The stature and international significance of the Nghe Tinh Soviet

90th AnniversaryNghe Tinh Soviet(1930 - 2020), in addition to reviewing the great historical significance of this event in general, let's talk more about the international significance of the Nghe Tinh Soviet.

It can be affirmed that even before the Communist Party of Vietnam was officially born,Indochinese Communist Partysuccessfully organized and led the celebration of the 12th anniversary of the Russian October Revolution (November 7, 1917 - November 7, 1929) in Nghe An. To prepare for that celebration, the Central Region Party Committee also promptly established printing agencies, printing many leaflets and posters, including:"Establishment of the Soviet government of workers, peasants and soldiers of Indochina",“Implement the worker-peasant dictatorship, hand over factories to workers, and land to farmers.”.

Also on that occasion, the Central Committee of the Central Region distributed a large number of the November 1, 1929 issue of the newspaper.Hammer and sickle(the mouthpiece of the Indochinese Communist Party) with the content of propagating about the October Revolution in Russia and calling on the masses everywhere to follow the example of the Soviet Socialist Republic.

The Red Guards in Hoa Quan - Dong So during the Nghe Tinh Soviet movement (1930 - 1931). Photo: Vietnam Military History Museum

Next, implementing the policy of celebrating International Labor Day on May 1, 1930 of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Vietnam for the first time in our country, from mid-April 1930, the Central Party Committee and the Nghe An Party Committee actively carried out preparations and decided to take International Labor Day as the day to launch the people's struggle movement in the whole province.

In a large-scale demonstration in Vinh - Ben Thuy on the morning of May 1, 1930, workers and farmers inside and outside Vinh - Ben Thuy city raised high the red flag with hammer and sickle and banners, lined up in neat rows, and shouted the slogan:"Overthrow French imperialism and the Southern feudal regime","Support Soviet Russia"…and sing the song"Internationale".

Obviously, before the establishment of the Nghe Tinh Soviet, many revolutionaries and people of Nghe An knew and turned to the October Revolution, to Soviet Russia and the Soviet Union. It can be seen that the appearance of the Soviet government in Nghe An was not a coincidence. Since 1917, during the revolutionary movement under the influence of the October Revolution in Russia, the world began to see the appearance of the form of Soviet government (or having characteristics similar to the Soviet in Russia) in some European countries (in Germany, 1918 - 1923; in Hungary, 1919) and China (1927-1934).

The Paris Commune and the Soviets in Russia, Germany, and Hungary were proletarian dictatorships that emerged in the proletarian revolutionary movement in capitalist imperialist countries, and they were born after the people successfully carried out armed uprisings in cities and towns. In China, a semi-colonial feudal country with a large land area and a large population, torn apart by many imperialists, and constantly at war with militarist forces, the Soviet government had the conditions to be established in many provinces.

Nghe Tinh Soviet Monument.

Meanwhile, the Nghe Tinh Soviet government was born in the historical context of the Vietnamese revolution and thus also had its own characteristics and made its own contributions to the world revolutionary cause. This was a peasant Soviet government born in a colonial country with a backward economy, right after the Communist Party was born; it was the first model of a worker-peasant state in Southeast Asia.

It can be said that this is vivid evidence of the creative application of Marxism-Leninism to the revolutionary situation in Vietnam. When the people's struggle broke out strongly, the colonial and feudal administrative apparatus in the villages was paralyzed, requiring an organization to manage rural order. Faced with that urgent need, the "commune peasants", from the function of a peasant organization, quickly switched to the function of the revolutionary government of the people, responsible for arranging the organization and taking charge of the work in the villages: Using the Red Self-Defense Force to fight against enemy terrorism, suppress the tyrants and maintain rural order; leading the redistribution of public land, abolishing unreasonable taxes imposed by feudal imperialism; organizing people to learn the national language; organizing propaganda, agitation and leading the organizations...

Through the activities of the “commune peasant committee” and the “village peasant committee”, it can be affirmed that the Soviet government in Nghe An carried out two main functions: construction and suppression. It was both a tool of the people’s dictatorship (mainly of the peasants) to fight against feudal colonialism and a government that directly managed all activities of the village.

