Spreading the Soviet spirit through folk songs

Nghe An Newspaper would like to briefly record the research article “Xo viet Nghe Tinh qua ve” by Associate Professor Ninh Viet Giao - a person considered as an “Art scholar” and recognized by the Vietnam Book of Records Center as “the person with the most research works on Nghe folk culture”.

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Portrait of Associate Professor Ninh Viet Giao and the books he devotedly wrote over the decades.

Photo: Nghe An Newspaper

...The verse not only has a combative, satirical, ironic, and topical character, but it also has a deep, lyrical character. The verse fully reflects the outlook on life and the world of our people. Although the language is not yet refined, the character's psychology and personality are not yet clearly portrayed, it is correct in terms of social research.

Folk songs in Nghe An are extremely rich. It can be said that folk songsNghe Tinh Sovietappeared in Nghe Tinh before the Nghe Tinh Soviet movement broke out. These were songs calling for and propagating the revolution, such as: "The call of the Indochinese Communist Party", "Quickly reclaim your rights", "Bang out, let's stand up", "Friends plowing, let's think again", "Introducing the Soviet Union", "Talk to father", "My fellow soldiers", "Come on, soldiers in green and red shorts"...

These articles are all written in the folk song form, the content often analyzes the social situation, points out the humiliation of losing the country and freedom, explains the Party's policies and calls on the people to rise up and make revolution.

Verse about social situation:

"The Southern Dynasty mandarins

With the empire of a ward

It chisels the marrow and carves the bones.

Also brutal

The more brutal

When the time comes for the feast

When sentenced to death

When the family farm

Let the officials plunder as they please

People suffer because of looting"

(Excerpt from the poem: "Let's stand up").

The poem calls on the people to rise up and make revolution:

"The Communist Party propagates

Marxism-Leninism

Let's cheer up the youth,

Come on ladies,

Workers, peasants and soldiers are one faction,

We have to agree.

With all my heart,

To fight together,

The final battle".

(Excerpt from the poem: "The call of the Indochinese Communist Party")

The poems with revolutionary propaganda content as mentioned above are more valuable than the narrative poems. Some were composed in the years 1930-1931, others were published shortly after. Articles such as "Dan Hanh Lam destroyed Ky Vien's house", "Telling the story of the struggle in Nam Dan", "Telling the story of the struggle in Thanh Chuong", "The years 1930-1931 in Yen Thanh", "The years 1930-1931 in Dien Chau", "September 12 demonstration in Hung Nguyen", "Do Gang in the years 1930-1931", "The last days in Dong Son village in the two years 1930-1931", "Revolutionary gang", "Burning houses", "The French burned two villages Phu and Tho", "Vinh prison"... helped us see the content, nature of the movement, the development of a struggle, the revolutionary enlightenment of the people, the role of the masses, the leadership of the Party, the plots and responses of the imperialists and the feudal Southern Dynasty, the savage terror of the enemy... clearly, fully, and vividly.

The authors of these poems are mostly farmers, some are revolutionary soldiers. Because most of the authors of narrative poems about the Nghe Tinh Soviet movement are farmers, the content is real, real people, the way of reflection is very innocent. Innocence is not naturalism, it helps us see the real development of the struggle, the atmosphere of the struggle and its advantages and disadvantages.

The poem describes the revolutionary atmosphere in the two years 1930-1931 in Nam Dan:

"Everywhere in the homeland

The village has been spread, the streets have been known

Leaflets were distributed day and night.

Drums ring, bells urge, wooden fish shake twice

Each person has a long ruler.

The people are like the stormy sea and the pouring rain.

Three armies show the way, wave the flag

Drag out to the Dan district residence"

(Excerpt from the poem: "Telling the story of the struggle in Nam Dan")

That isdemonstration on August 30, 1930In that demonstration, 3,000 Nam Dan farmers demonstrated at the district capital, broke into the prison, released political prisoners, and forced the district chief Le Khac Tuong to sign a petition with the commitment: "Nam Dan district chief and official, if they are selfish, will not harass the people."

