August Revolution 1945: Opening the era of national independence and socialism

Vietnam Military History Museum - a place that recreates vivid spaces about the rich history of the nation.

In the 19th century, the world witnessed the fierce race to find markets and invade colonies of Western capitalist imperialists. At that time, a mysterious, charming and resource-rich East became the destination of missionary teams, merchant ships and fleets equipped with guns. The ambition and greed of the empires were aimed directly at this closed continent and Vietnam was not out of the enemy's guns.

In September 1858, the French colonialists opened fire on Da Nang, starting the war of aggression against our country. This was also the first time in history that the Vietnamese people had to face the threat of foreign invasion from a Western capitalist power that was ahead of us in terms of production methods, with a developed economy , a powerful army equipped with advanced weapons and military techniques. However, although the country fell into stagnation and backwardness due to the conservatism, selfishness, and narrow-mindedness of the Nguyen Dynasty, it could not stop the patriotism of our people. With the iron determination "When the South is out of grass, then there will be no more Southern people fighting the West", many uprisings of literati and scholars broke out strongly throughout the South and the North. Therefore, although they wanted to take advantage of modern weapons to fight quickly and win quickly, it was not until 1884, with the Patenotre Treaty, that the French colonialists were able to establish their rule over the entire territory of Vietnam.

However, the establishment of a brutal ruling apparatus, in order to plunder resources and exploit our people with all kinds of unreasonable and barbaric taxes, only caused struggles and patriotic movements to erupt everywhere. However, due to the lack of leadership from an advanced social force with a correct direction and consistent with the aspiration for complete national liberation, all patriotic movements against the French failed. In particular, the failure of the Can Vuong movement was considered a failure of feudal ideology, a failure of a decadent social regime. Meanwhile, the movements demanding freedom and democracy in the early 20th century also fell into crisis, deadlocked, "seemingly immersed in darkness with no way out".

While the people were groaning under the chains of slavery, the path to national liberation was at a standstill, the great Russian October Revolution (1917) opened a path full of light and hope for the peoples who were writhing under layers of oppression and injustice. And then, more than ever, history called the name of the man who had gathered enough intelligence, courage, will, determination and iron faith to bring the light of revolution and scientific socialism to his people. The man of those historic moments and decisions was leader Nguyen Ai Quoc - Ho Chi Minh.

From Lenin's Theses on the National and Colonial Questions and from his 30-year journey through four continents, Asia, Europe, Africa, and America, studying the nature of colonialism and imperialism, studying the experiences of revolutions in the US, UK, France, Russia, and China, he found the key to opening a new horizon for his people and for oppressed peoples around the world, that "To save the country and liberate the nation, there is no other way than the path of proletarian revolution. Only socialism and communism can liberate oppressed peoples and working people around the world from slavery."

To lead the revolution, it is necessary to have a proletarian political party with sufficient courage, intelligence and representing the interests of the working class, the working people and the whole nation; at the same time, becoming the only vanguard force leading the Vietnamese revolution into a new orbit. For that reason, the birth of the Communist Party of Vietnam on February 3, 1930 was an objective necessity of history. Since the Party was born, on the one hand, it had to fight against the fierce terror of the French colonialists, on the other hand, it raised the revolutionary flag to gather and lead the masses to carry out many large-scale struggle exercises, especially the patriotic movements in the years 1930-1931, 1936-1939, which shook the entire colonial regime.

Entering the 1940s, the world and domestic situation changed rapidly. At that time, leader Ho Chi Minh, after 30 years of wandering to find a way to save the country, returned to the Fatherland, to join the Party Central Committee in directly leading the Vietnamese revolution. Under the flag of the Party and Uncle Ho, the Vietnamese revolution since 1941 had sided with the Allies against fascism. Our Party organized and developed its forces, in order to prepare conditions to advance to gain decisive victory when the opportunity arose.

The night before the dawn of the revolution, the country was enveloped in a thick, suffocating atmosphere of sorrow: the tragic famine of the year At Dau 1945. This was the cruel consequence of the policy of destroying rice fields and planting jute, and the hoarding of rice by the Japanese fascists and their henchmen, combined with natural disasters and epidemics leading to crop failures, causing a terrible famine to spread throughout the provinces of the North and North Central regions, causing the death of more than 2 million of our compatriots.

Artifacts about the poor life of our people before the August Revolution. (Displayed at the Ho Chi Minh Museum).

Hunger and death seemed to push our nation to the brink of destruction. But no, the extreme pain ignited the flames of hatred and resentment among the people. And it was this boiling fire that urged them to stand up and fight alongside the Viet Minh to "Break the rice warehouse to save the famine victims". At the same time, everyone unanimously followed the Party's call: "Japanese fascism has fallen with German and Italian fascism. The Japanese army is being disintegrated and disarmed on all fronts. The Allies are about to enter Indochina. The hour for decisive action has come. Compatriots and national salvation organizations, under the command of the National Liberation Committee and the Uprising Committee, must join the liberation army and the self-defense force to rise up and capture the posts of district, prefecture and provincial capitals, and disarm the Japanese invaders. Comrades must be clear-headed in their leadership and determined to sacrifice in the fight, to gain independence for the Fatherland, to be worthy of being a vanguard army of the nation. The hour for uprising has come, the glorious day of the Fatherland has broken out. Determined to fight, determined to fight, determined to fight! Victory will certainly be ours!"

Under the glorious flag of the Party and Uncle Ho, with a strong belief in the path to liberate the nation from slavery and misery, all our people, regardless of age, gender, rose up together and carried out the August General Uprising in 1945 with complete victory. That great victory was the result of a 15-year preparation process by the Party, with many losses and sacrifices. It was a victory of trust between the people and the Party; a victory of the Party's mettle, intelligence, and correct leadership from planning policies and guidelines, to directing implementation in practice to build and develop internal strength and seize favorable international opportunities to achieve complete victory.

And above all, it is the victory of the will and aspiration for peace, independence and freedom of the entire Vietnamese people. That great victory has great significance and stature, as President Ho Chi Minh once affirmed: “Not only the working class and the Vietnamese people can be proud, but the working class and oppressed peoples elsewhere can also be proud that: This is the first time in the revolutionary history of colonial and semi-colonial peoples, a Party only 15 years old has led the revolution to success, has taken power nationwide”.

If the August Revolution is a golden milestone, then August 19, 1945 will forever go down in history as the beginning of a new era – the era of national independence and socialism. Because, from this great victory, the Democratic Republic of Vietnam was born. Vietnam from a semi-feudal colony became an independent, free and democratic country. Our people from being slaves became the masters of the country, masters of their destiny. From here, our people will step into a new long march: fighting to protect independence, freedom, unity and national revival.

Eight decades have passed, but the victory of the August Revolution still retains its historical significance and contemporary value. Under the brilliant autumn sky and the splendid sound of the song of peace, we have even stronger faith in the longevity and strength of the Vietnamese nation and people in the new era.

Article and photos: Le Dung

Source: https://baothanhhoa.vn/cach-mang-thang-tam-1945-mo-ra-ky-nguyen-doc-lap-dan-toc-va-chu-nghia-xa-hoi-258672.htm