Ho Chi Minh - Founder of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam

On the occasion of the 120th anniversary of President Ho Chi Minh's birthday (May 19, 1890 - May 19, 2010), ussh.edu.vn respectfully introduces an article by Associate Professor, Dr. Ngo Dang Tri (Faculty of History) about President Ho Chi Minh as the founder of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam.

1. Ho Chi Minh's national democratic revolutionary ideology

The fundamental problem of every revolution is to destroy the old government apparatus, overthrow the old ruling class, and establish a new state ruled by the new class.. The bourgeois revolution is a revolution led by the bourgeoisie, with the basic goal and task of destroying the feudal monarchy and establishing a bourgeois democratic state, ruled by the bourgeoisie. That is a normal bourgeois revolution. The bourgeois democratic revolution (or new-style bourgeois revolution) is a bourgeois revolution whose basic goal is to overthrow the monarchy, establish a democratic regime, a democratic state, but led by the working class through its political party, the Communist Party. That revolution, when successful, overthrowing the feudal monarchy, will not establish a bourgeois state, establish a capitalist regime, but establish a democratic republic, build a people's democratic regime, and advance to socialism. Vietnamese society after the colonial exploitation of French capitalists in the late 19th and early 20th centuries was a feudal colonial society, with two modes of production coexisting, so there were two basic contradictions. That is the contradiction of the feudal regime, essentially the contradiction between the peasant class, which makes up the majority of the nation, and the landlord class represented by the Nguyen feudal regime, and the contradiction of the colonial capitalist regime, essentially the contradiction between the Vietnamese people and the imperialists and their lackeys. The former contradiction is often called a class contradiction, the latter contradiction is often called a national contradiction and is the main contradiction. To move forward, Vietnamese society must resolve these two fundamental contradictions, first of all the main contradiction.That is, we must carry out a revolution with two strategic tasks, solving two strategic goals: expelling imperialism, liberating the nation, and overthrowing the monarchy, establishing a democratic regime.. That revolution, in the new historical context of the era and of Vietnam in the early 20th century, had as its targets the colonial imperialists and feudal landlords. The revolutionary forces were the workers, peasants, petty bourgeoisie, national bourgeoisie, and small and medium landlords. That revolution had to be led by a progressive class in the revolutionary forces, the working class. Combining the above factors, it was a bourgeois democratic revolution, or a new-style bourgeois revolution, or a people's national democratic revolution, led by the working class. The people's national democratic revolution (or bourgeois democratic revolution, new-style bourgeois revolution), was an objective and inevitable revolution of Vietnamese society in the early 20th century. However, in the first few decades of the 20th century, no individual or organization recognized and followed that objective requirement, so the national democratic struggles at that time, although very heroic, all ended in failure.Carrying a grudge against his family and his country, Ho Chi Minh hated both imperialism and feudalism. Ho Chi Minh's purpose when going abroad in 1911 was to find a way to save the country and the people, not just to save the country like many others at that time.. That is, finding a way to satisfy two goals: both liberating the nation from foreign domination and saving the people from oppression and exploitation. That is, Ho Chi Minh wanted to make a national democratic revolution,a revolution with “dual” goals, both regain independence for the Vietnamese people and solve the fundamental problem of the new democratic revolution, which is to abolish the backward monarchy and establish a new, progressive democratic state of the people led by the working class.With that ideological purpose, Ho Chi Minh examined many major revolutions in the world, such as the American Revolution, the French Revolution, and the Russian Revolution. Ho Chi Minh believed that the American and French Revolutions were revolutions of great value, but not thorough, "not there yet", because after that the people were still oppressed and exploited, and wanted to make another revolution to liberate themselves. He believed that only the Russian revolution led by VI Lenin and the Bolshevik Party was a true revolution, a revolution "arrive" because then "give power to the many, not to the few", meaning that the revolution brought the Russian workers and peasants to power and built a socialist regime. In other words, the goal of national independence in Ho Chi Minh's thought is extremely important and urgent, but in the end it is only the beginning, not the end. Ho Chi Minh's ultimate goal is to liberate the people, liberate the people, to establish a democratic regime, to make everyone free, prosperous, and happy. With such awareness and to realize his "dual" goal, especially the goal of liberating the people, liberating the people, Ho Chi Minh decided to take the Vietnamese revolution along the path of the Russian revolution and he did everything to propagate and awaken the nation, to guide the national and democratic movements in our country to follow the path of proletarian revolution. According to Ho Chi Minh's thought on a revolution with "dual" goals, especially the ultimate goal, liberating the people, inBrief outline, Brief Strategyof the Communist Party of Vietnam adopted at the Party's founding conference (February 1930) as well as inPolitical platformapproved by the Party at the Central Executive Committee Conference in October 1930, our Party advocated: "carry out bourgeois democratic revolution and land revolution to advance to communist society. Overthrow French imperialism and feudalism.”