The fighting spirit and great sacrifice of faithful communist soldiers in the Nghe - Tinh Soviet Movement, which had taken place 90 years, have made contributions to building up the glorious revolutionary tradition of the heroic county of Nghe. Bringing into that tradition, the Party Organisation, Authority and people of Nghe An province have been concentrating on making the all-people national defence increasingly strong and defending the area as the basis for building a prosperous, civilised, modern province.

Nghe An province has rich revolutionary tradition - the cradle of the movement against imperialism and feudalism in the early 20^th century. Notably, the Nghe - Tinh Soviet Movement in 1930 clearly demonstrated the strength by the worker-peasant coalition and the fighting spirit of citizens of Nghe Tinh (Nghe An province and Ha Tinh province nowadays) under the leadership of the Communist Party of Vietnam.

In the beginning, strikes by workers at the Vinh - Ben Thuy industrial zone and peasants in adjacent districts (Nam Dan, Nghi Loc, and Can Loc) gradually developed into large-scale demonstrations aimed at increasing wage, reducing work hours and taxation, combating white terror, and supporting the Soviet Union. Only in a short time, the movement widely spread across the province and robustly developed with high fighting revolutionary morale and courageous actions. Strikes and demonstrations took place at the centre of districts, in which protesters destroyed prisons, released political prisoners, burned district governors’ palaces, and established the first Soviet-style government in Vietnam. In spite of being brutally suppressed, the movement developed strongly, with the wave of protests by peasants of Hung Nguyen district as its peak; protesters surrounded the colonialist-feudalist government in Vinh city on September 12^th, 1930 and the French colonialists had to use bombers to quash the movement; 171 protesters were killed, 300 were wounded, many houses were burned down.

The movement occurred in a short time only but provided us with many valuable lessons on the worker-peasant coalition, on combining political and armed struggle with the masses’ uprising, on the worker-peasant state, and on the vanguard political party’s leadership over the revolution. It also had international significance. Besides, it was the first exercise for the whole country’s revolutionary movement like President Ho Chi Minh ever wrote: “although the French colonialists quelled it with a sea of blood but the Nghe - Tinh Soviet movement managed to prove the Vietnamese labouring people’s fighting morale and revolutionary capacity; in spite of failure, it helped train the force for the sake of victory in the August Revolution later on.”

Bringing into that tradition, under the Party’s leadership, Nghe An’s troops and people continued fighting bravely, creatively against the French colonialists, the US imperialists, and the hostile forces to defend the national sovereignty and fulfil the noble international mission. In the period of national renewal, despite numerous difficulties and challenges, Nghe An has proactively fostered socio-economic development, consolidated national defence and security, and developed the province increasingly comprehensively together with others across the country.

The Provincial Party Committee Standing Board dealing with a situation during the defensive zone exercise

In the upcoming time, the task of building and protecting the province has advantages but faces difficulties and hardships. It should be noted that the hostile forces are stepping up their sabotage strategy while there is an increase in illegal mission, free migration and drug-related crime. Moreover, there are many complex developments in rural, urban, maritime, and border security. Against that backdrop, the Party Organisation, Authority and people of Nghe An have determined to facilitate socio-economic development, build the all-people national defence, and firmly protect the area, with a focus on several basic solutions as follows.

First, enhance all-level party committees and authorities’ leadership and direction over the building of the all-people national defence in the new situation. This measure acts as a determinant to the building of the all-people national defence. Therefore, the all-level party committees and authorities must grasp, introduce, and flexibly, effectively apply the Party’s military-defence guidelines and its new ideology on the Homeland defence, particularly its strategy for building the all-people national defence and defensive zones, while implementing the 11^th Politburo’s Resolution 26-NQ/TW, dated July 30^th, 2013 on “directions and tasks for developing the province of Nghe An towards 2020.” Due attention should be paid to renewing the all-level party committees and authorities’ leadership and management method in the building of the all-people national defence. Emphasis should be placed on building national defence potential, force and posture and encouraging the armed forces’ role in giving advice on building the all-people national defence. At the same time, it is necessary to frequently review the targets, requirements and directions for building the all-people national defence set by all-level leadership resolutions, develop and execute projects, programmes and plans for this work, complete the system of mechanisms, policies and regulations for management and operation, and well conducts reviews of the building of the all-people national defence. 

