Comrade Nguyen Tu Kien - A staunch communist soldier in the Nghe Tinh Soviet movement

Comrade Nguyen Tu Kien was born in 1895, in a family with a patriotic tradition in Hoa Quan village, Vo Liet commune (now Thanh Huong commune), Thanh Chuong district, Nghe An province. His father was Mr. Nguyen Tao, his mother was Mrs. Dinh Thi Phut, a woman full of compassion, hard-working, and devoted to taking care of her husband and children. From a young age, with his intelligence and good study, Nguyen Tu Kien soon passed the Bachelor's exam, was awarded the title of Ninth-grade Literature, but refused to become an official.

After completing the invasion of Vietnam, the French colonialists built a brutally exploitative ruling apparatus, causing people everywhere to fall into misery. In the same situation as the whole country, the people of Hoa Quan also had their land confiscated, suffered from high taxes, forced labor, and conscription, making their lives miserable in every way. That miserable life ignited the fire of struggle of the Hoa Quan people, especially after the founding of the Communist Party of Vietnam (February 3, 1930). During those turbulent years, Nguyen Tu Kien taught, prescribed medicine to treat the poor, and participated in the local people's struggle movement. He soon became enlightened about the revolution, following the Party's leadership.

Immediately after its establishment (March 20, 1930), Thanh Chuong District Party Committee considered Party building and developing grassroots Party organizations as the top priority. With the task of developing revolutionary bases and grassroots Party organizations, the District Committee's secret communication lines came to connect with the elite masses in Hoa Quan and selected red seeds to prepare for the establishment of grassroots Party organizations, including Nguyen Tu Kien, Nguyen Tu Van, Dau Dinh Linh, Nguyen Thi Sen (daughter of Nguyen Tu Kien). During the periods of 1930-1931 and 1939-1945, comrade Nguyen Tu Kien's house became a base of operations, a place to hide secret revolutionary cadres and store weapons, food supplies, and medicine [1]. Comrade Nguyen Tu Kien's wife, Mrs. Tran Thi Ngan, a loyal mass member of the Party, was the person who directly hid cadres and supplied food for the Party organization to operate.

Under the leadership of the District Party Committee and Party cells, revolutionary events took place continuously in Thanh Chuong, lasting from March to July 1930, with the active participation of Nguyen Tu Kien, Nguyen Tu Van, Dau Dinh Linh [2]... Nguyen Tu Kien and his comrades actively mobilized the people to participate in the fight against high taxes, heavy taxes, distributed leaflets, carried torches, carried lanterns,... against the oppression and exploitation of the puppet government and participated in many demonstrations in the district. Also during this time, Nguyen Tu Kien and Nguyen Huu Vien, through teaching sessions, organized for students to read books, newspapers, tell stories about the Chinese Xinhai Revolution, the Russian October Revolution and Communism once a month at Hoa Quan communal house, organized lantern processions and attended the demonstration in the district on May 5, 1930.

Implementing the policy of the District Committee, on July 15, 1930, Nguyen Tu Kien, Nguyen Huu Vien, and Nguyen Tu Van led and directed the Hoa Quan People to march to the district office to participate in the demonstration. However, due to information being leaked, the demonstration was quickly suppressed.

After a period of active and enthusiastic activities, in early August 1930, comrade Nguyen Tu Kien was honored to be admitted to the Party. Also in early August 1930, at the Nguyen Tu family temple (comrade Nguyen Tu Kien's house), under the chairmanship of Thanh Chuong District Party Committee, the Hoa Quan Party Cell was established, with the code name HQ. The cell consisted of 8 party members: Comrade Nguyen Tu Van (Secretary), Comrade Nguyen Tu Kien (Deputy Secretary) and comrades Dau Dinh Linh, Dinh Van Tiem, Le Nhu My, Nguyen Xuan Phon, Nguyen Huu Vien and Nguyen Thi Sen (comrade Nguyen Tu Kien's daughter) [3].

The establishment of the Hoa Quan Party Cell was an important turning point, opening a new page in the history of the revolutionary struggle of the Hoa Quan People. From then on, the movement to fight against colonial and feudal oppression and exploitation in Hoa Quan was directly led by the Party Cell. The scope of activities of the cell included: Hoa Quan, Thanh Khiet and Dong Hoa.

