The first school to train 'red seeds' for the Vietnamese Revolution

After accepting Marxism-Leninism and becoming a communist, Nguyen Ai Quoc clearly realized: The only way to save the country is through the proletarian revolution. At the end of 1924, Nguyen Ai Quoc went to Guangzhou (China). Here, from 1925 to 1927, Nguyen Ai Quoc directly established the Vietnam Revolutionary Youth Association, opened 3 revolutionary political training classes for the elite youth of Vietnam, creating the premise for the establishment of the Communist Party of Vietnam.

For nearly 100 years, the Vietnam Revolutionary Youth Association Headquarters – at No. 13 (now No. 248-250) Van Minh Street, Dong Son District, Guangzhou City – the school that trained red seeds for Vietnam’s revolutionary organization has been recognized by China as a revolutionary relic and a tourist destination for many tourists.

Notably, the top floor of the house has many rooms. The largest room is used as a classroom. With 3 rows of small tables, individual tables with chairs made of mixed wood, after nearly 100 years have lost their old color. Here, Comrade Vuong, also known as Nguyen Ai Quoc, directly taught the elite youth of Vietnam.

His small room was just big enough for a personal bed and an entrance. The typewriter was at the end of the bed, where he wrote his lectures and they were printed into a famous book called: “The Revolutionary Path” - a handbook containing the basic outlines of the path to liberating Vietnam from colonial rule.

Here, there is also a dormitory for students of the “Vietnam Youth Political Training Class”, which at its peak had up to 15 people. The students’ lives were very difficult, sleeping in bunk beds, each person only had a reed mat, a pillow and a thin blanket.

In mid-October 1924, President Ho Chi Minh, then known as Nguyen Ai Quoc, left Moscow and took the Trans-Siberian train to Vladivostok, in the former Soviet Union. From there, he took a boat to Guangzhou, the capital of the Chinese Revolutionary Government led by Sun Yat-sen, to continue his ideological and organizational preparations for the establishment of the Communist Party of Vietnam.

In mid-December 1924, he founded the organization "Tam Tam Xa" to attract Vietnamese patriotic youth. This was the predecessor of the "Vietnam Revolutionary Youth Association". Here, Nguyen Ai Quoc directly opened 3 revolutionary political training classes for 75 outstanding Vietnamese youth. In all the studies of Mr. Hoang Quan, former Director of the Foreign Affairs Department of Guangdong province, China, it was affirmed that Nguyen Ai Quoc's lectures were very rich, close to the demands of the Vietnamese revolution at that time.

“When President Ho Chi Minh went to work in Guangzhou, the first step was to train cadres to establish the Party. At that time, there were many progressive Vietnamese youths operating in Guangzhou. President Ho Chi Minh organized and educated them, transforming them from people who only loved their country and wanted to overthrow the French colonial regime, and then gradually progressed to have revolutionary thoughts in the direction of Marxism,” said Mr. Hoang Quan.

In June 1925, after the first training course, also on the top floor of house number 13 Van Minh street, the Vietnam Revolutionary Youth Association - the predecessor of the Communist Party of Vietnam was born.

Near the100 years later, many changes in history, the humble house in Van Minh neighborhood has become an important red address for Vietnamese people to visit every time they come to Guangzhou, a living testament to Nguyen Ai Quoc's years of activities before returning home to lead the Vietnamese revolution to glorious victory./.