Uncle Ho's image on postage stamps

(Baonghean.vn) -“The stamps carry Uncle Ho’s image on them/ The stamps add strength, add love to the stamps…”, those are the verses celebrating the first set of stamps about Uncle Ho in 1946, drawn by artist Nguyen Sang, which appeared at the “stamp market” of Chi Linh flower garden (Hanoi). Since then, on the fragile postage stamps, there has been a “historical record” of his life.

According to current statistics, Uncle Ho is still the image most often featured on postage stamps with 131 stamp designs and dozens of artists taking Uncle Ho's image as inspiration for their creations. Not only that, in many countries around the world, President Ho Chi Minh's image is also featured on many postage stamps.

"The stamp has Uncle Ho's image on it..."

To celebrate the first anniversary of the August Revolution and the first National Independence Day, on August 27, 1946, the President of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam signed Decree No. 172-SL, assigning the Vietnam Revolutionary Postal Service to issue a new type of postage stamp, the first of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam.



The first set of postage stamps bearing the national name of Vietnam, issued on September 2, 1946.

The image chosen for the first stamp set is President Ho Chi Minh, citizen number 1, the founder of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam. The person who had the honor of drawing the first stamp design was the late artist Nguyen Sang, who was only 23 years old at the time, from My Tho, Tien Giang. As an excellent art student, graduating from the intermediate level of Gia Dinh Fine Arts School and the Indochina Fine Arts College (Hanoi) before 1945, artist Nguyen Sang used to draw propaganda paintings, promote the revolution, and draw Vietnamese banknotes. Loving his country and having boundless respect for Uncle Ho, he focused his talent on drawing a portrait of President Ho Chi Minh, meeting the requirements of postage stamps: detailed, characteristic and highly accurate, true to graphic quality, suitable for the difficult and deprived printing conditions of the early days of the country's founding.



The stamp has a picture of Uncle Ho.

During the resistance war against the French and later periods, many talented artists successfully depicted Uncle Ho's image on stamps. Artist Bui Trang Chuoc is considered to have always followed in Uncle Ho's footsteps to have stamps about Uncle Ho in the Viet Bac resistance base imbued with the mountains and forests. Artists Trinh Quoc Thu, Tran Huy Khanh, Nguyen The Vinh with beautiful and unique stamp designs. Artists Tran Luong, Do Viet Tuan, Nguyen Hiep are diverse in themes and writing styles as well as rich in the number of creations when expressing the theme of Uncle Ho. Or Nguyen The Vinh with memorable stamps such as "President Ho Chi Minh", "Portrait of a leader", "Children wishing Uncle Ho a long life..." brought touching images.

Stamps about Uncle Ho in five continents

Not only is the image of President Ho Chi Minh a source of inspiration for domestic stamp designers, it is also a subject for artists around the world to express, accompanying the events of the Vietnamese people and his career. Up to now, there have been no less than 15 countries and territories issuing postage stamps about President Ho Chi Minh. The world's first postage stamp set about President Ho Chi Minh is the stamp set "Commemorating the 80th anniversary of Ho Chi Minh's birth" consisting of 7 stamps, designed by the late artist Felix René Mederos Pazos (1933 - 1996), officially issued by the Republic of Cuba on May 19, 1970. This artist visited Vietnam twice in 1969 and 1972 to draw some pictures about the Vietnam War. The Cuban stamp set "Commemorating the 80th anniversary of Ho Chi Minh's birth" vividly depicts the daily life and fighting scenes of the people and soldiers of the two regions such as: engineering workshops, rice harvesting, underground classrooms... Among them, there is a stamp with the highest face value of 13 centavos (cents) with a portrait of President Ho on a red flag with a yellow star.

On September 2, 1970, commemorating the first anniversary of the death of President Ho Chi Minh and the 25th anniversary of the National Day of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, the German Post Office issued one stamp in a series of seven stamps with a surcharge. This stamp bore a portrait of President Ho Chi Minh with the black German text "In memory of President Ho Chi Minh" and the red "Invincible Vietnam". Then, on May 19, 1972, Cuba issued a stamp set "The Third Conference on Protesting the American War in Indochina" consisting of three stamps, including one stamp worth 3 centavos bearing the image of Jose Marti and Ho Chi Minh, two great revolutionary leaders of the two countries, on a stylized background of the Cuban and Vietnamese flags. May 19 is the birthday of President Ho Chi Minh and the death anniversary of Cuban leader Jose Marti.



