The "Fire" of Than Newspaper shines forever

At the end of 1928, amidst the dark, dusty mines and harsh exploitation by the colonialists and mine owners, a special flame flared up - the first revolutionary voice of the working class in the Mining Region. That was Than Newspaper, the propaganda organ of the first Revolutionary Youth Cell in Quang Ninh, under the Vietnam Revolutionary Youth Association - the predecessor of the Communist Party of Vietnam. Than Newspaper was not only the first revolutionary newspaper in the Mining Region, but also the ideological banner of the proletarian movement, contributing to lighting up the light of enlightenment in the hearts of workers in the early 20th century.

Three times Bao Than shines

During the years 1927-1928, the Vietnam Revolutionary Youth Association advocated sending a number of party members to the mining area to both “proletarianize” and build a Party base, mobilizing the masses to make revolution. At the end of 1928, a group of party members from Hai Phong and Thai Binh came to Cam Pha and Cua Ong to form a party cell, directly under the Hai Phong City Party Committee. This was the first Youth Party cell in Quang Ninh.

In the first meeting, the Party Cell decided to publish a newspaper called “Than”. This is not only a familiar name, associated with the life of miners, but also implies a smoldering fire, lighting the way for workers to step out of the long night of slavery. The person in charge and also wrote the article was comrade Dang Chau Tue, Party Cell Secretary. The person in charge of printing was female party member Vu Thi Mai, a worker at the screening plant. The newspaper’s editorial office was located in a small house on Booc-do Street (now Quang Trung Street, Cam Pha City).

Than Newspaper called on workers to fight to hand over the furnaces to the workers, the land to the farmers, and to liberate the small and weak ethnic groups. Photo: Quang Ninh Provincial Museum

With a small format, printed by hand using lithography and then lithography, Than Newspaper was secretly published in limited quantities, each issue printed only about 100 copies. Although crude in form, the content of the issues was extremely strong, full of fighting spirit: reflecting the miserable life, denouncing the brutal exploitation of mine owners, and at the same time calling for the fight to regain the rights of workers and farmers. Every issue of Than Newspaper had a slogan at the top of the front page taken from the concluding sentence of the Communist Manifesto by Marx and Engels: "Workers of the world , unite!", becoming an emotional call to arms, deeply influencing the workers of the Cam Pha and Cua Ong coal regions.

After the intense pursuit by secret police in 1929, Than Newspaper had to stop publishing. On February 23, 1930, when the first Vietnamese Communist Party cell in Quang Ninh was established in Mao Khe, Than Newspaper was reborn - for the second time, under the direct guidance of comrades Nguyen Van Cu and Nguyen Duc Canh. The key people who ran Than Newspaper were Party cell secretary Dang Chau Tue and party member Vu Thi Mai. Before being printed, the articles were read and directly edited by comrade Nguyen Van Cu. From then on, the quality of the articles promoting the struggle was more in the right direction. The newspaper had influence not only in Mao Khe mine but also throughout the region because Mao Khe workers were spread across many communes in Dong Trieu and Kinh Mon districts.

In October 1930, the Regional Party Committee directed the establishment of the Mining Special Zone Committee to unite the party committees and branches into a common party committee and appointed a provisional executive committee, with comrade Vu Van Hieu as Secretary. At that time, in the Cam Pha - Cua Ong Party Committee, there was the Ham Mo Newspaper, in Mao Khe there was the Than Newspaper. The Regional Party Committee decided to publish a joint newspaper and named it Than Newspaper, with the responsibility of being the mouthpiece of the Regional Party Committee, so it had a larger scale. The newspaper was published twice a month, each issue printed several hundred copies and distributed throughout the Mining Region.

House No. 22, Quang Trung Street (Cam Pha) - the former headquarters of Than Newspaper when it was first established (1928). Photo: Document

Unfortunately, the Than Newspaper of the Special Zone Committee did not last long because from the beginning of 1931, the Party Committee of the Special Zone Committee of the Mines was severely terrorized by the enemy. One by one, the comrades in the Zone Committee fell into the hands of the enemy. Than Newspaper stopped publishing, but its influence remained deep among the workers.

Than Newspaper has shined three times, closely associated with the steps of maturity of the revolutionary movement in Quang Ninh. The newspaper is not only a tool for revolutionary propaganda but also a symbol of the will and indomitable fighting spirit of the working class in the Mining Region. From here, the revolutionary journalism tradition of the province was formed and nurtured, becoming a continuous flow from the secret period to the public and modern period.

The first revolutionary journalist of the Mining Region

The history of revolutionary journalism in Quang Ninh always marks a sacred milestone: The birth of the Than Newspaper at the end of 1928 in Cam Pha - the first voice of the working class in the Mining Region in the revolutionary movement. The person directly behind the formation, organization and maintenance of that "Than flame" was Dang Chau Tue - the first revolutionary journalist in the Mining Region, who devoted his entire life to the revolutionary ideal, from the early days of writing for newspapers, doing secret revolution, until he later became a senior leader of the State.

