On the occasion of the 110th anniversary of the birth of Prime Minister Pham Van Dong (March 1, 1906 - March 1, 2016) - an excellent and close student of President Ho Chi Minh; a steadfast and exemplary communist; a highly prestigious leader of the Party, State and people, we respectfully introduce the article "Pham Van Dong - a great politician and cultural figure of the Party and nation" by Prof. Dr. Le Huu Nghia, Vice Chairman of the Central Theoretical Council.

President Ho and Prime Minister Pham Van Dong. Photo: Archive

A prominent feature in the personality and activities of many leaders of our Party and State, from President Ho Chi Minh to comrades Le Duan, Truong Chinh, Pham Van Dong, ... is the close connection between politics and culture, between politicians and culturalists. They are all leaders with high cultural qualifications. Deeply imbued with the values ​​of truth - goodness - beauty of national culture with typical characteristics such as patriotism, love of labor, compassion for people, humanity, humanitarianism ..., they have become excellent leaders, talented managers with many great contributions to the revolution, to the Fatherland and the people...

Comrade Pham Van Dong, as stated in the eulogy of the Party Central Committee, was “an excellent and close student of the great President Ho Chi Minh; a steadfast and exemplary communist; a highly prestigious leader of our Party, State and people; a very loyal son who fought all his life for national independence, for socialism, for the happiness of the people; a trusted friend of international friends; a great cultural figure of the nation”.

Comrade Pham Van Dong lived and worked alongside President Ho Chi Minh for many years (during the resistance war against the French colonialists in the Viet Bac Resistance Zone and later in Hanoi). Therefore, Pham Van Dong was deeply influenced by President Ho Chi Minh in terms of ideology, morality, style, political thinking and culture. He was a member of the Politburo for 35 consecutive years (1951-1986), Prime Minister for 32 years (1955-1987), and Advisor to the Party Central Committee for 10 years (1986-1997).

That depth shows that he is a talented politician, an experienced state activist, has great prestige, and is also a great cultural figure of the nation as our Party has assessed. He has many creative thoughts on culture and his life and career have exuded culture, a cultural personality.

Pham Van Dong is a model of pure revolutionary morality, a model of studying and following Ho Chi Minh's morality: Diligence, thrift, integrity, uprightness, impartiality. As an excellent student and working with President Ho Chi Minh for many years, Pham Van Dong was very fond of his teachings: We must consider being able to contribute to the Party and the people as happiness. He is a model of moral training, moral practice, lifelong dedication, sacrifice for the revolution, loyalty to the Party and the country, filial piety to the people, very honest, simple, and modest.

These are the outstanding features of Pham Van Dong's cultural personality in any period and any position - in the imperial prison in Con Dao or in the construction of the Viet Bac base, in the capacity of special envoy of the Party Central Committee and the Government to build and consolidate the base, the free zone of inter-zone V or with the responsibility of Deputy Prime Minister, then Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Head of the Central Foreign Affairs Committee, ... then Chairman of the Battlefield Support Council in the resistance war against the US, to save the country.

In any position, he devoted himself to his work, knew how to organize and mobilize the masses to both win the resistance war and build the nation successfully. Pham Van Dong's talent and virtue created the highest efficiency of a great politician and cultural figure.

Pham Van Dong is very interested in the fields of culture, education, science, literature and art. He has written many important and profound articles and works on culture.

As the head of the Government, busy with a thousand and one things, he still paid great attention to intellectuals and artists with sincere feelings like a friend. He always cared for and nurtured scientific talents for the country, was ready to exchange and dialogue in a frank, close, and intimate manner, and listened to everyone's opinions. He required intellectuals and artists to "live with the struggle, live with the revolutionary cause of the nation, that is, live the greatest reality of our people, which is also the great reality of the people of the world", to immerse themselves in the great reality of the people in order to be creative, to have good works. Artists must have life experience, must "work hard in life, understand life". The great reality requires artists to raise themselves to the same level as that reality.

He said: “Among the methods of ideological education, culture and arts have the most profound, penetrating, and lasting effects.” Because culture and arts have a close connection between ideological content and emotional content. According to him, emotions create a deep, lasting, and unforgettable impression in people’s hearts compared to other cognitive activities. However, we should not fall into sentimentalism, which can easily lead to losing alertness and clarity, easily creating a state of being “tearful” before all phenomena but then not taking action, lacking in decisiveness. He emphasized that artists must have “clear eyes and bright hearts,” have a clear mind and a humane heart, and at the same time have a strong character.

He required that works of art must have “full ideological value and full artistic value”, and that the content and artistic form must be unified, not emphasizing one and neglecting the other and vice versa. Because the object of literature and art is to serve the people, “creating literature and art is to bring spiritual food to our people”, the people require that works of literature and art must have good content and good, attractive and engaging form. Only then can culture contribute to building a new person.

As a leader and a great cultural figure of the nation, Pham Van Dong always paid close attention and wholeheartedly to the artists. From work, life, training and development to the motto, direction of composition, performance,... all were thoroughly studied by him, and he gave profound and friendly guidance. Many scientists, artists, and famous intellectuals in our country considered comrade Pham Van Dong as their elder brother because of his talent, intelligence, personality, and his kind and tolerant heart.

Pham Van Dong not only had profound and creative thoughts on culture and art, but also profound and passionate thoughts on education, showing that he was a great educator. As Chairman of the Central Education Reform Committee for many years, he required: Every teacher must be able to answer the question: What to teach? What to teach for? Schools must attach importance to comprehensive education for students, including moral education, intellectual education, physical education and aesthetic education. We must do and do well revolutionary moral education. We must build schools that are schools, classes that are classes, teachers that are teachers, students that are students, teaching that is teaching, learning that is learning; we must clearly identify education as the top national policy, the future of the nation.

From that, he concluded that "true innovation is culture and new culture is integrated as one with innovation", "innovation is the cause of culture and intelligence", must bring "the light of culture into economic activities", innovation is not to erase the past but to revive the past that needs to be restored, preserved and maintained, of course must know how to combine with modernity in an appropriate way.

Thus, with a profound and comprehensive understanding of the culture and practice - history of the nation with the cultural height and revolutionary worldview of the communists, Pham Van Dong raised his thinking about culture to a theoretical level of high philosophical and generalization. He made great contributions not only to the revolution in general but also to the building and development of the country's culture. It is thought that Pham Van Dong's thoughts and instructions on culture will continue to have theoretical and practical significance for our country in building and developing an advanced Vietnamese culture, imbued with national identity, comprehensively developing Vietnamese people, meeting the requirements of sustainable national development and firmly protecting the socialist Fatherland as affirmed by the Resolution of the 12th National Party Congress./.

According to Chinhphu.vn