Nguyen Thi Minh Khai - shining revolutionary spirit

In 1919, when she was only 9 years old, Nguyen Thi Vinh was sent by her family to study in Quoc Ngu classes, then transferred to the second grade at Nguyen Truong To Girls' School, Vinh City. In 1924, Nguyen Thi Vinh transferred to the first grade at Cao Xuan Duc Primary School, influenced by the patriotic ideology of teachers Tran Phu, Ha Huy Tap...

From 1925 to 1927, she participated in the Phuc Viet Association and then the Vietnam Revolutionary Comrades Association in Vinh, founded by patriots such as Tran Phu, Ha Huy Tap, Ton Quang Phiet... To keep it a secret, she changed her name from Nguyen Thi Vinh to Nguyen Thi Minh Khai - a meaningful name that followed her throughout her life of steadfast revolutionary activities. That year, she was just 17 years old.

In early 1929, with the organization's consent, Nguyen Thi Minh Khai secretly left her family to participate in revolutionary activities. On February 3, 1930, the Communist Party of Vietnam was born, and Nguyen Thi Minh Khai was admitted to the Party. She was in charge of propaganda work, training party members and workers in the Truong Thi and Ben Thuy areas, and organized many training courses to train cadres for the Party, which was the core force that fought fiercely in the Nghe Tinh Soviet movement of 1930 - 1931.

In the summer of 1930, with the trust and recommendation of the Central Region Party Committee, headed by comrade Nguyen Phong Sac, comrade Nguyen Thi Minh Khai was sent abroad via Hai Phong to Hong Kong, China. She changed her name to A Vay and worked in the Eastern Branch Office of the Communist International, together with comrades Nguyen Ai Quoc and Ho Tung Mau. Nguyen Thi Minh Khai was directly educated by comrade Nguyen Ai Quoc on the basic theories of Marxism-Leninism and secret operations experience.

Delegate card of comrade Nguyen Thi Minh Khai attending the 7th International Communist Congress in 1935. Photo: Archive

In April 1931, the Party agency in Hong Kong was exposed, and Nguyen Thi Minh Khai was arrested along with 20 other comrades. In 1933, Nguyen Thi Minh Khai was released thanks to the efforts of the Red International. After being released from prison, she changed her name to Vai and worked as a tailor on the streets of Shanghai to find a way to contact the Party. Finally, she was able to contact comrades Le Hong Son, Tran Ngoc Danh, Le Thiet Hung, Ha Huy Tap, Le Hong Phong, Hoang Van Non, etc. During this time of sharing hardships, Nguyen Thi Minh Khai developed feelings for and married comrade Le Hong Phong.

In September 1934, Nguyen Thi Minh Khai was honored to be the first Vietnamese woman to be elected to the Party delegation to attend the 7th Congress of the Communist International in Moscow, along with Le Hong Phong (Head of the delegation) and Hoang Van Non. While waiting for the Congress, comrade Nguyen Thi Minh Khai was admitted to study and improve revolutionary theory at the Oriental University (January 1935).

At the Congress, comrade Minh Khai met and had a friendly talk with comrade NK Krupskaya, a veteran Bolshevik and lifelong friend of VLL Lenin.

Comrade Nguyen Thi Minh Khai and comrade NKCrupxskaya at the 7th Congress of the Communist International, July 1935. Photo: Archive

After graduating from the Oriental University, at the end of 1936, comrade Nguyen Thi Minh Khai was sent back to the country by the Communist International to convey to the leaders of the Indochinese Communist Party important instructions assigned by the Communist International.

At the end of 1937, comrade Nguyen Thi Minh Khai was assigned to work in Saigon. She took the alias "Bay Khai", "Nam Bac", was elected to the Southern Regional Party Committee and was Secretary of the Saigon - Cho Lon City Party Committee.

