of Indochina, when he arrived at Sa Dien (Guangzhou, China). It was the first time they heard such a strange story. After careful investigation, it turned out that Pham Hong Thai was also a worker at the Ben Thuy Lamp Factory and he was also from Hung Nguyen who had gone abroad to China since the beginning of the year. Le Doan Suu greatly admired Pham Hong Thai's brave spirit and he often thought: If only I had the money to go abroad...

And the following period was filled with many important events that attracted young people like Le Doan Suu. They participated in the movement to demand amnesty for Phan Boi Chau (1925) and attended the memorial service for Phan Chu Trinh (March 1927).

On July 14, 1925, at Con Meo Mountain (Ben Thuy), the Phuc Viet Association was founded by Le Van Huan, Nguyen Dinh Kien, Ton Quang Phiet, Tran Mong Bach, Ngo Duc Dien... (The Phuc Viet Association aimed to: Gather patriotic forces among the people, overthrow French colonialism, and restore independence to the country). The Association expanded its organizational base throughout the country. Under the direction of the Phuc Viet Association's General Headquarters, the patriotic movement in Vinh - Ben Thuy had the conditions to develop and quickly became the center of the patriotic movement in the province and the whole Central region.

The Association's bases developed in almost all factories, streets and schools in Vinh - Ben Thuy. At the Match Factory, comrade Le Mao soon became a member of the Phuc Viet Association and he actively built the Association's bases in the Match Factory; a while later, Le Doan Suu was also admitted to the Association.

In 1927, 4 Hung Nam sub-groups (later renamed Tan Viet) were established by Nguyen Khac Long with the names "Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter" in factories and Yen Dung Ha village. Le Doan Suu, Le Mao, Le Viet Thuat, Nguyen Viet Luc, Pham Chau, Le Thi Kieu Ha, Dinh Van Duc, Le Thi Vy were active members of those cells.
Some time later, due to the organization's request, Le Doan Suu transferred to the Sawmill to work with Nguyen Viet Luc. Here, they built the foundation of the Tan Viet Party, Truong Thi Factory was in charge of Le Viet Thuat, Ben Thuy Port was in charge of Pham Chau, and the Match Factory was in charge of Le Mao...

On April 11, 1928, when the factory owner fired a worker, comrades Le Mao (Match Factory) and Nguyen Viet Luc, Le Doan Suu (Saw Factory, SIFA) led the workers to strike to protest the unreasonable firing of workers and demanded a wage increase and the abolition of fines. The workers of the Match Factory quit their jobs in the morning, and that afternoon the workers of the Saw Factory also quit their jobs, simultaneously making similar demands. This was the first time that workers from two factories went on strike at the same time, and the owners were extremely panicked. Therefore, the next day, the owners of these two factories gathered the workers together and announced a collective wage increase of 5 cents per day for each person. The victory of the struggle encouraged the fighting spirit of the workers throughout the city.

In May 1929, taking advantage of the struggle to expose Cao Kien (Deputy Head of the Tenth Quarter) - a quarter consisting of workers and farmers, who abused his power to collect three times more housing taxes, the Tan Viet Party advocated sending its own people to take control of the grassroots government to create favorable conditions for the Party organization to operate. Comrades Le Mao and Pham Chau were elected as Chief of Yen Dung Ha village; Pham Chau became Chief of the Village, Le Mao became Deputy Chief of the Village, from which the two comrades had more opportunities to move around openly to carry out revolutionary activities.

After its establishment, at the end of 1929, the Provisional Executive Committee of the Central Committee of the Indochinese Communist Party sent comrades Nguyen Phong Sac and Tran Van Cung to build a Party base in Central Vietnam. The comrades met comrade Vo Mai and established the Central Committee of the Indochinese Communist Party, with Nguyen Phong Sac as Secretary. The Regional Party Committee office was located in Vang village (in Hung Nguyen, bordering Vinh city). After a while, the Regional Party Committee office moved to the First sewer, Co Dau street (now the area to the left of the Viet Duc Children's House, Vinh city).

