Comrade Phan Dinh Dong (1911-2001)

Phan Dinh Dong was the eldest son of Mr. Phan Dinh Du, a Confucian scholar who worked as a teacher (died in 1953) and Mrs. Nguyen Thi Ly, a farmer and grocery seller (died in 1948). The family had a tradition of charity, often helping the hungry and miserable, and had long settled in Luong Giai village.

Luong Giai village was originally a fishing village on the Lam River that moved to the mainland. In the past, there was little land, high taxes, high levies, and endless corvée labor, so people's lives were extremely miserable. Many people did not even have a piece of cloth to cover their bodies. When he was a child, Phan Dinh Dong often witnessed the Westerners searching the village for "illegal" alcohol. Whenever they discovered a house with alcohol, they would put them in jail and their property would be confiscated! Meanwhile, Ty and Fonten wines from France were freely traded, and they even forced the localities to buy them.

Having witnessed many scenes of oppression and exploitation by the feudal empire against his relatives and neighbors, Phan Dinh Dong soon had a hidden consciousness of protesting against an unjust society. His hometown is located in the land of Nam Dan, "a land of talented people", a place with majestic landscapes that the ancients once praised:

Receive Dunshan Sword and Jade
Lam Pho Dong Tinh Flag
Rough translation: The tree stands on the mountain like a spear.
Sailing back to Lam Pho like a flag flying.

(Poem by Hoang Phan Thai - a patriot from Nghi Loc district)

Nam Dan is a land of culture, with many famous scholars such as: Third Prize Winner Nguyen Duc Dat, First Prize Winner Phan Boi Chau, Vice Prize Winner Nguyen Sinh Sac... In the past, during the reign of Mai Thuc Loan (722-726), Van An citadel in Sa Nam was once the capital of An Nam, after Mai Hac De and his army drove the Tang invaders out of our country's borders.

Van An citadel was only separated from Phan Dinh Dong’s hometown by a strip of Lam River’s width. At that time, many fierce battles of Mai Thuc Loan’s army against the Tang invaders took place on both banks of Lam River, from Van Ru (Khanh Son) to Voi Mountain (Nam Tan, his hometown).

During the Van Than movement, Nam Dan and Thanh Chuong were important operating areas of the Tran Tan - Dang Nhu Mai army, with the Giap Tuat 1874 uprising.

While still a student at the French-Vietnamese Dan Primary School, Phan Dinh Dong had some understanding of his homeland and was proud of his ancestors' traditions. In 1925, when Phan Boi Chau returned from China and was pardoned due to the strong struggle movement of the people of the whole country, Phan Dinh Dong was only 14 years old but already understood his great prestige towards the nation. When Phan Boi Chau turned to visit his home in Dan Nhiem, Nam Dan (on the way to Hue), Phan Dinh Dong was lucky to follow his father to visit him. The meeting left a deep impression on him.

In 1926-1927, Phan Dinh Dong again attended the memorial service for Phan Chu Trinh and read many eulogies, which expressed the people's ardent patriotism. It was those eulogies, along with the patriotic poems of Phan Boi Chau, Dong Kinh Nghia Thuc and other progressive books and newspapers, that awakened and enhanced the patriotism of the young Phan Dinh Dong. He and his fellow readers Le Cong Canh and Nguyen Xuan established a reading group.

The two poems that the reading group recited were Life and Death.

Living

Live wild, give birth, stand in the cramped life
Live in Europe and America, tigers!
Living as a slave to someone makes
Live stupidly so they can laugh.
Live with the dream of fame and fortune, but can't imagine it.
Live for wealth, not for life
Live like a slave should not live
Live wild, give birth, stand in the cramped life.

Die

Die for the country, die for the people
Death makes a man free from debt
Died by the Eastern Zhou Dynasty during the Seven Kingdoms Period
Died for the Western Han Dynasty during the Third Division
Die like Hung Dao, soul becomes saint
Die like Trung Vuong, the spirit is too divine
West Lake died, but his name never died.
Die for the country, die for the people.