As Deputy Secretary of the Party Cell, Comrade Nguyen Tu Kien and the Party Cell led and organized many demonstrations, mobilized the masses to fight, and trained cadres for the Party. Typically, on August 10, 1930, Comrade Nguyen Tu Kien, along with Comrade Nguyen Tu Van and the Party Cell, led the masses to demonstrate and destroy the Hoa Quan Forest Ranger Station, freeing a number of cadres and people arrested for illegal logging. Afterwards, they continued to destroy the plantation in Dong Hoa, reclaiming some land for the people.

Then, on August 15, 1930, comrade Nguyen Tu Kien and the Hoa Quan Party Cell mobilized over 60 people to participate in a demonstration at Thanh Qua station against arrests and robberies. On August 20, 1930, comrade Nguyen Tu Kien and the Party Cell mobilized 110 people with spears and sticks to demonstrate their power under the order of the General Department, passing through the villages of Dong Du and Thanh La (Thanh Linh today), causing a great stir. The struggle movement in the commune grew stronger and stronger.

Faced with the strength of the revolutionary masses in Nghe Tinh, the French colonialists colluded with the feudal government of the Southern Dynasty to carry out many repressive plots. The Hoa Quan people, under the wise leadership of the Party Cell, united to protect cadres and party members, refused to lead the enemy in hunting down cadres, and fought hard to protect the movement.

By the end of August 1930, to deal with the enemy's plot, Thanh Chuong District Party Committee decided to organize a general demonstration in the whole district on September 1, 1930. The District Party Committee assigned cadres to the grassroots to organize meetings of the Party cells to deploy tasks. The Hoa Quan Party Cell was assigned by the District Party Committee to organize boats and vehicles for the protest forces of the villages and communes to cross the Trai River and Khe Mo, and at the same time, mobilize the masses in the area to join the protest group.

The people of Hoa Quan, under the direction of the Party Cell, headed by comrade Nguyen Tu Van - Party Cell Secretary, comrade Nguyen Tu Kien - Deputy Party Cell Secretary, actively participated in the demonstration. On the night of August 31, 1930, the Hoa Quan drum was brought to the top of Sung Bo mountain to await orders. The militia of the villages in Hoa Quan commune blocked all roads, cutting off the enemy's supply route to Thanh Chuong.

The Red Peasant Union forces blocked the roads, protected and guided the demonstration through. At 1 a.m. on September 1, 1930, as planned, when the drums of command rang out one after another on the high mountain peaks of Xuan Lam commune, Tien mountain, Vo Liet commune, Nguoc hill, Ngoc Son commune, at Hoa Quan commune, the drums sounded along with the gongs, bamboo clappers and the cheers of the people resounded on the top of Sung Bo mountain towards the District Office, urging the people to participate in the demonstration. The demonstration ended in victory. The enemy government collapsed, and in its place was the formation of the Soviet government.

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The demonstration in Thanh Chuong is considered the opening milestone marking the birth of the Soviet government in Nghe Tinh - the peak of the 1930-1931 revolutionary movement nationwide.

Taking advantage of the victory, the Hoa Quan Party Cell, under the leadership of comrade Nguyen Tu Van and comrade Nguyen Tu Kien, organized the masses to march to demonstrate their power, dig ditches to fight drought, open schools to teach the national language, and suppress local landlords. After the enemy government collapsed, the Party Cell established the Red Peasant Association, Red Self-Defense Force, Communist Youth Union, and Women's Liberation Association, confiscated public land and public rice money of villages and communes that landlords and landlords had appropriated, abolished taxes, reduced main rent and secondary rent, eliminated high debts, eliminated backward customs, and strictly banned alcohol and gambling.

On September 12, 1930, implementing the policy of the District Party Committee, the Hoa Quan Party Cell under the leadership of comrades Nguyen Tu Van and Nguyen Tu Kien led the masses to participate in rallies and demonstrations, protesting the French terrorist policy at Phuong market, Vo Liet commune, and held a memorial service for three masses who died in the demonstration on September 1, 1930. On September 29, 1930, the Party Cell held a memorial service for those who died in the demonstration on September 12, 1930 in Hung Nguyen district at Hoa Quan communal house.

On October 25, 1930, comrade Nguyen Tu Kien, in his position as Deputy Secretary, and the Hoa Quan Party Cell mobilized more than 300 people to join the struggle to demand that the mandarins and village chiefs return the charity money, cancel the public debt, and take back the public land and public land to distribute to the poor farmers. As a result, the village chiefs were forced to return 300 quan of charity money, announced the abolition of 400 quan of interest from the association to worship the saints and gods, cancel the interest debts of the landlords and rich farmers, abolish the land rent, and at the same time, burned all the books in the hands of the mandarins. Continuing the success, the Hoa Quan Party Cell decided to assign the Red Farmers' Association to take charge of the struggle to confiscate 500 bushels of rice from the landlords to distribute to the poor on December 2, 1930.