In Nghe An, comrade Nguyen Phong Sac paid special attention to the Vinh - Ben Thuy workers' movement. He met Le Mao, Le Viet Thuat and Le Doan Suu, using them as the core to develop the Indochinese Communist Party organization among the working class in Vinh - Ben Thuy. The Central Region Party Committee built a deep and extensive Party base in the area around Vinh - Ben Thuy city and in factories.
After the Indochina Communist Party organized the distribution of leaflets in Nghe An calling on the masses to celebrate the day of protesting against imperialist war (August 1, 1929), comrade Tran Van Cung was arrested, the agency of the Regional Party Committee had to move furniture and printed documents to the house of comrade Le Doan Suu in Yen Dung Ha village. After the founding of the Communist Party of Vietnam (February 3, 1930), in March 1930, the Central Region Party Committee was established and appointed two provisional Executive Committees of the Communist Party of Vietnam in Nghe An: Vinh Provincial Party Committee (including Vinh - Ben Thuy, two districts of Hung Nguyen, Nghi Loc and Thanh Hoa town); Nghe An Provincial Party Committee (including the remaining districts).

On February 20, 1930, comrade Nguyen Phong Sac summoned Le Doan Suu and Tan Viet party members such as Nguyen Xuan Thanh, Nguyen Loi, Le Viet Thuat, Le Mao, Nguyen Phuc, Nguyen Khac Thien... at Dam Mu Nuoi (Yen Dung Thuong village, Yen Truong commune, Hung Nguyen district (now Hung Dung ward, Vinh city) to talk about reunifying the Party and converting these comrades into members of the Communist Party of Vietnam. At the same time, establishing the Vinh Provincial Party Committee, comrade Le Mao was elected as Secretary, the provisional Executive Committee included comrades Le Viet Thuat, Le Doan Suu, Nguyen Phuc, Nguyen Viet Luc. The conference assigned tasks to each comrade:
- Comrade Le Mao: In charge of the general movement of the whole province.
- Comrade Le Viet Thuat: In charge of Truong Thi Factory and Vinh area neighborhoods.
- Comrade Nguyen Phuc: In charge of Ben Thuy area.
- Comrade Nguyen Viet Luc: Directly receive documents and orders from superiors.
- Comrade Le Doan Suu: In charge of the farmers' movement in Hung Nguyen and Nghi Loc districts.

After the Regional Party Committee office moved to comrade Le Doan Suu's house, the leaders of the Regional Party Committee, Provincial Party Committee, and communications such as Nguyen Thi Nghia (a liaison officer between the Central and the Region), Nguyen Thi Due (a Regional officer)... often stayed here. To conceal enemy activities, comrade Nguyen Thi Nghia posed as the Northern concubine of worker Le Doan Suu. Neighbors gossiped that Mr. Suu had two wives, but they lived in harmony. Mr. Suu was a lucky man who knew how to teach his wife... After returning from long business trips from the North, the concubine took care of the housework, carrying water, sweeping the house, washing clothes for "him" and going to the market, cooking to help the first wife.

Comrade Le Doan Suu was fat, his head was often shaved, his eyes were big and bright and often blinking - Ms. Nguyen Thi Minh Khai nicknamed him "Blinking Brother" and Ms. Nguyen Thi Nhuan and Nguyen Thi Due called him "Blinking Brother" when working with him. Le Doan Suu often spoke very quickly and was a joker, so everyone loved him. During his activities, Le Doan Suu often disguised himself, sometimes as a porter in a faded brown shirt with a scarf with an anchor; sometimes as a shaman in a dark long shirt, porridge pants and a black turban. And he was never discovered.
Some time later, comrade Nguyen Thi Nghia was discovered and captured by the enemy at Truong Thi train station. They took her to Vinh prison. Although she was brutally tortured at Vinh prison, Ms. Nghia did not reveal a word and she died at a very young age. The Regional Party Committee office had to be moved to another location.