In the process, consideration should be given to building the politico-spiritual potential, improving defence and security education, cementing the people’s faith in local party committees and authorities, making political bases strong, particularly in the areas mainly inhabited by religious and ethnic minority people, and promoting the role of the entire political system and all people in building the all-people national defence.

Second, closely, effectively combine economic, cultural and social development with national defence, security and diplomacy. This is a strategy by our Party aimed at ensuring the harmonious development of economy, culture, society, defence and security and making contributions to fulfilling the strategic tasks of national construction and protection. Thus, the all-level party committees and authorities must include defence-security consolidation in their plans/programmes for developing key economic sectors, such marine economy (aquaculture and tourism), agriculture, forestry, and industry, while building defence-economic zones and infrastructures in the border, mountainous, coastal areas to create an inter-connected, solid defence-economic belt within the province. Importance should be attached to reviewing and adjusting the master plan for national defence disposition associated with socio-economic development in accordance with local conditions and encouraging the core of military, public security, and border guard offices in appraising and supervising socio-economic development projects, especially the foreign-invested ones in the key areas. In the process, great value should be placed on closely combining social, economic, cultural development with defence, security and diplomacy, reviewing, adjusting and effectively executing the key projects. The social, economic, cultural development must be aimed at creating the defence, security, diplomacy potential and strength, firmly protecting the area, and effectively, opportunely dealing with defence-security situations and wars as the ultimate goal. In return, defence, security and diplomacy must help create a peaceful, stable environment for the province’s rapid, sustainable social, economic, cultural development.

Third, make the armed forces strong and capable of playing the core role in building the all-people national defence. In this regard, priority should be given to building the province’s armed forces in a “compact, strong, effective” manner so as to meet the requirements set by the task of protecting the province. The standing forces must be made “revolutionary, regular, seasoned, gradually modern,” and politically, ideologically, morally, organisationally strong. It is essential to frequently organise training and exercises, strictly maintain discipline, improve this force’s synergy and combat readiness capacity, and make it a loyal, reliable fighting and political army of local party committees and authorities. It is important to build the reserve force both quantitatively and qualitatively, frequently train, register and closely manage this force’s members and means in order to maintain readiness for mobilisation in the event. The militia and self-defence force must be made “strong and extensive” while the commune-level security force must be capable of opportunely, effectively handling situations right at grass-roots level. At the same time, the Public Security and the Border Guard must be made strong and standardised and they must closely cooperate with the Military under the Government’s Decree 03/2019/NĐ-CP, dated September 5^th, 2019 in maintaining political security and social order and safety, defending land and sea border, and settling defence-security situations in areas.

Fourth, associate the building of the all-people national defence posture with that of the people’s security posture. Due regard should be paid to adjusting force disposition and military-security posture in accordance with the National Defence, Military, and National Security Strategies, the Strategy for the Homeland Defence in Cyberspace, the Military Region 4’s Defensive Combat Determination, and the province’s particularities. It is necessary to frequently consolidate the “posture of people’s hearts and minds” and raise the quality of building military, defence, security works within defensive zones, particularly in the border between Vietnam and Laos and on the islands of Mat and Ngu. It is essential to proactively adjust and complete combat determination and projects as well as plans for natural disaster, fire, explosion prevention and control and search and rescue at all levels while due attention should be paid to organising exercises to improve the armed forces’ command capacity and coordination in handling possible situations.

Promoting its glorious revolutionary tradition, Nghe An will focus all resources on building the all-people national defence as the basis for developing an increasingly prosperous, civilised, and modern province to deserve to be the hometown of the Soviet Movement and our beloved Uncle Ho.

THAI THANH QUY, Alternate Member of the Party Central Committee

Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee of Nghe An