(According to Phan Dinh Dong's memoir "In juvenile prison" Thanh Nien Publishing House 1965, pp. 106, 107.)

At the age of 16, while studying at the Franco-Vietnamese school, Phan Dinh Dong often discussed with his friends about his desire to go abroad, but he had not found a direction or a line of communication. Shortly after, Le Cong Canh left Phan Dinh Dong and the newspaper reading group, followed Phan Huynh (Phan Huynh was the eldest son of Phan Boi Chau) to work as a secretary for Phan Boi Chau. At the end of 1929, Canh returned, telling many interesting stories about the ancient capital of Hue and about "Old Man Ben Ngu".

Summer came, the Porime exam was also approaching, Phan Dinh Dong's parents also expected that one day their son would pass the exam and become a government official, the family's life would be better. But due to the ambition of youth, Phan Dinh Dong dropped out of school, skipped the exam, ran away from home, boarded a ship to Hue, found Phan Boi Chau and asked to be his secretary. At first, he was in daily contact with a great man of the time. Phan Dinh Dong was very happy and proud. But then life turned in a different direction. Phan Dinh Dong recounted: "In early 1930, when I was in Hue, I heard that in my hometown, the revolutionary movement was rising. Leaflets and red flags appeared in many places. Meanwhile, I was still on the boat with Mr. Phan every day, learning more Chinese characters. One day, I had just stepped down from the boat docked at Ngu wharf when Mr. Phan, with a happy face, told me to get paper and pen to write down the poem he had just thought of, titled "Thuyen dem tuc canh":

A floating boat
Five gloomy moon watches
The rooster crows vaguely in the morning
Cuckoo calls summer is coming
Rain drives the carriage
The wind blew the hat away
This guy is so innocent.
Three cups of snoring.

After copying, I sat down to read it again. While reciting, I suddenly felt sad and thoughtful. The poem blamed people like me for being indifferent and not caring about the fate of the country. I began to feel bored with the quiet life, hanging around on the boat day after day, reciting a few lines: “…Ai ngo bao, tuy mong trung…”. I longed to join the revolution, to be active. At that time, I received a letter from Canh. He said that my family was very worried about me, so I returned. I arranged my work, said goodbye to Mr. Phan and returned to Nghe An…”

When Phan Dinh Dong returned from Hue (April 1930), the workers' and peasants' struggle movement in the province and in Nam Dan district was developing very strongly. He and his friend Le Cong Canh visited Dang Chanh Ky, a progressive teacher. Dang Chanh Ky advised him to find a way to contact the revolution and not to return to Hue to work as Phan's secretary anymore. Having Nguyen Sy Dieu let him read the secretly circulated Lao Kho newspaper, Phan Dinh Dong understood many important things that he had not known before. He contacted Nguyen Dinh Dien and Vuong Thuc Xuan and was enlightened by them, and assigned to distribute leaflets to prepare for the International Labor Day on May 1, 1930. Distributing leaflets at that time was very dangerous, but Phan Dinh Dong did not mind the dark night and the rain, and risked posting leaflets on the gate of Nam Dan district office. The next morning, returning to the places where the leaflets had been posted, he saw that the leaflets were still there and many curious people gathered around to read them. Excited, he read them aloud for everyone to hear.

After that, he was assigned by the Union to do printing work (printing documents). That work often had to be done in a closed room, on a hot, stuffy day it was very uncomfortable. Sometimes he had to surround it with reed leaves, cover it with a pot and light a candle to print. The printing tools were very rudimentary: the printing table was a tray of boiled and cooled jelly, the sample was written in thick purple ink, the words were written in reverse, and when finished, pressed onto the jelly surface. Each sample could print forty to fifty sheets. With such manual means, the Party's propaganda documents (sometimes a whole book like "Shipwreck Diary" by XYZ - Nguyen Ai Quoc) were secretly transferred to the grassroots Party cells by the liaison ladies.