On the occasion of International Labor Day (May 1, 1930), the policy of Vinh - Ben Thuy Provincial Committee was to mobilize workers and farmers in Vinh - Ben Thuy area to demonstrate to show their strength and make demands to the colonial authorities in Vinh. Comrade Nguyen Phong Sac, special envoy of the Party Central Committee in Central Vietnam, was assigned to be in charge. Vinh - Ben Thuy Provincial Committee, with comrade Le Mao as Secretary, directly directed the struggle of workers in the factories. Because the factories were separate, the Provincial Committee decided that each factory would have its own Command Committee (each committee had from 3 to 7 people).

Ben Thuy Match Factory had 3 people in the command board: Le Viet Cuong, Nguyen Thi Due, Duong Dien and Le Mao. In addition to general command, they also directly commanded the struggle of the Match Factory workers. The Electricity Factory had 3 people: Nguyen Duy Thien, Tai Dung, Binh. The Lao Xien Saw Factory had 3 people: Le, Hau, Hien. The Ky Sung Thuc Saw Factory had Le Van and 2 others. The porter units at Ben Thuy port had 7 people commanded by Le Doan Suu, the Truong Thi Factory was directly commanded by Le Viet Thuat.
On the side of farmers around Vinh Ben Thuy area, the Command Board includes Hoang Trong Tri, Tran Canh Binh...

The Vinh-Ben Thuy workers' and farmers' demonstration attracted more than 1,200 people (including factory workers and farmers from An Hau, Loc Da, Yen Dung villages...) to participate, and was carefully organized; although it was bloodily suppressed, it created a great resonance, opening the revolutionary movement throughout the country under the leadership of the Party. The demonstration was evaluated by the Party as "For the first time in the history of our country's revolution, workers, farmers and soldiers joined hands in the middle of the battle.

Assigned to be in charge of the revolutionary movement in Nghi Loc and Hung Nguyen districts, comrade Le Doan Suu shuttled between the two regions. Many times, he and comrade Nguyen Phong Sac participated in and directly directed the struggle movement of the people of Nghi Loc.

Around March 1930, the Central Region Party Committee contacted Le Xuan Dao, an active Tan Viet Party member in Hung Nguyen, to build a Party base. In April 1930, comrade Le Xuan Dao established the first merged Communist Party cell of the two communes of Phu Long (Hung Nguyen) and Nam Kim (Nam Dan), with comrade Le Xuan Dao as Secretary. At this time, comrade Le Doan Suu, with the alias Dong, returned to contact comrade Le Xuan Dao to build a Party base in the entire region.

To prepare for the successful demonstration of the people of Nam Dan and Hung Nguyen districts on September 12, 1930, comrade Le Doan Suu, comrade Le Xuan Dao and party members in the cell jointly propagated and mobilized people to participate. Thanks to careful preparation, the demonstration attracted more than 8,000 farmers from the three communes of Phu Long, Thong Lang (Hung Nguyen district) and Nam Kim commune (Nam Dan district).

The demonstrators marched in neat ranks, armed with sticks, spears, and halberds, holding high the hammer and sickle flag, shouting slogans as they marched. Arriving at Yen Xuan station, the command board tied up the station master and cut off the telegraph line. When the demonstrators arrived at Thai Lao, the French colonialists sent two planes to bomb the group. The demonstration dispersed. In the afternoon, when the farmers came out to mourn and bury their fallen comrades, the French colonialists sent planes to bomb them again. The total number of people killed in the demonstration was 217 and 125 were injured. In addition, they also imprisoned hundreds of others. The extremely brutal massacre by the French colonialists shocked public opinion at home and abroad.

