Nghe An province is building a Lenin monument, which is expected to be completed by the end of March, and it is heavily criticized by many social network users in Vietnam.
These newspapers call it “an important milestone” in the relationship between Nghe An province and Ulyanovsk province of the Russian Federation.
Nghe An newspaper on Feb 18 has just published the information that the city of Vinh has just started construction of a Lenin monument in the city center. Accordingly, the monument was awarded by Ulyanovsk province, Lenin’s hometown in Russia to mark the Vietnam-Russia relationship, especially between Nghe An province and Ulyanovsk province.
“This is an iconic project for the good relationship between Vietnam and Russia in general, the homeland of Uncle Ho and the homeland of Lenin in particular,” said Tran Xuan Le, head of the Vinh city’s Management Board of the construction investment project.
The Lenin statue was “given” to Nghe An by the Ulyanovsk provincial government in Russia, according to local newspapers. It is reported that the statue was made from bronze, 3 meters high, “made in Russia, then transported to Vietnam” and taken to Vinh.
The reports added that the monument site has an area of nearly 4,300 square meters, most of which are for monuments with an area of up to 3,000 square meters, the rest are flower gardens and fountains.
However, the construction of the statue of Lenin in the center of Vinh city this time met many objections from the people, not only because the amount of money spent was too large compared to a province like Nghe An, but also because of the argument. This does not bring practical meaning to people’s lives.
The front of the pedestal has an inscription in Russian and Vietnamese “Lenin, 1870-1924,” on the back with “As a sign of friendship.”
This is not the first monument of the Russian leaders built in Vietnam. Earlier, in 2003, the Hanoi government changed the name of the Chi Lang flower garden to Lenin Park with the monument of Lenin, the founder of Soviet Russia right in the middle of the park.
Or the statue of the “Soviet space pilot hero” Geophysian TiTop built by Quang Ninh province in Ha Long Bay in 2015. The statue of Mr. Dgiec-zen-xki, whom Vietnamese press called the founder of the first Socialist Police agency in the world, was built in Hanoi in 2017.
Nghe An Newspaper also added that the construction units “are urgently building to complete the placement of statues on March 31, 2020.”
Facebooker Bàng Hoàng commented on his personal page: “If you build a statue of Lenin, remember to cast a bronze statue later to sell it for a few valuable Nghe An leaders. The concrete statue will cost a lot of money later.”
In Feb 2016, Thanh Nien newspaper said that in 2015, Ukraine “removed nearly 140 monuments of communist leaders, including 40 monuments of Vladimir Lenin.”
Nevertheless, in order to propagate about the post-communist Russians still “worship Lenin,” Tuoi Tre newspaper in November, 2019, published the “Lenin Monument on the long stretch of Volga banks” and described: ” On the journey of 1,700 km from Moscow to Saint Petersburg on the legendary Volga, we have encountered many images of Lenin through his monuments in many villages and towns of Russia … ”
In November, 2019, many Facebookers expressed their disgust when they saw the picture of Mr. Hoang Trung Hai, then secretary of the Hanoi Party Committee, and other officials bowed to commemorate and offer flowers at Lenin “communist zombie” on occasion. 102 years anniversary of the event “Russian October Revolution.”
In response to the public’s opinion, the Communist Party website wrote: “Some scholars and hostile forces at home and abroad think that the theory of socialism is wrong, Marxism-Leninism is outdated, obsolete. But the reality is undisputedly practical and reasoning: Marxism-Leninism is a theory of science, revolution and humanity … ”
Notably, at present, the subject “Marxism-Leninism” along with the subject “HCM Thought” is still mandatory in the curriculum at public and private universities in Vietnam. (N.H.K)
“A Lenin standing in Hanoi himself stuck one hand in his pocket, only one hand in the military museum and the flagpole of Hanoi were enough to scatter the soul. Because of why Nghe An had to build more monuments costing hundreds of billions. Obviously an elephant drawing paper? While in his home town and elsewhere, people are knocking down his statue. Gosh! ” – Ms. Le Hoai Anh wrote so on her own Facebook page with more than 325,000 followers.
According to statistics of the Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs of Vietnam, Nghe An ranked second in the country in total number of poor households from 2016 to 2019, the poorest province is Thanh Hoa. As of Feb 2019, Nghe An’s per capita income is $1,620, equivalent to 63% of the national average.
Local newspapers said that on the annual Lunar New Year, Nghe An still “begged rice to save hunger” from the central government for at least 80,000 poor households in the province.
Critics, including some influential Facebookers, such as Dr. Nguyen Ngoc Chu, entrepreneurs Tran Quoc Quan, Le Hoai Anh, activists Nguyen Quang A, Le Dung Vova, Nguyen Tuong Thuy, journalists Vo Van Tao, etc. … questioned that Russia and many Socialist countries had previously destroyed the Lenin statue, but why did Nghe An want to erect a statue of this character.