After working in printing for a while, Phan Dinh Dong was sent by the Union to do propaganda work right in his hometown. At first, he propagated in the newspaper reading group, then like an oil spill, gradually expanding to the youth, women, teachers, students...

On August 1, 1930, Phan Dinh Dong was admitted to the Communist Party of Vietnam (along with four other comrades). Phan Dinh Dong was then appointed as Secretary of the Thanh Dam (Nam Tan) Party Cell. In August 1930, the revolutionary movement in both Nghe An and Ha Tinh provinces rose very strongly, especially in Thanh Chuong and Nam Dan districts. Phan Dinh Dong and the Party Cell had to work day and night, both organizing self-defense forces, building unions, and dealing with the enemy's plots and tricks. In the last days of August, work became more intense to prepare for a large-scale demonstration in the entire district.

On the morning of August 30, 1930, Phan Dinh Dong joined the crowd of people from all four communes in the district with about 3,000 farmers marching to Sa Nam town. The protest group lined up horizontally, accompanied by self-defense forces armed with primitive weapons such as sticks and spears. The district chief intended to ride his bicycle to report to the province but was stopped by the red self-defense forces. Meanwhile, the masses rushed into the district office, burned archives, broke into prisons to free prisoners, and vandalized the French liquor agency. The representative of the protest group presented the people's demands to Le Khac Tuong, forcing him to accept and sign the mass's demands, which included a promise: "Nam Dan district chief, from now on, will not harass the people anymore."

After two historic protests on August 30 and September 1, 1930, Nam Dan and Thanh Chuong formed the Communes of Agriculture (village and commune Soviet governments) and later, Soviet governments were established in villages and communes in other districts in both Nghe An and Ha Tinh provinces.

At the end of September 1930, Phan Dinh Dong was assigned by his superiors to join the Propaganda and Agitation Department of the Provincial Party Committee. In October 1930, at the first Congress of the Nghe An Party Committee in Dong Xuan village (Xuan Lieu commune, Nam Dan district, now Xuan Truong commune, Thanh Chuong district), Phan Dinh Dong was elected as one of the seven members of the first Provincial Party Committee. He was assigned to be in charge of Party building and mass movements in Yen Thanh, Dien Chau.

At that time (early 1931), the French colonialists and the Southern Dynasty carried out a severe white terror, but the Party organization and mass organizations still developed. As a young, educated, enthusiastic, and morally virtuous provincial Party Committee member, Phan Dinh Dong was appointed by the Provincial Party Committee as Secretary of the Communist Youth Union of Nghe An province. It was a great honor and a heavy responsibility at a time when the enemy was carrying out fierce terror.

After the Provincial Executive Committee of the Communist Youth Union, the young people in the province enthusiastically joined the Union, the largest number was in Nam Dan, where the Provincial Youth Union Secretary Phan Dinh Dong directly directed the movement. According to the statistics that Leader Nguyen Ai Quoc recorded in the "Letter to the Central Executive Committee of the Indochinese Communist Party" on April 20, 1931, the number of Communist Youth Union members in Nam Dan reached a record with 641 members, then in Thanh Chuong with 78 members. Anh Son had 35 members (Ho Chi Minh Complete Works, Volume 2, National Political Publishing House, 1995).

At that time, the recruitment of new members was carried out very carefully and strictly. Young people who were not yet in the Party or had not joined any revolutionary organization were tested more before being admitted. The recruitment ceremony also had to be secret, the Party cell was divided into many small groups, each group had 5 or 6 members. The members of a group only knew each other's comrades, and rarely knew the members of other groups.