Immediately after the demonstration of the people of Hung Nguyen, comrade Le Doan Suu, together with comrades in the Vinh Provincial Party Committee and comrade Le Xuan Dao, organized a memorial service for those who died and raised funds to support the injured. The Central Region Party Committee and Nghe An Provincial Party Committee distributed leaflets and published newspapers praising the fighting spirit of the masses and denouncing the crimes of the French colonial government and its henchmen. The leaflets of the Communist Party of Vietnam called on the people of the whole country to fight: do not touch the people of Nghe Tinh; do not expel the workers of De Thap commune; do not shoot and kill the protesters; do not throw bombs to massacre...

After the demonstration on September 12 in Hung Nguyen, comrades Le Doan Suu and Le Xuan Dao actively prepared for the establishment of the Hung Nguyen district committee. Also during this time, comrade Le Doan Suu's wife gave birth to their first daughter, but because of his revolutionary duties, he had to rely on his grandparents for family matters.

At the end of September 1930, the Vinh Provincial Party Committee appointed the Vinh - Ben Thuy City Party Committee Executive Committee, including comrades Tran Huong, Nguyen Van Dat, Nguyen Thi Lien, and comrade Le Doan Suu, member of the Vinh Provincial Party Committee, was appointed as Secretary. The Vinh - Ben Thuy City Party Committee was assigned by the Provincial Party Committee to manage and lead grassroots Party organizations and revolutionary movements in the city, while the Party cells in rural areas were assigned to the Hung Nguyen and Nghi Loc District Party Committees.

The revolutionary struggle movement of the people of Nghe An and Ha Tinh under the leadership of the provincial Party Committees developed strongly. From September 1930 onwards, the enemy government in many localities collapsed, and the commune peasants rose up to take over the government and run local affairs.

In October 1930, when comrade Le Viet Thuat was working in Ha Tinh and was transferred to the Regional Party Committee, comrades Le Doan Suu and Nguyen Phuc were assigned by the Regional Party Committee to direct the revolutionary movement in the two provinces of Nghe An and Ha Tinh to maintain the Soviet achievements and deal with the enemy's new plots and tricks.

In late 1930, the workers' struggle movement developed strongly in Vinh city, mass organizations were born. Comrade Le Doan Suu assigned comrades Nguyen Thi Nhuan and Nguyen Thi Due (workers of the Match Factory) to organize the Women's Liberation Association. This organization attracted a large number of women to participate (workers, traders...). The members contributed spiritual and material support in times of difficulty, donated clothes to political prisoners in Vinh prison who were fighting and had their clothes confiscated by the enemy and burned.

To direct the revolutionary struggle of the masses more closely, the Central Region Party Committee held a plenary conference (from April 22 to April 29, 1931) in Loc Da village, Yen Truong commune, Hung Nguyen (now Hung Loc commune, Vinh city). The conference decided to dissolve the Vinh Provincial Party Committee and establish the Vinh Regional Party Committee and the Ben Thuy Regional Party Committee. These two regional committees were directly under the Regional Party Committee. The Regional Party Committee assigned two comrades, Nguyen Van Loi and Dinh Van Duc, to direct the establishment of the two regional committees (May 1931).

Vinh Regional Party Committee consists of 5 members with comrade Phan Cong Vuong as Secretary. Ben Thuy Regional Party Committee has comrade Le Doan Suu as Secretary.
To deal with the revolutionary movement rising in the two provinces, the French colonialists tried every way to drown the movement in blood. They built more posts and sent soldiers from various places to Nghe Tinh, thousands of revolutionary soldiers were arrested and transferred to prisons in Lao Bao, Kon Tum, Ban Me Thuot, Con Dao, Tra Khe... In August 1931, comrade Le Doan Suu fell into the enemy's hands and was sentenced to life imprisonment along with 12 others such as Nguyen Cau, Pham Chau, Nguyen Can, Mai Trong Tin, Ton Gia Chung... (according to sentence number 152 dated October 29, 1931) and then the sentence was reduced by the Privy Council to 13 years of hard labor and 7 years of house arrest; at the same time, he was exiled to Buon Ma Thuot prison (according to sentence number 246 dated June 24, 1932 of the Privy Council).