At the end of December 1930, the Party Cell directed the establishment of the Red Relief Association, comrade Nguyen Tu Kien was appointed as the Head of the Committee. The relief association gathered all classes of the rich - intellectuals - landlords - and all ages who were outside the agricultural associations, youth, and women to help those in difficult circumstances, at the same time, propagandize and mobilize people to learn the national language. Comrade Nguyen Tu Kien actively mobilized to recruit members, and by January 1931, 30 members had been recruited. Each village had a relief team leader who was a member of the Red Agricultural Association. The association mobilized each agricultural association to provide 10 ash-covered thatches and 1 bundle of bamboo to roof many dilapidated houses, such as the houses of Mr. Nguyen Xuan Tam, Tran Van Vinh, Tran Van Kinh, etc. As for the houses of Mr. Nguyen Van De and Mr. Nguyen Quoc Ha, which were destroyed by the enemy, the association built each family a 2-room house that was more spacious than before.

The activities of comrade Nguyen Tu Kien and the communists in Hoa Quan made the French colonialists and the puppet government in the area afraid. In early 1931, village chief Phan Ba ​​Uyen, along with the Chief of the group Le Ba Dung, Deputy village chief Nguyen Tu Don, and Village inspector Nguyen Tu Phong, brought Western soldiers from Dai Dinh garrison to suppress the situation, and at the same time, increased the number of porters. They secretly sent spies to investigate and find out about the active and important figures in the communist organizations to prepare a plan to suppress and arrest communist party members and revolutionary masses.

Comrade Nguyen Tu Kien and his comrades were relentlessly hunted down by the enemy [4]. They burned down the houses of comrades: Nguyen Tu Kien, Nguyen Tu Van, Nguyen Huu Vien, Nguyen Xuan Phon, etc. During a raid, they captured comrades Dau Dinh Linh, Le Ba Tuan, Nguyen Xuan Nhuyen, etc. Comrades Nguyen Tu Van, Nguyen Tu Kien, Nguyen Huu Vien, Phan Doan Dua, Nguyen Quoc Ha, etc. were lucky to escape the enemy's encirclement and retreated to Man Tac forest to operate secretly.

The brutal actions of the enemy caused many losses to the Hoa Quan Party Cell, making its operations difficult. The comrades in the cell remained steadfast, finding ways to fight against terrorism. During the day, they worked in the deep forest, and at night they returned to the village to distribute leaflets and propaganda slogans, in order to maintain and raise the fighting spirit of the masses, and at the same time, receive food to maintain their activities. However, these activities were difficult to avoid the enemy. They ordered martial law, built guard posts, and arrested cadres and party members who returned to the village at night to distribute leaflets and receive food. The revolutionary movement temporarily subsided.

To support the activities of the Party Cell in Hoa Quan, Thanh Chuong District Committee advocated mobilizing the masses to demonstrate, arrest and convict the local tyrants. Thanks to that, many comrades such as Nguyen Tu Kien, Nguyen Tu Van, Nguyen Huu Vien,... were able to return to work to rebuild the movement. The comrades went to Thanh Nha to find the Headquarters, discussed the plan to restore the Ngoc Lam area (Thanh An), and at the same time, used the whole district's self-defense force to arrest the Ngoc Lam village chief, Canh Ky. The revolutionary spirit here was restored and increasingly developed.

In April 1931, comrade Nguyen Tu Kien actively participated with the District Committee in the plan to organize the restoration of the Hoa Quan area. They took the Self-Defense Party Cells Giap Nhat, Giap Nhi, Giap Tam, Giap Tu, divided them into 3 groups, each group was assigned the task of capturing a number of mandarins and local officials who oppressed the people, causing losses to the revolutionary movement. Early the next morning, the groups captured the village chief Phan Ba ​​Uyen and the deputy group leader Nguyen Van An. The group led by comrade Nguyen Tu Van captured Phan Ba ​​Tiu and Nguyen Tu Khai, brought them into the forest and executed them. After this incident, the remaining mandarins were afraid and did not dare to act rashly, and the Party and mass organizations were gradually restored.