(²).Ho Chi Minh commented: “Imbued with Marxism-Leninism, the Party has set out the correct revolutionary line. In the 1930 Bourgeois Democratic Revolution Platform, the Party clearly stated the task ofanti-imperialism and anti-feudalism, to realize national independence, land for the tillers. That platform is very consistent with the ardent aspirations of the vast majority of our people, who are farmers. Therefore, the Party has united great revolutionary forces around its class. As for the parties of other classes, they either went bankrupt or were isolated. Therefore, the leadership of our Party - the Party of the working class - is constantly consolidated and strengthened.” (³) Democratic ideology and democratic goals are the factors, conditions, and standards that make the Vietnamese revolution radically revolutionary, different from all previous national liberation movements. This is the key point that distinguishes Ho Chi Minh's ideology from other ideologies in Vietnam at that time. In the process of leading the revolution, Ho Chi Minh and our Party always adhered to the "dual" goal that had been determined, striving to carry out the people's national democratic revolution to advance towards socialism, with extremely flexible and creative solutions and directions. The revolutionary climax of 1930-1931, and the Nghe-Tinh Soviet had important historical significance because they affirmed the Party's leadership role throughout the country, built a worker-peasant alliance, and brought workers and peasants to power in many localities in the two provinces of Nghe An and Ha Tinh. Because the enemy was still strong, using all means of fierce repression, because the Party members and cadres had no experience, and were influenced by "left-wing"from the outside, the movement suffered great losses, the model of the Soviet-style revolutionary state of workers and peasants, the socialist state, imitating Russia, was abolished. When the world situation had new changes and under the guidance of the Communist International as well as based on the reality of Indochina, the Party advocated temporarily shelving the slogan "national independence and land to the tiller" to launch the democratic movement of 1936-1939 to win many victories, bringing the Vietnamese revolution to a higher step than before, especially in terms of democratic goals and tasks. The form of state chosen by the Party wasDemocratic Republic(Indochina Democratic Republic), replacing the Soviet-style government. From the end of 1939, due to new changes in the world and domestic situation, the Party and Ho Chi Minh gradually moved the revolution to a new period, raising the goal of national liberation, putting the issue of armed uprising to seize power, and establishing the Democratic Republic of Vietnam into the action program. To avoid cadres and party members from misunderstanding the relationship between the strategic, ultimate goal and the "urgent", immediate goal, between the long-term task and the "current" task of the bourgeois democratic revolution when raising the slogan of national independence, temporarily putting aside part of the slogan of land for the tillers, the Resolution noted: "Saying that does not mean that our Party has eliminated the issue of class struggle in the Indochina revolution. No! The issue of class struggle still exists forever"(⁴).That "The Indochinese proletariat must not abandon its land-farming mission, nor must it take a step back, but only take a shorter step to have the strength to take a longer step."(⁵). That is, the Party and Ho Chi Minh considered the issue of democracy not only the issue of land, and even less so, to be identical with the issue of land. The issue of democracy is much broader, deeper and more long-term than the issue of land, such as freedom of election, candidacy, freedom of speech, freedom of association, freedom of movement, freedom of demonstration, imprisonment for religious beliefs, gender equality, ... that is, issues of human rights, civil rights, which are all things that are opposed to the autocratic monarchy. Accordingly, temporarily put aside part of the slogan "The farmer has the field."It is not necessarily not to carry out the democratic goal, to abandon the democratic revolution. Thus, it can be understood that the content of the Resolution of the 8th Central Conference (5-1941) does not contradict the strategic goal, the "dual" goal, the ultimate democratic ideal of Ho Chi Minh before, but is only a policy of "before the eyes”, for the stage “Present”, not giving up the goal of democracy, but only “Take a short step to gain strength to take a longer step.”. That change does not change the fundamental nature of the Indochina revolution according to Ho Chi Minh's thought. The objective and strategic task of the Vietnamese revolution is still to carry out the people's national democratic revolution, overthrow imperialism and feudalism, seize power into the hands of the people, and make "A truly democratic Democratic Republic of Vietnam will appear.“establish a new democratic Vietnam”, “establish a people's government"(⁶).