In mid-1934, comrade Le Doan Suu and many other comrades were released on the occasion of Governor-General Robin Hood's visit to Indochina and King Bao Dai's wedding. Returning to Vinh, comrade Le Doan Suu asked to return to work as a worker and continued his activities. His name was again in the French secret police's watch list (number A.15.941).

In 1936-1937, the movement for democratic rights in Vinh developed strongly. Comrade Suu joined the struggle movement of Vinh - Ben Thuy workers. On July 15, 1937, Le Doan Suu was arrested on the way from Tha Khet (Laos) to Vinh (according to Paul's secret circular No. 845-CS dated May 27, 1937). Hum bert - the chief spy of Vinh sent to the Central region in Hue, was detained at the Vinh police station, but there was no reason to charge him so the French colonialists had to release him.

At the end of 1939, World War II broke out, the French government declared war on Germany and began implementing the fascist policy of dissolving the Communist Party and democratic organizations in the country as well as in French colonies. In Indochina, they frantically attacked the Communist Party and its mass organizations. On September 28, 1939, the Governor-General of Indochina issued a Decree dissolving trade unions, mutual aid, and friendship organizations in Indochina. On October 5, 1939, the Southern Dynasty Government issued an edict banning meetings, communist propaganda, and confiscating progressive books and newspapers in Vietnam. In Nghe An, especially in Vinh - Ben Thuy, in addition to the old police and secret police forces, the French colonialists also provided additional budget for each street chief to establish a "doan phong" unit, consisting of 30 guards in the neighborhood. Political prisoners who had completed their sentences were all strictly detained.

On July 20, 1940, So Nhi (Chief of Central Vietnam's Secret Service) ordered the Central Vietnam's secret service agencies:"We cannot wait until they have finished organizing and have concrete evidence before prosecuting. In any situation, even if there is no evidence to prosecute, we must immediately implement one of the measures stipulated in the Decree of January 21, 1940, especially sending the most active activists to special concentration camps."

Le Doan Suu was again arrested by the French colonialists and exiled to Tra Khe (Phu Yen province) under Decision No. 4206 dated December 7, 1943. It was said to be exiled, but this place was a wild, poisonous forest. The French colonialists wanted to exile and slowly kill the communist soldier.

On the day he was escorted through the village intersection, he and his wife met for the last time. Le Doan Suu advised his wife not to cry, to stand up bravely, and to raise their children well. His last words to his wife, the last words she often repeated to her children and grandchildren:This time I am leaving without a return date, you stay home and take care of the children. If the children miss their father, say: Look up to Ru Quyet and nurture your great ambitions. And if you miss me, look down to Lam River and nurture your hatred and wash away your resentment.

Comrade Le Doan Suu left this time and never returned. All we know is that one night in the middle of 1944, three strangers entered the house of Mrs. Cao Thi Ky, Comrade Le Doan Suu’s wife in De Thap ward; they brought a bunch of bananas, five areca nuts and an incense stick. One of them said to Mrs. Ky: “He's gone, we are his friends who escaped here. We would like to set up an altar and light incense for him.”. Then they set up an altar, lit incense, prayed, said goodbye to the family, and quickly walked away. Meanwhile, the mother and daughter were still in shock and had not yet had time to ask where their husband had died? Where was his grave now...?

And it was not until 2010, while researching the revolutionary activities of comrade Le Doan Suu, that we learned that he had died in Tra Khe (Phu Yen) on March 27, 1944, while under house arrest there, due to severe dysentery that was not treated.

Comrade Le Doan Suu sacrificed gloriously for the revolutionary cause. He was a shining example for the younger generation to follow in the two long resistance wars against French colonialism and American imperialism.