Revolutionary journalist Dang Chau Tue when he returned to proletarianization in Cam Pha in 1928. Photo: Document in the book "Tradition of the Coal Region - Revolutionary Memoirs".

Comrade Dang Chau Tue was born in 1907 in Nam hamlet, Binh An village, Khe Kieu commune, Thu Tri district (now Song An commune, Vu Thu district, Thai Binh province), in a well-off family. From his youth, he received a good education at the French-Vietnamese primary school in Thai Binh, then went to Nam Dinh to study at Thanh Chung school - a place that gathered many excellent students, including Nguyen Duc Canh, Dang Xuan Khu (later General Secretary Truong Chinh), Nguyen Van Hoan...

In 1926, in the movement to demand a memorial service for patriot Phan Chu Trinh in Nam Dinh, Dang Chau Tue actively participated and was prominent in the initiating role. One year later, he became a member of the Vietnam Revolutionary Youth Association - the predecessor of the Communist Party of Vietnam.

In the years 1928-1930, responding to the policy of "proletarianization", Dang Chau Tue went to Cam Pha, joined the workers to participate in revolutionary activities and was in charge of the work of Than Newspaper - a lithographic newspaper, secretly distributed among miners. When the first Communist Party of Vietnam cell in the Mining Region was established in Mao Khe (Dong Trieu) in February 1930, comrade Dang Chau Tue was elected as the cell secretary. Than Newspaper continued to be restored and published with the participation of comrade Vu Thi Mai - a female revolutionary party member from Hai Phong. This was the second time the newspaper returned to the miners, continuing its mission of propaganda and enlightenment of revolutionary ideals.

In early 1931, Dang Chau Tue was arrested by the French and imprisoned in Hoa Lo, then exiled to Con Dao. At the end of 1936, he was released under the amnesty law and continued to work in the Democratic Front movement. In the following years, he held many important positions in the Party's propaganda agencies in Nam Dinh and Thai Binh, and was one of the cadres assigned to join the French Socialist Party (SFIO) to gain support from the progressive democratic forces of France and Vietnam.

Comrade Dang Chau Tue (far left), comrade Vu Thi Mai (middle) were the people who directly worked for Than newspaper and were party members in the first party cell in Mao Khe. Photo: Document

In 1941, he went to Thanh Hoa and was assigned to direct the establishment of Ngoc Trao guerrilla base - one of the important pre-uprising bases of the whole country. With his extraordinary memory, he memorized and rewrote the Party's charter, the Front and mass organizations in the absence of documents, making his comrades and teammates admire him.

After the August Revolution in 1945, he was appointed Chairman of the Provisional Administrative Committee of Nam Dinh Province, elected as a National Assembly Delegate of the 1st term of Nam Dinh Province, a special envoy of the Government, and then held the position of Chairman of the Administrative Resistance Committee of Ninh Binh Province. From 1954, he was Chief Justice of the Supreme People's Court of Appeal until his retirement.

The revolutionary life of Dang Chau Tue is a typical model of the generation of patriotic intellectuals, who were enlightened early on the proletarian ideal, devoted themselves to the workers' movement and made many lasting contributions in the field of propaganda and revolutionary encouragement through their pens. On December 11, 2009, the People's Council of Quang Ninh province, term XI, decided to name a street in Ha Long city after Dang Chau Tue (a 6km long section of National Highway 18A, starting point is Quang Hanh intersection, ending point is the boundary between Cam Pha city and Ha Long city) as a deep gratitude to the first revolutionary journalist of the Mining Region.

The fire of Bao Than that he and his comrades ignited in that smoky furnace is still continued, preserved and promoted by generations of Quang Ninh journalists today - like a persistent flow of ideals, beliefs and responsibilities towards the homeland and the Fatherland.

Mission "to spread the fire"

Appearing three times, in three periods of struggle, Than Newspaper has created a great spiritual heritage for the revolutionary press of Quang Ninh. The flame from that first resistance newspaper has smoldered in the flow of history, preserved and extended by generations of journalists in the mining land.

Today, when the press enters the digital, data and multi-platform era, the fire from Than Newspaper - the first local Party newspaper - is still a smoldering fire in the hearts of Quang Ninh journalists. Each page of the newspaper, each news item not only reflects the political, economic, cultural life of the province, but also arouses and nurtures patriotism, the spirit of innovation, and the desire to rise up.

That tradition originated from people like Dang Chau Tue, Nguyen Van Cu, Vu Thi Mai, Huynh Cong Thai..., who were not afraid of danger, did not spare their youth for the revolutionary cause and journalism. That tradition is present in every news bulletin, every report, every contemporary writer who continues to write the source of revolutionary journalism with a sense of responsibility, dedication and deep love for the homeland and the people.

The development of Quang Ninh journalism today cannot be separated from its origins in the early Than Newspaper. Because more than just a newspaper, Than Newspaper is the embodiment of the ideals, the intelligence and the hearts of revolutionary journalists. The responsibility of journalists today is to keep that flame burning brightly.

Hoang Nhi

Source: https://baoquangninh.vn/lua-bao-than-sang-mai-3358920.html