The draft report on reviewing the Party building and the Party’s Charter for the tenure of the 12^th National Party Congress submitted to the 13^th Congress confirms Vietnam’s steadfastness in and its creative application and development of Marxism-Leninism and Ho Chi Minh’s ideology. This is a matter of paramount importance as it acts as a lodestar for our Party’s formulation of guidelines and leadership over our country’s revolution to gain numerous victories.

Only when approaching and studying Marxism-Leninism, particularly Vladimir Ilyich Lenin’s Thesis regarding nations and colonies, did Ho Chi Minh find a way for national salvation. At that time, he exclaimed that “My maltreated and miserable compatriots, this is what we need, this is the way to free us!” When making political, ideological and organisational preparations for the birth of the Communist Party of Vietnam, he confirmed that “Among a plethora of doctrines and isms available nowadays, Leninism is the truest and most revolutionary.” The creative application of Marxism-Leninism to Vietnam’s practical conditions and the birth of the Communist Party of Vietnam represent a combination of Marxism-Leninism and labour and patriot movements. Marxism-Leninism serves as the ideological foundation and lodestar for the Communist Party of Vietnam. In the process of developing itself, leading the country’s revolution, and reviewing reality, since its 7^th National Congress, our Party has included Ho Chi Minh’s ideology in its ideological foundation, stressing that “the President’s ideology is the result of the creative application of Marxism-Leninism to the country’s practical conditions and in fact it has become a valuable spiritual asset of our Party and nation.” As for the Vietnamese revolution and people, Marxism-Leninism goes along with Ho Chi Minh’s ideology or vice versa.

During its 90-year-plus process of leadership over the country’s revolution, the Communist Party of Vietnam has always remained steadfastness in Marxism-Leninism and Ho Chi Minh’s ideology when formulating revolutionary guidelines and exercising leadership over our revolution, thereby achieving remarkable victories. The following are reasons for our Party’s steadfastness in Marxism-Leninism and for its victories. First of all, Marxism-Leninism provides us with the most revolutionary and scientific instrument for comprehending and rebuilding the world. It sums up the laws of motion and development within the nature, society, and ideology, which has been proved by realities of sciences. Second, Marxism-Leninism is a doctrine of social liberation and development. It provides us with the goal, object and rules of liberation and development. It shows us that the revolutionary force capable of social liberation and development is the working class as evidenced by realities of the International Communist and Labour Movement, especially by the victory of Russian October Revolution of 1917. “Leninism is not only a miraculous book of the wise, a compass for our Vietnamese revolutionaries and people: it is also the radiant sun illuminating our path to final victory, to socialism and communism.” Thanks to that “miraculous book of the wise,” over the past 90 years plus, the Communist Party of Vietnam and President Ho Chi Minh have led our people to gain epoch-making feats, change the destiny of Vietnam and its citizens, and defeat the most powerful enemies in the world with numerous victories. The image of our country and people as well as Vietnam’s status and prestige have been increasingly spread and raised in the international arena.

Nowadays, amidst the development of reality, human race is entering the 4^th industrial revolution with new breakthroughs in technology which has brought people many utilities and greatly impacted on all aspects of the social life. Taking advantage of those impacts made by the 4^th industrial revolution and the collapse of the socialist regime in the Soviet Union and Eastern European countries, the hostile forces and bourgeois ideologists and politicians have put tireless efforts to criticise and deny Marxism-Leninism and Ho Chi Minh’s ideology from many different angles, while praising the bourgeois ideology and the material values gained by capitalism. Domestically, several discontented elements, reactionaries, and political opportunists have frequently written articles opposing Marxism-Leninism, Ho Chi Minh’s ideology, and our Party’s guidelines in support of the hostile forces’ sabotage against our country’s revolution.