The Youth Union is also responsible for organizing and mobilizing children to join the Dong Tu Quan organization. Phan Dinh Dong, the first Secretary of the Provincial Youth Union of Nghe An, recounted: “… Ten young children under the age of 15, every afternoon lined up in ranks, carrying rattan canes on their shoulders, marching around the village, singing revolutionary songs. Those marches made the revolutionary spirit increasingly seething. The children also helped adults with guarding and maintaining security and order. If soldiers were on the street, the whole village would immediately know. The cadres had enough time to hide documents and hide, and the people also had time to prepare to deal with them. Thanks to that, many cadres escaped the enemy's hands and still maintained the movement. That credit belongs to the Dong Tu Quan children. The local tycoons did not like those “Little Communists”. In the later terror attacks, many Dong Tu Quan children were arrested and beaten. The later “Young Pioneers” and “Children to Save the World” organizations continued the patriotic tradition of the Dong Tu Quan at that time. In the glorious history of the Youth Union, it is impossible not to mention the revolutionary organization your lives during this period…” (Memoirs of Phan Dinh Dong, op. cit., p. 120)

At the time when Phan Dinh Dong held the position of Secretary of the Nghe An Communist Youth Union, the French colonialists and their white terrorist henchmen were very savage and brutal. There were mass graves (like in Ngu Phuc, Vo Liet, Thanh Chuong). Communist soldiers from the Regional Party Committee to the Party cells were arrested and imprisoned by the thousands. In June 1931, while working in the Nhan Thap area (now Hong Long commune), Phan Dinh Dong was caught in the enemy's net. Several soldiers tied the prisoner's hands and took him to Xuan La station. They were searching for traces of an assassination of two men: Chief Thiep and village chief Dong in Luong Giai village, Nam Dan. Therefore, they tortured him very cruelly. They tied his elbows, tied ropes to hang him from the rafters, and occasionally lowered him down to beat him to death and asked: "Where are your guns and printing presses?" Phan Dinh Dong refused to reveal his real name and hid it, calling himself An. The captain immediately ordered the soldiers to dig a hole, then dragged the prisoner to the edge of the hole, pointed a pistol at him and threatened to shoot him if he did not confess. The comrade remained steadfast and did not confess anything. The soldiers then dragged him back and tied him to a bamboo tree and buried it in the middle of the police station yard.

Three days passed, although Phan Dinh Dong was small in stature, he was still conscious after the cruel tortures. On the fourth day, the Nam Dan district chief came to the station and discovered that the prisoner's real name was Dong, not An. So they took him to the Vinh Secret Police Department. Here, they were even more cruel, after beating him to the point of starvation for 9 days. Luckily, some imprisoned workers secretly brought Phan Dinh Dong a portion of rice each meal to keep him alive. On the 10th day, they only gave him one prison meal, for fear that the prisoner would starve to death. Finally, they locked him up in Vinh prison. Appointed by his fellow prisoners as a prison warden, he took care of organizing life in prison, assigned people to clean, arranged the living quarters, and took care of sick inmates... There were "cheering" struggles in prison, when the prison warden terrorized him, the fellow prisoners surrounded Phan Dinh Dong and took the beatings for him. Once, the spy Otavi threw a huge bunch of keys at his face, causing blood to flow profusely, even into his mouth...

After being detained in the province for a while, they sent the prisoner back to Nam Dan district for questioning about an assassination. At that time, in the recession of the revolution, spontaneous acts of violence occurred frequently, especially the assassination of local officials, mandarins, and Western soldiers. These acts of violence were very disadvantageous because they gave the enemy an excuse to intensify their terror.

A very painful thing for Phan Dinh Dong was that when he returned to the district prison, he had to witness the tragic death of his close friend, Le Cong Canh. Canh was only skin and bones but still had to chop wood. He was so tired that while he was sitting there catching his breath, the spy hit him with a large piece of wood. That afternoon, he died.

At the end of 1931, the Southern Court of Nghe An sentenced Phan Dinh Dong to 9 years in prison. That year, he was only 20 years old. A sadness filled his soul, knowing that his youth would be spent in a hideous prison…

But news from outside leaked in, saying that many places in the province still had red flags and leaflets appearing, making him suddenly awake. He told himself: “So the Party still exists. Nine years from now, I will not be 30 years old yet. Life is still long, I can still do many things” (Phan Dinh Dong's Memoirs, op. cit., p. 124).