Stamps from Cuba about Uncle Ho.

On February 17, 1973, to celebrate the signing of the Paris Agreement on Vietnam, Algeria issued a stamp with a face value of 0.40 dinar. The stamp featured a reddish-brown map of a unified Vietnam standing out on the yellow Indochina peninsula lying on the deep blue East Sea with a portrait of President Ho placed solemnly in an oval frame. The stamp bore the French inscription "Honoring the Vietnamese people" and the date of signing the Paris Agreement on Vietnam "January 27, 1973".



Stamps of the former Soviet Union

On the occasion of the 90th anniversary of President Ho Chi Minh's birth, on July 12, 1980, the Soviet Union issued a 6 kopecks stamp. On this stamp, Uncle Ho's portrait is beautifully depicted in blue against the background of the red flag with a yellow star, next to the Hanoi Flag Tower.

On March 15, 1999, the Republic of the Marshall Islands issued the stamp set "Decade of Peril and Development 1950-1959" consisting of 15 stamps with a face value of 60 cents in the "20th Century" series. This stamp set shows many important events in the 50s of the 20th century. The 9th stamp in the set is called "Sunset on Colonial Empires" with a portrait of President Ho Chi Minh next to a bright red map of Vietnam divided at the 17th parallel and an image of soldiers of the Vietnam People's Army raising the red flag "Determination to fight, determination to win" on top of the bunker of French General De Castries during the Dien Bien Phu campaign in July 1954.

In 2000, the United States of Dominica, a small country in the Caribbean, issued the "20th Century, 1960 - 1969" stamp set consisting of 17 stamps with a face value of 55 cents, part of the "Millennium 1000 - 2000" stamp series. This stamp set was beautifully printed with images of many major events in the 60s of the 20th century, including 1 stamp about the death of President Ho Chi Minh in 1969. Also in 2000, a stamp set bearing the name of Afghanistan, consisting of 9 stamps, showed portraits of 9 great politicians of the world in the 20th century, including President Ho. In 2001, Rwanda issued the "Millennium" stamp set consisting of many small stamps, each with 4 stamps with a face value of 300 Rwandan Francs to honor the world's great men in all fields in the past Millennium. President Ho Chi Minh appeared on the stamps of the 1940s with a portrait wearing glasses, very kind, with white hair and beard.



Lao PDR stamp about Uncle Ho

On July 18, 2002, commemorating the 25th anniversary of the Laos-Vietnam Friendship and Cooperation Treaty, the Lao People's Democratic Republic issued a set of stamps called "Laos-Vietnam Cooperation" consisting of two designs, including one stamp with a face value of 3,500 kip depicting President Ho Chi Minh talking with President Kaysone Phomvihan, President of the Lao People's Revolutionary Party and President of the Lao People's Democratic Republic. The images of the two leaders on the stamps are drawn simply in black and white.

In particular, in 1990, on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the birth of President Ho Chi Minh, who was honored by UNESCO as a World Cultural Celebrity and National Liberation Hero, 5 countries respectfully issued stamps about him. On February 3, 1990, the former Soviet Union issued a stamp with a face value of 10 kopecks. The portrait of President Ho Chi Minh on the stamp has a solemn beauty, based on a photo of him in the 60s. ...

In Nghe An, his homeland, there was once a stamp exhibition called “Nghe An Postage Stamp Exhibition 2010 - Glorious Party, Great Uncle Ho” on the occasion of the 120th anniversary of President Ho Chi Minh’s birth (1890-2010). Each small stamp or the whole set of stamps seemed to have condensed and gathered a part of his tireless life of activities and his shining personality.

With a total of 116 stamp frames of thematic genre, thousands of stamps, real envelopes, postcards... from Vietnam and many countries around the world bearing the image of President Ho Chi Minh, the exhibition introduced and conveyed to a large number of people the understanding of the life, career and noble moral thoughts of Uncle Ho. Each fragile stamp, carrying on its back a letter heavy with the sender's thoughts and the recipient's expectations, spread its wings across the sea and through the forest. How warm it is when on it, there is the image of Uncle Ho, kind and radiant. "Uncle Ho's love brightens our lives...", perhaps thanks to that, the letter going far away will only bring good news./.

Tran Hai