2. August 1945 General Uprising: Victory of the democratic revolution according to Ho Chi Minh's ideology

According to the set goals, the Party and Ho Chi Minh focused all efforts on building the Viet Minh Front, national salvation organizations, building bases, building armed forces, developing the Viet Minh movement, the movement to destroy Japanese rice warehouses, and famine relief for the people, etc. Those movements attracted all classes of people to follow the revolution, bringing the people's national democratic revolution to its peak. When hearing the news that Japan was defeated by the Allies and the Japanese army in Indochina was paralyzed, with initiative and wisdom, Ho Chi Minh and the Party Central Committee immediately openedNational Conference of Party Cadres and National Congressin Tan Trao (Tuyen Quang). Those conferences and congresses decided to launch a General Uprising to seize power throughout the country with the principle of "focused, unified, timely”. Following the policy of the Party and the Viet Minh Front, the entire Vietnamese people rose up to gain independence and power. On August 19, 1945, the uprising was victorious in Hanoi, on August 23, it was victorious in Hue, and on August 25, it was victorious in Saigon. On August 30, King Bao Dai abdicated, officially ending the monarchy in Vietnam. On September 2, 1945, the National Day was solemnly held in the capital Hanoi.Government of the Democratic Republic of VietnamIntroduced to the nation, the progressive democratic republican political system was established to replace the reactionary and outdated monarchy and colonial regime.Revolution is creative, truth is concrete. The practice of the August 1945 General Uprising clearly demonstrated that it was not only an uprising that drove out the fascist and imperialist invaders but also overthrew the monarchy and established a democratic republic for all Vietnamese people.. The Declaration of the August Revolution was a declaration of independence, but the re-established state regime was a democratic republic, a people's democracy. If the August 1945 General Uprising only had the goal of national liberation, only expelling imperialism without abolishing the monarchy, it would be no different from the uprisings and resistance wars in Vietnamese history. Emphasizing the policy of promoting the goal of national liberation of Ho Chi Minh and the Party in the period of 1939-1945, promoting the value of national independence of the August 1945 General Uprising is correct. However, absolutizing it, obscuring the democratic value, the historical significance of the destruction of the Bao Dai monarchy, establishing the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, a state of the people, by the people, for the people, is only clarifying and promoting part of Ho Chi Minh's revolutionary ideology, part of the Party's national democratic revolutionary line and part of the victory of the August General Uprising. The overthrow of the feudal monarchy and establishment of the democratic republic in the August General Uprising of 1945 was not a ""by the way", "handy goat lead"" but a strategic revolutionary goal that has been clearly defined in Ho Chi Minh's thought, in the first Platform and subsequent documents of the Party, including in the 8th Central Conference, May 1941. Moreover,The fundamental problem of every revolution is the problem of state power.If the August General Uprising in 1945 only drove out imperialism and gained independence like previous uprisings and resistance wars against foreign invaders in Vietnam's history, it could not be called a revolution.The August General Uprising in 1945 was called the August Revolution because it successfully resolved the fundamental problem of a revolution, the problem of state power, which was to overthrow the Nguyen Dynasty feudal government ruled by the landlord class, establishing the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, the government of the Vietnamese people led by the working class, through its political party, the Communist Party.The August Revolution was successful, the goal of national independence still had to be fought for many more decades, the yoke of foreign invasion was not eliminated in the whole country until 1975, but the goal of seizing power was basically completed, a new era of Vietnam was opened, the era of people's democracy moving towards socialism. The modern history of Vietnam, the history of the Communist Party of Vietnam always affirmsThe period 1930-1945 was the period of political struggle, the August 1945 General Uprising was the August Revolution for that reason.. It is not by chance that in Tan Trao, the National Conference of the Party (August 13, 1945) and the National Congress (August 16, 1945) advocated the establishment of a provisional government calledVietnam National Liberation Committee, but when returning to Hanoi (August 