'The Communist Manifesto' - Humanistic Ideological Values in the Present Era

176 years ago, on February 24, 1848, after years of research and survey of the workers' movement in Western European countries, C. Marx and F. Engels completed an important work called the Communist Manifesto, consisting of 4 chapters: Bourgeoisie and Proletariat; Proletarians and Communists; Socialist and Communist Literature; Attitude of Communists towards Opposition Parties.

The Manifesto “openly presented to the whole world the views and intentions” of the communists; at the same time, “rebutted a myth about the specter of communism” in Europe that was spread by opposing forces.

The Communist Manifesto is the main classic work of scientific socialism. The principles of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels presented in the work are the ideological foundation and guideline for the entire international communist and workers' movement. Over the past century, the international communist and workers' movement has faced many challenges and new problems that need to be solved, but Marxism is by no means outdated.

Historical practice has proven that the light of the Manifesto's ideology led to the victory of the Vietnamese revolution. Typically, at the age of 15, our Party led the people to rise up to overthrow colonialism and feudalism, seize power for the people, and establish the Democratic Republic of Vietnam. After the success of the August Revolution in 1945, the country faced countless difficulties and challenges. In the "critical" situation, our Party set out a policy of leading the people to unite, both to destroy internal enemies and fight against external invaders, to fight against resistance and to build the country.

Faced with the French colonialists' ambition to once again invade our country, our Party and President Ho Chi Minh continued to apply the revolutionary theory of Marxism-Leninism, proposing a path to conduct a people's war, a resistance war "by all people, comprehensively, long-term and mainly relying on our own strength", the Dien Bien Phu victory "resounded throughout the five continents, shaking the earth".

This result contributed to further clarifying the truth of Marxism-Leninism, which our Party creatively applied to the specific conditions and circumstances of Vietnam. Next, our Party led the successful completion of the resistance war against the US to save the country, ending with the great victory in the spring of 1975. This was the victory of Marxism-Leninism, the victory of the correct and creative revolutionary line and method set forth by our Party and President Ho Chi Minh.

In our country, the Communist Manifesto was translated into Vietnamese and passed around by communist soldiers to study, even while imprisoned in imperialist prisons. The spirit of the Manifesto was expressed in the Party's Theses in 1930.

Over the past 94 years since our country was led by the Party and nearly 40 years of national renewal, the development and all the great victories of the Vietnamese revolution are vivid proof of our Party's steadfastness and creative application of the basic principles in the Communist Party Manifesto.

In many of President Ho Chi Minh’s writings, he stated: Vietnamese people today must remember the morality of “when drinking water, remember its source”, and be grateful for the Communist Party Manifesto. This further proves the great value and everlasting vitality of the Communist Party Manifesto for the cause of building and defending the Socialist Republic of Vietnam as well as the international communist and workers’ movement and progressive forces around the world in today’s era./.

MSc. Nguyen Thanh Hoang

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