Nguyen Ai Quoc and the historic "encounter"

In late 1923 and early 1924, Nguyen Ai Quoc set off for the Soviet Union – the land of the great Lenin. Upon arriving in the Soviet Union, he was unable to meet Lenin as he had already passed away. The newspaper Pravda, on January 27, 1924, published an article by Nguyen Ai Quoc titled "Lenin and the Colonial Peoples."

In this article, Nguyen Ai Quoc expressed his profound respect for Lenin: "While alive, he was our father, teacher, comrade, and advisor. Today, he is a shining star guiding us towards the socialist revolution."

Comrade Nguyen Ai Quoc (second from the right) participating in the International Solidarity Congress in the Soviet Union in 1923.

The first "meeting"

In fact, Nguyen Ai Quoc had "met" Lenin in 1920 after reading Lenin's "First Draft of the Theses on the National and Colonial Questions." According to the book " Ho Chi Minh - Events," after July 17, 1920, Nguyen Ai Quoc read this work published in the newspaper L'Humanité (also known as the Humanist newspaper) on July 16 and 17, 1920.

Later, he recounted this momentous event: “Lenin’s theses moved me deeply, filled me with excitement, clarity, and unwavering confidence! I was so happy I almost cried. Sitting alone in my room, I spoke aloud, as if addressing a large crowd: O my suffering and oppressed compatriots! This is what we need, this is the path to our liberation! From then on, I completely believed in Lenin and the Third International.”

Lenin's works addressed the issues he was eager to understand and helped him see clearly the direction the people of colonial countries were heading. In his article "The Path That Led Me to Leninism" (1960), he wrote: "What I wanted to know most of all - and what was not discussed in the meeting - was: Which international body would defend the people of colonial countries?...

Several comrades replied: "It was the Third International, not the Second International." And one comrade gave me Lenin's Thesis on the National and Colonial Questions, published in the newspaper L'Humanité, to read. Since reading this work by Lenin, in meetings, he strongly countered the anti-Leninist rhetoric with the sole argument and reasoning: "If you do not condemn colonialism, if you do not defend the colonial peoples, what kind of revolution are you making?"

Following the path of Lenin

In December 1920, the 18th Congress of the French Socialist Party was held in Tours, attended by 370 delegates and guests, including 285 delegates representing 89 party branches from across France and its colonies. Nguyen Ai Quoc was the only native Frenchman elected as a delegate to the congress.

At this congress, Nguyen Ai Quoc officially took a seat in the "leftist" camp. On one side of him was Paul Vaillant-Couturier (who shortly afterwards, along with Nguyen Ai Quoc and several comrades, founded the French Communist Party), and on the other side was Marcel Cachin, a renowned French political and cultural activist and later a member of the Politburo of the French Communist Party.

Marcel Cachin was the one who introduced Nguyen Ai Quoc to the French Socialist Party. When Marcel Cachin was the director of the newspaper L'Humanité, he encouraged and supported Nguyen Ai Quoc in writing articles for this newspaper. L'Humanité was also a newspaper that Lenin enjoyed reading.

Comrade Nguyen Ai Quoc (third from the left, seated) with some delegates attending the 5th Congress of the Communist International in Moscow, Russia, 1924.

At this Congress, Nguyen Ai Quoc voted in favor of Lenin's Third International. After the vote, Comrade Rose, the stenographer of the congress, asked Nguyen Ai Quoc: "Why did you vote for the Third International?"

Nguyen Ai Quoc replied: “I understand one thing clearly: the Third International pays great attention to resolving the issue of colonial liberation… Freedom for my people, independence for my homeland, that is all I want, that is all I understand.”

On December 30, 1920, Nguyen Ai Quoc, along with those advocating for joining the Third International, announced the establishment of the French branch of the Communist International. From this moment on, Nguyen Ai Quoc became a communist and the first communist of the Vietnamese nation. It was thanks to Lenin's doctrine that Nguyen Ai Quoc found the path to fighting for the independence of the Vietnamese nation, a task that his predecessors, despite their immense patriotism and courage, had not yet accomplished.

The book "Stories about the Life and Activities of President Ho Chi Minh" states that when he arrived in Leningrad that year, after some time, two of his friends, Paul Vaillant-Couturier and Marcel Cachin, came to "recognize" Nguyen Ai Quoc and brought him back to Moscow. French historian Charles Fourniau commented: "Nguyen Ai Quoc made a significant contribution to the formation of the anti-colonial tradition, a tradition that brought glory to the French Communist Party..."

Therefore, the founder of the Indochinese Communist Party and the leader of the Vietnamese national liberation movement must surely be considered one of the mentors of the French Communist Party on colonial issues.

Remembering Lenin's gratitude

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, when patriotic movements broke out and failed, Nguyen Tat Thanh (Ho Chi Minh) left to find a path to national salvation for the Vietnamese people. Recalling this event, he later wrote: “I want to go abroad, to see France and other countries. After observing how they do things, I will return to help my compatriots.” From 1920 onwards, upon encountering Leninism, the question of which path Vietnam should follow to national salvation was answered: the path of the Russian October Revolution, the revolutionary path of Lenin.

Embracing Marxism-Leninism, Nguyen Ai Quoc promoted the establishment of a working-class political party, preparing the theoretical and organizational foundations for its birth. In his work "The Revolutionary Path," written in 1927 to train the first generation of revolutionaries in Guangzhou, China, Nguyen Ai Quoc affirmed: "In the world today, only the Russian Revolution has succeeded and succeeded completely, meaning that the people enjoy true happiness, freedom, and equality, not the false freedom and equality that French imperialism boasts about in Annam."

The Russian Revolution overthrew the king, capitalists, and landlords, and then worked to inspire workers and peasants in other countries and oppressed peoples in colonies to make revolutions to overthrow all imperialism and capitalism in the world.

The Russian Revolution teaches us that for a revolution to succeed, it must be based on the people (workers and peasants), it must have a strong and stable party, it must be resolute, it must be willing to make sacrifices, and it must be unified. In short, it must follow Leninism.

As a nation with a tradition and moral principle of "Remembering the one who planted the tree when you eat the fruit," 31 years after Lenin's death, the Museum of Lenin's Office and Residence officially opened, and the first foreigner to visit the Museum was the President of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam - Ho Chi Minh.

On the first page of the Museum's Guestbook, President Ho Chi Minh wrote: “Lenin, the great teacher of the proletarian revolution. He was also a man of very high moral character, teaching us to practice thrift, integrity, and righteousness. The spirit of Lenin will live forever.” June 13, 1955, Ho Chi Minh.

Vu Trung Kien

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