On the night of December 31, 1931, Phan Dinh Dong was sent to Kon Tum prison. That trip, Nghe An alone had 20 political prisoners, including Ho Tung Mau. Many of them were very young, only 17 or 18 years old.

Arriving at Kon Tum prison the day before, the next day, the new prisoners were herded to work on the road. Phan Dinh Dong and the new prisoners took the opportunity to inform the old prisoners who had been in the dark about the situation of the movement outside. In this prison, Phan Dinh Dong participated in the struggles against the harsh prison regime. Although the struggles had achieved initial victories, the forced labor was still extremely hard and heavy.

Although life in prison was very miserable, Phan Dinh Dong still maintained the spirit and will of a communist soldier. He actively helped many fellow prisoners learn the national language, joined a poetry group, and was one of the leading members of the struggle in prison.

In early 1933, Phan Dinh Dong was transferred to Buon Ma Thuot prison with Ho Tung Mau and other comrades. Here, Phan Dinh Dong joined the prison's Party Training Committee with Phan Dang Luu, Ho Tung Mau, Nguyen Duy Trinh... Buon Ma Thuot prison was also famous as "hell on earth" with a medieval-style detention and torture regime. However, the communist soldiers still organized a very rich spiritual life. In prison, there were still French classes taught by Phan Dang Luu, and Chinese classes taught by Ho Tung Mau. There were also very interesting cultural performances. Participating in those healthy and beneficial activities, Phan Dinh Dong felt like he had more strength to overcome the terrible challenges in prison.

In early 1936, Phan Dinh Dong was persuaded by Phan Dang Luu to be introduced to the prison warden to work at the desk. That was when comrade Phan Dang Luu was about to be released. Because he had been working at the desk for a long time, he intended to hand over the secret key to Phan Dinh Dong to know the secrets of the prison guards. However, when Phan Dang Luu met the prison warden to introduce him, the prison warden did not use Phan Dinh Dong to work at the desk but transferred him to work at the hospital...

In June 1936, Phan Dinh Dong was released from prison when the French Popular Front Government came to power.

In 1940, Phan Dinh Dong was able to contact a few comrades (such as Nguyen Thi Mau and comrade Chin), but they were later captured by the enemy. During the pre-uprising period, Phan Dinh Dong was able to contact Nguyen Duy Loi,Tran Van Cung, Nguyen Xuan Linh. The history of the Nam Dan Party Committee recorded: “On May 15, 1945, comrades Nguyen Xuan Linh in Xuan La (Xuan Lam), Phan Dinh Dong in Thanh Dam (Nam Dan), who were party members who held important positions in the revolutionary movement of 1930-1931, joined with political prisoners of the two provinces residing in Vinh, established the Nghe-Tinh Inter-Provincial Viet Minh Mobilization Committee to gather forces for unified action, preparing for the uprising to seize power. Receiving the task of the Inter-Provincial Viet Minh Mobilization Committee, comrade Phan Dinh Dong returned to Nam Dan to build a Viet Minh base in the district (History of the Communist Party of Vietnam, Nam Dan District... Nghe Tinh Publishing House 1990).

In a short time, Phan Dinh Dong gathered veteran party members and former political prisoners to propagate the influence of Viet Minh and build bases in villages and communes. Around June 1945, Viet Minh bases were formed in almost all areas of the district.

After Japan's unconditional surrender to the Allies (August 13, 1945), upon receiving the order to revolt from the inter-provincial Viet Minh, Phan Dinh Dong directed the district Viet Minh to organize a district-wide cadre conference at Luong Giai communal house (Nam Tan), electing the Uprising Committee and the Provisional Revolutionary Committee. On August 16, 1945 (History of the Communist Party of Vietnam in Nam Dan district... Nghe Tinh Publishing House 1990), the Thanh Thuy commune Viet Minh led the people to successfully seize power. This was the earliest successful uprising commune in the province. That achievement had a great contribution from Phan Dinh Dong.