And here is in Thanh Chuong:

"Xuan Lam, Cat Ngan, Dai Dong

Bich Hao and Vo Liet struggle council

The hammer and sickle and the red flag are flying high.

The sound of drums and wooden fish lurking by the river

Release prisoners, burn district office

People go like the East Sea flows in

Bustling through the country roads

Shout out slogans regardless of thorns

Who cares about life or death tomorrow?

Who cares about guns and bullets with colonialists?

Demand independence, demand rights

Demand to abolish taxes, build a worker-farmer foundation"

(Story of the struggle in Thanh Chuong)

That was September 1, 1930, twenty thousand Thanh Chuong farmers loudly protested in the district capital, broke the prison, released political prisoners, and burned the district office. District chief Phan Sy Phang and all the mandarins and soldiers had to flee.

We notice in the following paragraph not only the spirit but also the slogans and demands of the struggle.

And this is the demonstration on September 12, 1930 in Hung Nguyen. After the demonstrations in Nam Dan, Thanh Chuong, Anh Son, Nghi Loc, Can Loc, Duc Tho, Dien Chau... the revolutionary movement rose like a broken dam. The enemy feared that the movement would spread further, rise further, so they tried to suppress and terrorize. But the more terrorized, the more passionate and fierce the movement became:

“Alas, the net is torn!

The red wave has grown big.

Get rid of them

The group of people parted the earth and crossed the sky to advance.

The tail of the convoy is still at the station.

The head of the group was about to be pulled out to the street.

White leaflets on village roads

The bamboo grows tall, the flag waves higher

The ghosts and souls of the people are lost in the street.

Tell me, I'm dying right now...”

(Excerpt from the poem: "September 12th protest in Hung Nguyen")

The three verses among many verses that express the enthusiasm and strong spirit of the protesters mentioned above, with fluent words and vivid images, more or less echoing the heroic epic. That is the concrete and great reality of history, of the human soul, the atmosphere of Nghe An and Ha Tinh, and of all of Vietnam, not only in the two years 1930-1931.

In "For months, oh dear, the hammer and sickle flags were raised high, drums and gongs were beaten loudly, the Southern Dynasty lost their nerve, the French lost their nerve" (verse "Listen to the words of the mandarins"), "Seeing torn hats and torn clothes, loud protests, the sky rumbled, saw airplanes and bombs. Our people considered the sky as their mother and father, cutting their hands evenly, many died, many were injured" (verse "The sky moved in all directions"). The verse showed us the days when the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs ruled the countryside, the new, healthy activities of the Soviet government.

For example in Thanh Chuong:

"Western and feudalism gone"

Village fields, fields and all that belongs to us,

Thanh Lam down to Lieu Nha

Van Giai, Xuan Suddenly Cho Qua Tri Tuong

Leaflets, proper speeches

Demonstration, reading newspapers, village meetings to fight

Bustling rallies

Bustling Self Defense Practice Tomorrow

This time everyone is the same

Mine, mine, kill the inhumane

This time is neither holy nor divine.

No heaven, no Buddha, people's rights are enforced"

(Excerpt from the poem "Telling the story of the struggle in Thanh Chuong")

Here we can draw the following conclusions:

Among the many main characteristics of the verses are the worldly and historical characteristics. The verses about the Nghe Tinh Soviets have both of these characteristics. At the time, they were strong, and as time passed, they became stronger. Because the composers, that is, the authors of those verses, had directly participated in the movement, struggled with the movement, or witnessed it.

Verse is a type of folk literature. The authors in the Nghe Tinh Soviet movement used this type, a type very close to the people of Nghe Tinh, trying very hard to learn the folk cultural heritage in terms of performance to create, their works were widely popularized, easy to understand and easy to remember by workers and peasants. With the two remaining types of verses about the Nghe Tinh Soviet, political and narrative, we can think that verse was a revolutionary advantage.

Verses expose the face of the ruling clique, attack the reactionary policies of the enemy, call on the masses to rise up and fight, record the events and developments of the revolution, and now they have become historical documents. It is true that verses, which are a genre with simple words often describing common events in the village, have through the course of history elevated themselves to become a tool of struggle, participating in the broad struggles of the nation.