28, 1945), Ho Chi Minh and the Party changed the name again.Government of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam. Not by chance inDeclaration of IndependenceReading at Ba Dinh Square, Hanoi on the afternoon of September 2, 1945, Ho Chi Minh cited two declarations:Declaration of Independenceof the American Revolution andDeclaration of Human Rightsof the French Revolution, the two declarations spoke of two major issues: national independence and human rights, democracy, and freedom. It is no coincidence that in the Declaration of Independence, Ho Chi Minh repeatedly placed the value of freedom and democracy before independence: “Vietnam has the right to enjoy freedom and independence and in fact has become a free and independent country. The entire Vietnamese people are determined to devote all their spirit and strength, their lives and property, to maintain that freedom and independence.”⁷With the idea of ​​saving the country associated with saving the people, independence associated with democracy, freedom, and socialism, Ho Chi Minh believed that if the country is independent but the people do not enjoy freedom and happiness, then independence is meaningless..Immediately after the National Day, Ho Chi Minh directed the immediate implementation of a series of great and heavy tasks to build a democratic republic of Vietnam. Such as completely abolishing the old government apparatus, organizing general elections to elect the National Assembly and People's Councils, promulgating the People's Democratic Constitution, launching a movement to relieve hunger, eliminate illiteracy, build a new life, etc. Changing the name of the Government at that time, fromVietnam National Liberation CommitteewallGovernment of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, emphasizing both the national goal (quoting the Declaration of Independence of the American Revolution) and the goal of human rights and democracy (quoting the Declaration of Human Rights of the French Revolution); the rapid and complete abolition of the Nguyen Dynasty feudal state apparatus, the establishment of a democratic republican political system, the elevation of the democratic value of the General Uprising... were turning points, quick and creative changes in the political thinking of Ho Chi Minh and the Party. That change and shift in direction made the August General Uprising the pinnacle of the people's national democratic revolution, just asPlatformandPolitical platformThe Party's 1930 policy was determined and true to the reality of the General Uprising that took place, responding to the will and aspirations of the Vietnamese people and the trend of the times. That fundamental change and shift was theaffirming that the achievements of the August Revolution in 1945 were not only the victory of the national movement but also the result of the democratic movement, of the people's democratic revolution.It is also an affirmation that Ho Chi Minh and the Party not only raised the national flag but also raised the whole nation.flag of democracyduring the period of struggle for power and right in the August General Uprising in 1945. The result of that General Uprising was due to the strength of the entire nation, in which the basic thing was that of the masses, the core being the worker-peasant alliance. National liberation, gaining independence for Vietnam was a great task, a prominent and great victory of the August Revolution. But after all, national liberation can be achieved by our people at any time. As for overthrowing the monarchy, taking power into the hands of the people, establishing a democratic republic, bringing the working people from slavery to masters of the country, masters of society, masters of themselves, withDemocratic Republic of Vietnam, the people's democratic state, the most progressive state in Southeast Asia, only the Ho Chi Minh era, only the August Revolution could do it. After the Japanese army withdrew from Southeast Asia, almost all countries in this region were liberated, many countries declared independence, butAbolishing the feudal state and the autocratic monarchy to establish the people's democratic state, the democratic republic regime is unique to Vietnam. This is the unique greatness of the August Revolution in 1945, a turning point victory of the era of the Vietnamese people according to Ho Chi Minh's democratic ideology.That means the great victory of the August Revolution in 1945,unique historical merit, the undeniable of the Communist Party and Ho Chi Minh isin the establishment of a democratic republic,not just regaining independence like previous uprisings and resistance wars in our country and the gaining of independence in many other countries in the world. And therefore,Ho Chi Minh is not only a great national liberation hero but also the founder of the People's Democratic Republic, an outstanding Democrat of Vietnam and the world..