On the morning of August 23, 1945, tens of thousands of people demonstrated, drums and flags were raised, and they marched into the district capital in Sa Nam town to successfully seize power. The district's provisional revolutionary committee was established with Mr. Vuong Tu Hue as Chairman. More than a month later, Mr. Hue resigned, and Phan Dinh Dong was appointed Chairman of the provisional revolutionary government elected on the day of the uprising. Comrade Phan Dinh Dong, Chairman of the district's Viet Minh, was appointed to hold the position of the first Chairman of the Nam Dan district's Revolutionary People's Committee.

At that time, our young government was facing many challenges such as famine, illiteracy, and foreign invaders. At the end of September 1945, 10,000 Chiang Kai-shek troops led by Division Commander Khau Binh Thuong moved from Hanoi to Nghe An (to disarm the Japanese army under the orders of the Allies). A Chiang Kai-shek unit was stationed in Nam Dan. Chairman Phan Dinh Dong promptly arranged for propaganda and explanations to the masses, closely monitoring the activities of Chiang Kai-shek troops. Therefore, in the Nam Dan area, no unfortunate incidents occurred.

From August 1946 to the end of 1949, Phan Dinh Dong was a member of the Nam Dan District Party Committee and Head of the District Information Department. From 1950 to 1952, he was assigned by the province to work at the Thanh Chuong Information Department and Anh Son Information Department, as an information officer of the province.

Having been a Party printing officer since 1930, when working in information work during the resistance war against the French, Phan Dinh Dong had the initiative to create lithographic ink and organize lithography in conditions lacking printing facilities. He was the first Tin Tuc newspaper in the province, helping the Propaganda Department and propaganda offices organize lithography.

Thanks to his outstanding achievements in the period of 1950-1952, he was commended by the Province and awarded a Certificate of Merit in the Congress of the Unification of the Viet Minh and Lien Viet Fronts of Nghe An Province (1951); and was commended and elected as an Emulation Fighter by the Nghe An Propaganda Department. In 1953, he was assigned by his superiors to work on "mobilizing the masses to fight for a thorough reduction of rent and interest" in Hop Chau Commune (Nghi Loc). In 1954, he worked in the Nghe An Civilian Worker Group serving the 1953-1954 Winter-Spring Campaign and the Dien Bien Phu Campaign. After that, he participated in instructing the traffic cadre training course organized by Inter-Zone IV.

After peace was restored (July 1954), Phan Dinh Dong worked in the province's propaganda work, in the Propaganda Committee of Ty and actively participated in the work of fighting against the enemy's enticement and coercion of Catholic compatriots to migrate to the South.

From 1956 to 1959, he continued to work in Propaganda in the province. After receiving cultural training at Nghe An Labor High School, he was appointed as Deputy Head of the Party History Research Board of Nghe An Provincial Party Committee (1961) until his retirement (1965). During his time working at the Provincial Party Committee, he had remarkable achievements in the process of forming the Party History Research Board of Nghe An Provincial Party Committee (established in 1963) and made significant contributions in the collection and translation (from French) of many important documents.

In the locality, he has promoted the nature of a veteran revolutionary soldier, participated in many social works, regularly attended Party activities, and set an example in implementing all policies and laws of the Party and State.

As a revolutionary activist since the age of 19, a member of the first Provincial Party Committee, and holding high positions such as the first Secretary of the Provincial Communist Youth Union, the first Chairman of the Revolutionary People's Committee of Nam Dan District, and Secretary of the Nam Dan District Party Committee, Phan Dinh Dong always had a modest, gentle attitude, respected everyone, from old to young, lived a frugal, simple life, was thrifty and exemplary in all social activities. He was a shining communist example for the younger generation to learn from.

Comrade Phan Dinh Dong passed away on April 25, 2001, at the age of 90. He was awarded the 70-year Party membership badge by the Party and the State: Third-class Resistance War Medal against France; Third-class Resistance War Medal against America for National Salvation; Second-class Independence Medal.