Find and keep the "golden pavement" of time!

(Baonghean) - From a history teacher, Mr. Chu Trong Huyen switched to history research and compiled many important local history books. On the occasion of the 85th anniversary of the Nghe Tinh Soviet, he shared his thoughts with Nghe An Newspaper about his work...

I was a high school teacher. In 1966, I was assigned to work as a cadre of the Nghe An Party History Research Board, headed by Comrade Vo Thuc Dong, Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee, Mr. Nguyen Van Giang, Head of the Propaganda Department, as Deputy Head, and Mr. Nguyen Dinh Trien as Deputy Head. Since 1978, I was assigned to the Historical and Geography Research Board of the Provincial People's Committee (we colloquially called it the "History Information Board"), headed by Mr. Tran Nguyen Trinh, former Head of the Department of Culture. After that, I held the position of Head of the Board for a while. Now, it has been nearly twenty years since I returned, but the work has not stopped.

Mr. Chu Trong Huyen on a business trip to Guangzhou (China), where leader Nguyen Ai Quoc lectured to a class of the Vietnam Revolutionary Youth Association (1925). (Photo provided by the author)

When I was still teaching and when I switched to research, my life could be summed up in a few words: diligence, studying and writing. To research historical documents, I taught myself two foreign languages: Chinese and French. Later, when I retired, to meet the needs of editing in the new era, I taught myself computers using a Chinese program.

As soon as I was transferred to the Party History Research Board in 1967, I was fortunate to be assigned with comrade Nguyen Dinh Trien to compile a draft of the history of the Nghe An Party Committee, volume 1, printed in 1967, under the author's name of the Party History Research Board of the Nghe An Provincial Party Committee. When I transferred to work at the "General History Board" of the Provincial People's Committee, I was assigned to organize the book "History of Nghe An" (volume 1), in which I directly wrote 2 chapters: one chapter about Nghe An during the French colonial period, one chapter about the Nghe Tinh Soviet. Then I was the chief editor of the book "Nghe Tinh 40 years of events and figures" (1945-1985). Recently, the history of Nghe An province was presided over by Vinh University in the compilation, I wrote 4 chapters in volume 2 of that book. A part that has become part of my life is the research on Uncle Ho in his youth and his family members. The thickest book and one of the earliest books on this subject is "Stories of Uncle Ho's youth", which focuses on his hometown, family background and childhood. The first was to document and compile the book "Stories of Uncle Ho's youth" (Truth Publishing House, printed in 1980).

Nowadays, doing history, especially local history, seems to have a common background, a very rich and stable common material, both from the central government and the province. In our time, there were some works before, but they were basically only in draft form. Therefore, we had to search and research from the beginning.

When we went to do the history of the Nghe An Provincial Party Committee, especially the history of the Nghe Tinh Soviet Movement, the documents were mostly written in French, and the main storage places were the Vietnam Revolutionary Museum and the Ministry of Public Security. Therefore, we had to find, read, and copy what they allowed. Machines were limited, and the means were rudimentary, so we had to know both foreign languages ​​and how to choose.

From written documents, we must verify and compare them with local historical facts to cross-check, verify and filter.

Coming back to do research work in 1966, from then until the end of the war, we had to go to find documents in the rain of bombs and bullets many times. When going to the base, we had to provide our own transportation, mainly by bicycle, and if it was too far, we had to take a bus. Once, when we were going to contact witnesses, when passing through the Bong - Veo area (Yen Thanh), a bomber shook right in front of us, both people and vehicles fell into the fields, but we still felt lucky. Even the time to meet, learn, and contact witnesses and documents in Hanoi was extremely arduous. At that time, we were assigned to "undercover" at the Central Party History Research Department in Cau Giay, and every day we had to cycle to work all the way to the old quarter today to go to the Vietnam Revolution Museum, where retired senior party members who worked at the Central lived to listen and record documents. Going to work and hearing the alarm bell had to go down to any place to hide had become a common thing.

Contact witnesses to hear their stories or perhaps find valuable documents that they have kept to record a little evidence of the past. During this period, I met dozens of such living witnesses. Everyone was kind, gave enthusiastic instructions, provided and introduced carefully. Among them, I was lucky to meet people like Mr. Phan Thai At, a cadre who worked in Nghe An very early, later became Secretary of the Quang Ngai Provincial Party Committee. When Mr. Phan Thai At was lying on his sickbed, knowing that I was looking for historical documents about the locality and about Uncle Ho, he always tried to tell me things that he knew well. Then I met and exploited documents from Mr. Nguyen Sy Que (a member of the Kitchen Waiter Party Cell in 1930), Vo Mai (who went to Guangzhou for training in 1925)... and many witnesses who were present under the Nghe Tinh Soviet flag and before.

To learn about Uncle Ho’s childhood stories and his family members, we “slept around” for months and years in the Kim Lien area (Nam Dan). Whenever we got relevant information, we would investigate to the source. Sometimes we went all the way to Hai Duong. Sometimes we had to cycle from Hanoi to Ba Vi and many other places.

It must be said that the Central and local leaders at that time had a vision beyond time when they soon realized the urgent need to accumulate documents and compile history. Because more and more elderly witnesses passed away - they were "living museums", "living documents", each person's death was a great loss. Looking back now, we are very excited because we were able to join forces in time to do such work. There were document repositories that we "self-mobilized" to accumulate and at important historical moments to serve the people.

As when Uncle Ho passed away, it was requested that a Ho Chi Minh Museum be built immediately in his hometown in Nam Dan. The person in charge at that time was Mr. Tran Nguyen Trinh, and I was assigned to take care of the documents and write the explanatory content. At that time, the knowledge accumulated in the process of learning about Uncle Ho and his relatives was mobilized to the maximum, along with the continued addition over time of the family, of the research and preservation community, of the people... Ho Chi Minh Museum in Nam Dan was soon formed and became a very meaningful "Red Address" of traditional education. Later, Ho Chi Minh Museum in Uncle Ho's hometown developed into the Kim Lien relic site as it is today.

Researching, collecting, and compiling history is a rather quiet job, requiring a high sense of self-responsibility. I love this job and always feel that I have been doing it with all my heart, passion, and responsibility. This job brings me great joy and happiness, the joy of contributing to finding the “golden streaks” hidden and obscured by time.

Ngo Kien

(Recorded according to the story of historian Chu Trong Huyen)