Posting an open letter to Nghe An leadership on a personal page with a total of nearly 48,000 followers, Dr. Nguyen Ngoc Chu wrote that the two governments of Ulyanovsk and Nghe An provinces gave each other the Lenin statue as a “non-representative” giving “wishes” of the people of the two provinces, so what to do is to “consult the people of Nghe An” to be able to have the “fairest” answer.
In the eyes of veteran journalist Vo Van Tao, erecting a monument to the late communist leader implies a reminder that the Vietnamese leadership, which he calls the “collective king,” maintains the imposition of power. At the same time, it is a “golden opportunity” for local officials to “pull out the budget, and pay back the fruit.”
The above articles received a total of tens of thousands of favorite responses and support comments.
Along with the comments, many people share on the social network mocking poems such as: “Lenin was beaten in Russia, why do we worship while they hate him?”
Explaining why building the statue of the founder of the Communist leader in Nghe An, freelance journalist Ngo Nhat Dang made the remark: “The decision to build the monument in Ho Chi Minh’s hometown is, I think, a confirmation. The choice of those who are leading the government of Vietnam, the Communist Party of Vietnam, may be like Mr. Nguyen Phu Trong said “firmly in Marxism-Leninism, Ho Chi Minh thought.”
From a personal perspective, former army captain Vo Minh Duc was discharged, explaining why this had been disagreed by the online community and observers:
“From the perspective of being a former officer for more than 10 years for communism and then waking up, I discovered (the communist regime) that there are many things that go against the civilized trend of the times. Why did a series of Eastern European countries and all Russia destroy the monument of this man and Vietnam always went to the ‘worship’ and I did not understand the symbolism. He wrote unrealistic, illusory, so people reacted correctly. The reality of life shows that his doctrine is nothing, only gives humanity backward and uncivilized things for man.”
Still according to Mr. Duc, Lenin was actually like other communist leaders, their goal was to use violence and propaganda to deceive the masses so they did not need to erect statues.
“I really do not understand why the government and the Communist Party of Vietnam have the choice to go against all the aspirations and thoughts of the people. Everyone, including the intellectuals who had consulted with the Party, said that the Marxist-Leninist thought was too outdated, the world was abandoned. Why did the Communist Party choose that way or did they want to confront the nation, or they had no other choice? Looking ahead to the XIII Party Congress, I think this is a really wrong choice. So the party and the state are completely against the people. “
In 2017, Ulyanovsk, the hometown of Lenin, of the proletariat revolutionary movement of Russia, also built the statue of Mr. Ho Chi Minh, the communist leader in Vietnam.
Therefore, the construction of the Lenin monument in Nghe An, Ho Chi Minh’s hometown is considered as a step to affirm the Vietnam-Russia relations in general as well as Nghe An and Ulyanovsk provinces in particular.
Mr. Vo Minh Duc stated:
“The relationship between Russia and Vietnam, I think they keep the relationship because it originated from the Soviet Union up to now. By the time the communist regime collapsed, they separated and there were debts and gratitude to each other, mainly the Russian Federation. So they want to maintain a friendly relationship, friends, if I talk about introversion or political opinion, I think it is very different. ”
Mr. Ngo Nhat Dang explained:
“Now I think in the current state of China, the economy is not developing, especially the coronavirus pandemic, surely China cannot help it, so maybe Vietnam is looking for a new support.
Instead of going with democratic and advanced countries around the world, they return to their former ally Russia. Mr. Putin also amended the constitution and the recent moves, he also intends to return to power.
Russia has also confirmed through a number of recent public opinion that it wants to restore Lenin. I think that Russia’s gift to Vietnam is showing that the two sides will be allies, the first is to restore the Marxist-Leninist ideology, the communist ideology. “
In December last year, Vietnam and Russia had their fifth Defense Strategic Dialogue, pledging to continue close cooperation in many areas including high-level delegation exchanges, training and military service, military technology, multilateral forums, military politics, military medicine, and war consequences.
Russia is currently the leading arms supplier to Vietnam. Vietnam has just signed a contract to order weapons and military services from Russia up to more than $1 billion.
According to statistics, since its birth, communism and Marxist Leninism theory have caused the deaths of hundreds of millions of people around the world. Humanity has long condemned and abandoned this delusional and barbaric ideal.
In Vietnam, the head of the Communist Party, General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong, has probably been infected with the extreme cult of this harmful theory since the 80s, when he went to the Soviet Union to work as a deputy doctoral thesis of party building.
The more authorities in Hanoi have built more foreign communist monuments in Vietnam, the faster the collapse will come, because the people don’t need that ill-fated illusion.
Hai Yen from Ha Noi – Thoibao.de (Translated)