The organizational form and scale of the Soviet government in Nghe An were very diverse. Most of the Soviets were organized in the form of the Red Peasant Executive Committee, which held power under the leadership of the communist party cell. In addition, in the early stages of the revolutionary movement, when there were not yet favorable conditions, in some localities, the Party cells took advantage of and used the village elders to work and serve the revolution. That is, the village elders were still allowed to hold the power to run the villages normally but were under the direction and control of the Party cells. Although the external form was still that of the old regime, the substance and content of the internal activities belonged to the people's government. Once the people's struggle caused the enemy's ruling apparatus to completely disintegrate, the Party cell led the people to take power.

Thus, depending on the comparison of forces between us and the enemy, in some places the Soviets were formed early, in others they were formed late. There were also places where the enemy's brutal terror caused the struggle movement to temporarily subside, so the Party cell directed its own people to become village chiefs to ensure secrecy, avoid the massacre and terror of the enemy, and at the same time create conditions for the revolutionary government to operate effectively. This was a unique and creative Soviet model of the Nghe An people under the leadership of the Party.

One difference between the Nghe An Soviet government and other places in the world is that it was formed at the commune level, not at the district level, and the time of birth and existence of the Soviets was also different. The Soviet government in Nghe An was formed by a chain reaction from village to village, depending on the characteristics of the struggle movement in each region. In addition, the duration of existence of the Soviet governments was generally about 9 months, but in each village and commune, it was different. Some places were founded due to strong enemy terror and disintegrated shortly after, but there were also many places where the enemy terror was severe and temporarily subsided and then recovered.

Thus, the revolutionary government in Nghe Tinh in the years 1930 - 1931 was called "Soviet", meaning that the Party Committee and the working people of Nghe An had established a revolutionary government in accordance with the spirit of Marxism - Leninism. Not only did the name itself highlight the international significance of the Nghe Tinh Soviet, but the Nghe Tinh Soviet itself truly demonstrated its contribution on a macro level.

After receiving the notice from the Party Central Committee about the Soviet movement in Nghe An, Nguyen Ai Quoc on one hand praised and commended the steadfast fighting spirit of the workers and peasants of Nghe An, and on the other hand gave his opinion to the Party Central Committee in directing the revolutionary movement in Nghe An. According to him, the immediate necessary tasks that the Party organizations in Nghe An must focus on implementing are:“Gather, organize, and mobilize farmers to fight for their daily rights, not to carry out a local uprising.”[“History of the Communist Party of Vietnam, Volume I”, Truth Publishing House, Hanoi, 1981, p.149.]. On September 29, 1930, Nguyen Ai Quoc sent a letter to the Executive Committee of the Communist International, in which he presented in detail the revolutionary struggle of the workers and peasants of Nghe Tinh, and at the same time requested the Communist International to provide guidance for the movement. Next, in a letter to the Peasants' International (November 5, 1930), he reported on the struggles of the masses, the establishment of the Soviet government in Nghe An, condemned the brutal repression and terror of the French imperialists and requested that this organization provide urgent assistance to the victims of terror..." [Complete Party Documents, Volume II (1930), National Political Publishing House, 1998, p.224]. On February 19, 1931, Nguyen Ai Quoc continued to send a report to the Communist International under the title"Red Nghe Tinh"In this report, after presenting in detail the general struggle situation of workers and farmers in Nghe An, he affirmed:“Bombs, machine guns, burning houses, military posts..., government propaganda, press... were all powerless to extinguish the revolutionary movement of Nghe Tinh.”[Complete Party Documents, Volume III (1931), National Political Publishing House, 1998, p.53].

Meanwhile, the Communist International warmly praised and highly appreciated the movement. The French Proletarian newspaper in October 1931 commented:“This movement was a great step in the anti-imperialist and land struggle, having a great influence in the history of the liberation of Indochina”.

Nghe Tinh Soviet Movement 1930 - 1931.

Thus, the Nghe Tinh Soviet movement was not only the first revolutionary leadership exercise of the Communist Party of Vietnam since its inception, the peak of the revolutionary movement in the years 1930-1931, but its significance reached international level, carrying profound contemporary significance. Although it only existed for a short time and was still rudimentary, the movement left good marks of the first worker-peasant state, unprecedented in history, responding to the burning desire for independence and freedom of the people who lost their country and were enslaved. The Nghe Tinh Soviet was not only forever recorded in the history of the Vietnamese revolutionary struggle, but was also an event of international significance, proving the statement: The Vietnamese revolution is a part of the world revolution; the revolutionary predecessors in Nghe Tinh in particular, and Vietnam in general, have made many worthy contributions to the common development of the history of progressive humanity...