On June 22, 1939, in the midst of a busy schedule, many difficulties, and being pregnant with her first child, comrade Nguyen Thi Minh Khai was shocked to receive the news that comrade Le Hong Phong had been tracked down and arrested by the French Secret Service. Suppressing her grief and worrying about her partner, she continued to fulfill her mission of leading the Saigon - Cho Lon revolution. In early 1940, Minh Khai gave birth to a baby girl named Le Nguyen Hong Minh, a combination of the names Minh Khai and Hong Phong.

In mid-1940, Japan invaded Indochina, a struggle movement rose up in Saigon - Gia Dinh and the rural areas of Cochinchina. Faced with this situation, the Cochinchina Regional Party Committee decided to launch an uprising to seize power. On July 30, 1940, the Party's base was exposed, Nguyen Thi Minh Khai was arrested by the French colonialists at Nga Sau, Binh Dong after attending a meeting of the Cochinchina Regional Party Committee.

The painting depicts Nguyen Thi Minh Khai (left) and her comrades participating in revolutionary propaganda at Diec Pagoda (Vinh City). Photo: Quoc Son (taken at Nguyen Thi Minh Khai Memorial House)

Knowing that Nguyen Thi Minh Khai was the Secretary of the Saigon - Cho Lon Party Committee, holding an important role in the Southern Regional Party Committee, the French colonialists imprisoned her at the Saigon Prison and used all kinds of brutal torture such as: electrocuting her, hanging her upside down from the rafters, hammering nails into her fingertips... But she still gritted her teeth and endured, determined not to reveal her organization and comrades. Realizing that the whip could not subdue her, after the enemy learned that Minh Khai and Le Hong Phong were husband and wife, they used the trick of putting the two of them in prison together to shake their spirit. However, the enemy failed before a staunch communist family. All the French colonialists received was a resolute answer: "I do not know this person".

Although imprisoned and tortured in a French prison, as Secretary of the Saigon-Cho Lon City Party Committee and member of the Southern Regional Party Committee, Nguyen Thi Minh Khai still tried to find ways to contact her comrades to lead the revolutionary movement in the South. In Circular No. 7709-S of Chief Justice P. Arnoux in 1940 sent to the Governor of Cochinchina, Inspector General of Justice mentioned that “… When searching Nguyen Thi Minh Khai, two handwritten documents were discovered in her clothes. The first document was a call for soldiers, workers and farmers of Indochina to unite to launch a revolution and fight for liberation with the support of the Soviet Union. The second document was a letter signed by political prisoner Ho Thi Duc to comrades, with a passage implicitly requesting that readers increase communist propaganda. The fact that this letter was discovered in the hands of Nguyen Thi Minh Khai proves that this subject was responsible for communication with outside the prison”.

The Saigon Military Court on March 25, 1941 and April 3, 1941 sentenced her to 12 sentences: 2 death sentences, 2 life sentences, 2 sentences of 20 years in prison, 1 sentence of 15 years in prison, 5 sentences of 5 years in prison. In the enemy's court, she not only did not submit but also boldly questioned them: "My country, saving the country is a crime, is stealing the country not a crime?".

Memorial house of comrade Nguyen Thi Minh Khai in Quang Trung ward, Vinh city. Photo: Thanh Duy

Nguyen Thi Minh Khai took advantage of the last time of her life to do three important things: Secretly wrote on a small piece of paper rolled up in a cigarette and sent it to her comrade, her life partner Le Hong Phong, who was being exiled in Con Dao prison: "Even if I die, I promise you, I will be loyal to the revolution, loyal to the Party. I promise to always be a steadfast communist. I hope you will be the same." Finally, she stripped off her prison clothes, knitted a pillowcase and sent it to her mother - a little bit of filial piety, an apology for not fulfilling her duty of taking care of her when she was old and weak, and advised her younger siblings: "Study hard to become a worthy person to make your parents happy."

On August 28, 1941, the French colonialists took comrade Nguyen Thi Minh Khai and comrades Ha Huy Tap, Nguyen Van Cu… to be executed at Nga Ba Giong, Hoc Mon district (Saigon). Nguyen Thi Minh Khai heroically sacrificed herself at the age of 31, when her youth and revolutionary spirit were still surging.