So, how could we uphold and creatively apply Marxism-Leninism and Ho Chi Minh’s ideology in the new situation? This is a both long-term and urgent matter nowadays. To answer this question, it is necessary to continue studying and grasping the nature and value of ideological movements in the human history, make comparisons with Marxism-Leninism and then draw objective, accurate conclusions about the worldview, methodology and scientific, practical and humane nature of Marxism-Leninism. We need to correctly apply the system of scientific theories set by dialectical materialism and the dialectical method as well to explain the origin, laws, and processes of motion and development within the nature, society and ideology. Besides, we should use scientific inventions and achievements gained by humankind to prove Marxism-Leninism and unmask the hostile forces’ arguments, fabrications and distortions. In fact, by applying the dialectical materialism and dialectical method to social researches, Marxist-Leninist researchers have found socio-economic systems’ laws of development and come to conclude that the socio-economic system’s development is a historical-natural process. At the same time, that process has been explained by human realities and more specifically by the inevitable development of the productive forces aimed at increasing productivity, reducing human labour and satisfying men’s increasingly higher demands for all aspects of the social life. The existence and great impacts of the 4^th industrial revolution on all aspects of the social life have proved that the argument on science as a direct productive force which was nearly 200 years ago is completely correct.

Politicians and theorists have discovered many reasons for the collapse of socialism in the Soviet Union and Eastern European countries in the 1990s. In this regard, the most fundamental reason is that when carrying out their reforms to develop and drive their countries out of crisis, the Soviet Union and Eastern European socialist countries had incorrectly applied and gone against the economic determinism pointed out by Marxism-Leninism. Their guidelines and approaches were just the objective imposition which had not derived from their countries’ practical conditions and they implemented reforms in a wrong direction, from political to economic ones, thereby leading to an unavoidable collapse. At that time, with the spirit of “looking at, correctly assessing, and telling what actually happens,” the 6^th National Party Congress of Vietnam laid down guidelines on comprehensive national renewal, marking a turning point of the Vietnamese revolution in the new period. According to this Congress, “the Party must reform its way of thinking, particularly its economic thought, reform its structure, reform its contingent of cadres, and reform its leadership and working style.” At present, Vietnam has become a developing nation with the per capita income of nearly 3,000 USD in 2019. Our country has joined most of the international organisations and become an active, responsible member of the international community. Never has Vietnam had such great potential, status and prestige. The country’s achievements have proved that our Party’s creative application of Marxism-Leninism and Ho Chi Minh’s ideology and its guidelines on national comprehensive reform are sound and proper, while being increasingly supplemented, developed and completed.

On the development of Marxism-Leninism and Ho Chi Minh’s ideology in the new situation. This is an important task necessitating politicians, researchers and scientists undertaking systematic, in-depth researches in order to supplement, develop and make Marxism-Leninism and Ho Chi Minh’s ideology relevant to our country’s practical conditions.

First of all, it is essential to remain steadfast in the worldview of dialectical materialism and dialectical method to study and sum up practical issues as the basis for more thoroughly, completely developing the system of Marxist-Leninist concepts, philosophical ideas, fundamentals, and laws. Importance should be attached to developing the law of contradictions, analysing and clarifying the nature and role of each category of contradiction as well as the relationships and transformations between contradictions in all fields of the social life so as to well manage the major relationships identified by our Party.

Furthermore, due attention should be paid to more deeply, correctly explaining Marxism-Leninism’s Socio-Economic Systems, especially the Communist Socio-Economic System, the characteristics and content of the transitional period, the dialectics between productive forces and relations of production amidst the 4^th industrial revolution and between base and superstructure in the context of globalisation as well as the issues on class struggle and social revolution in the new situation. At the same time, it is necessary to clarify the origin and nature of wars and conflicts in the world and their trends in the upcoming time and the issues of public concern, such as non-traditional security threats (environment pollution, natural disaster, and epidemic) and cyber security. Great value should be attached to standardising the content and explanation of the more developed issues on Marxism-Leninism and Ho Chi Minh’s ideology in official documents and curriculums for teaching and training courses.

Upholding and creatively applying and developing Marxism-Leninism and Ho Chi Minh’s ideology represent our Party’s consistent strategy and continue to be mentioned in the draft documents submitted to the 13^th National Party Congress. This is a matter of special importance as it provides our Party with a solid scientific foundation so that it would formulate sound guidelines for leading the country to successfully fulfil the task of national construction and protection.

VAN THANH - Col. DO DINH VAN*, MA

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* The Political Officer College