On the night of May 1, 1931, implementing the directive of the District Committee, the Hoa Quan Party Cell mobilized over 100 people from Hoa Quan and Thanh Khiet under the command of comrades Nguyen Tu Van and Nguyen Tu Kien to coordinate with the militia in the district to march and demonstrate to capture the Thanh La tyrants. As a result, 4 evil tyrants were destroyed.

However, at that time, the French colonialists and their henchmen increased their forces, set up more posts in Thanh Chuong district, determined to prevent and suppress the revolutionary movement. Therefore, the revolutionary movement encountered more and more difficulties. At the end of July 1931, the enemy, led by Bang Ta Tong Nguyen Tien Tinh (Soan), along with a number of soldiers in green and blue uniforms and the Thanh La commune porters, returned to the village and stationed at the house of comrade Nguyen Tu Kien [5]. They established the Chief, Deputy Village Chief, five village heads, bang ta xa, clan representatives and porters, and tried to suppress and terrorize the revolutionary movement. They hunted down, arrested, burned houses, robbed, and tortured not only those who directly participated in the revolution but also their relatives. The enemy's fierce terror forced many families to abandon their homes and gardens to seek refuge. Cadres and party members continued to take refuge in Khe Kieu forest to carry out secret activities.

These actions did not escape the enemy's notice. They implemented martial law, built more watchtowers, and intercepted cadres who returned to the village at night to distribute leaflets and receive food. The Hoa Quan revolutionary movement temporarily subsided, but the masses still found ways to bring rice and potatoes to supply the cadres and the revolutionary masses, wholeheartedly protecting the cadres and the revolutionary masses. Living in the open, cadres and party members had to endure hunger, cold, and illness. Hungry, they took forest tubers instead of rice, sick, they took forest leaves instead of medicine.

During his stay in Khe Kieu, comrade Nguyen Tu Kien fell seriously ill and his health declined. The cadres and the masses secretly brought him back to the village for treatment, but after a few days, the Bang Ta Soan group discovered him and arrested him. They claimed to have captured a dangerous communist and, knowing that he was seriously ill and could not survive, did not arrest him. A few days later, comrade Nguyen Tu Kien died in September 1931.

Passing away at the age of 36, a young man, when his revolutionary career was still unfinished, comrade Nguyen Tu Kien had made many contributions to the revolutionary cause of the Party and the nation. No matter what position he held, comrade Nguyen Tu Kien was always a staunch communist, wholeheartedly devoted to the country and the people.

Although it only existed for a short time, the Soviet movement in Hoa Quan and many other places in Nghe An - Ha Tinh left many good and meaningful marks, as a revolutionary rehearsal for the masses, preparing for the great August Revolution uprising later. The Hoa Quan Party cell in the period of 1930 - 1931 was considered one of the strong cells, fighting steadfastly against the French invaders until the end of Thanh Chuong district.

The contributions of comrade Nguyen Tu Kien helped weave a heroic Thanh Chuong Soviet that went down in the history of the homeland and the nation as an immortal epic.

Comrade Nguyen Tu Kien sacrificed, but the name and image of the loyal communist soldier who fought and sacrificed his whole life for the revolutionary cause of the Party, for the independence of the nation, and the happiness of the People will always be remembered by generations. His daughter, Nguyen Thi Sen, was recognized as a veteran revolutionary cadre. Comrade Nguyen Tu Kien's son, Nguyen Tu Xuyen, was the one who presided over the restoration of the Hoa Quan Party Cell and was captured by the enemy in 1935. He was also the one who presided over the establishment of the Viet Minh Hoa Quan Executive Committee in 1945 and later became Chairman of the Hoa Quan Uprising Committee [6].

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The family of comrade Nguyen Tu Kien was awarded the Certificate of Merit by the Government of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam for upholding the spirit of patriotism, fighting against imperialism and protecting the revolution, contributing worthily to the victory of the August Revolution in 1945.

In recognition of the great contributions of comrade Nguyen Tu Kien, the Party and State recognized him as a pre-uprising cadre. His name was solemnly engraved on the stele at the Memorial House of the Soviet Martyrs of Nghe Tinh 1930-1931 in the grounds of the Soviet Museum of Nghe Tinh, serial number 1011. The life and career of comrade Nguyen Tu Kien is an example of courage and resilience for generations of cadres, party members, young generations, and descendants to learn and follow.

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Le Ngoc Thinh - Deputy Director of XVNT Museum