October Revolution Lights up the Renovation for National Independence and Socialism of Our People

The Russian October Revolution in 1917 was the greatest revolution, which had the great historical stature and the most profound social effects of human life in the 20th century. From 1917 to mid-20th century, with all available internal resources and learning from capitalism, the Soviet Union accelerated the process of industrialization and modernization of the country. From a backward country, the Soviet Union became a leading industrial power. Politics, culture, science, and education all gained outstanding development, the Soviet Union became a highly cultured nation, widely popularizing education; a pioneer in many scientific fields such as space, nuclear, biology, even surpassed some developed capitalist countries in certain fields. At the same time, the Soviet people also achieved glorious victories by defeating the military attacks of 14 imperialist countries, firmly protected the first socialist state. During the Second World War, with the mighty strength of the socialist regime built and tempered through challenges, along with the great and courageous sacrifices of the people who love peace and socialism, the Soviet Union played a key role with allied countries in defeating the enemy of humanity, i.e fascism, and protecting the torch of world revolution. In the following decades, the great achievements in realizing socialism in the Soviet Union greatly contributed to the movements of international communist and workers, for national liberation, and for peace, democracy and social progress in the world.

One of the decisive reasons for the victory of the October Revolution and the miracle achievements in building socialism and defending the Fatherland of the Soviet people was the correct and creative leadership of the Bolshevik Party led by V.I. Lenin. He steadfastly fought to protect, creatively applied and brought Marxism to new heights in the era of world imperialism and proletarian revolution. V.I. Lenin was deeply aware of the new development of capitalism, grasped the situation and opportunity of revolution, and together with the Bolshevik Party, mobilized the masses of workers, peasants and soldiers to rise up in arms, bringing the proletarian revolution to victory, establishing a true democracy “which was millions of times better than bourgeois democracy” for the working people. And it was V.I. Lenin who together with the Party made extremely important major decisions: taking advantage of the short period of peace to consolidate and build forces to protect the Soviet government against the attacks of imperialist countries. Then, he proposed the famous New Economic Policy (NEP), bringing Russia out of crisis, focusing on developing the productive force and constantly improving labor productivity to build infrastructure for socialism.

Continuing the career of V.I. Lenin, the Soviet communists proposed many appropriate policies to stand firm and maintain the pace of economic development, to make the country become a top military power, and won victory in the Great Patriotic War, which completely destroyed fascism. Then, in just a short time, the Soviet nation quickly overcame the severe aftermath of the war and recovered socio-economical development.

The collapse of the socialist regime in the Soviet Union was a huge, unprecedented loss. Bourgeois politicians and thinkers have launched sabotage campaigns against socialism and Marxism - Leninism; raising confusion and skepticism about socialism among many cadres, Party members and the masses. They tried to exploit the disintegration of the socialist regimes in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe to propagate their false views, for example, by distorting that “Marxism-Leninism is outdated”, “socialism has ended, only capitalism is civilized and sustainable”, and such, in order to poison the spiritual atmosphere of society. They blatantly and maliciously misrepresented that the Russian October Revolution was just a coup; the communists headed by V.I. Lenin were just rebels, and this was a premature revolution. They attributed the cause of the disintegration of Soviet Union and Eastern Europe to the October Revolution. That is a distortion of history and truth, demonstrating the immoral attitude that needs to be exposed and criticized.

Therefore, it is vital for socialism in general and our people’s renovation course in particular to continue to affirm the signifance of the October Revolution and the Soviet people’s achievements in more than 70 years of building socialism; at the same time, to find out the causes of success and failure, on that basis, to continue to affirm our Party’s correctness, loyalty and creative application of Marxism-Leninism in the process of building socialism. As the matter of fact, the ideology of the Russian October Revolution continues to illuminate and penetrate deeply into the hearts and minds of millions of working people around the world and encourage them to continue moving forward to the ideal of socialism.

We cannot consider the collapse of the socialist regime in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe the collapse of socialism and socialist ideology. One of the main reasons for the collapse lies in the decline of the ruling party regarding its guideline, which was distant from reality, people's lives, and failed to properly reflect the laws of social development. Regarding the leadership method, it is a violation of the principles of Marxism-Leninism, abandoning the class stance, implementing unprincipled reforms, and losing socialist orientation. Reform and development was an inevitable trend and it may encounter many resistances, inertia during the implementation process, as V.I. Lenin once said, “habit is something most scared”. In the Soviet Union history, putting an end to the NEP was a hasty, subjective, and willful decision while it had not firmly rooted in the land of Soviet reality (after the death of V.I. Lenin in 1924). Therefore, this was obviously an act of “draining blood out of the body”. Principles mistakes in the reform process in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe led to the collapse, a heart-breaking tragedy in the history of realistic socialism at the end of the 20th century that had been seriously warned by V.I. Lenin: losing political direction in turning points, for a ruling Party (the Communist Party of the Soviet Union) was like an act of suicide. Regarding organization, there were splits, corruption, and special privileges among some cadres and Party members who had positions, authority, causing disunity within the Party, between the Party and the people, and between peoples in the Soviet Union and socialist countries. Particularly, the armed forces have completely lost political direction.

Therefore, it is impossible to deny the achievements of socialism, the vitality of socialist ideology, and the entire historical era of transition from capitalism to socialism that began with the great Russian October Revolution. As a realistic social regime, by the time of its collapse, the Soviet Union existed for more than 70 years, an extremely short period of time in the flow of world historical development. In other words, the realization of socialism was still in its early stages, but the socialist regime has shown strong vitality. The great loss of the socialist countries of the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe belonged to the past, that was the collapse of a rigid social model. As for the aspirations of socialism, new things are emerging dynamically and creatively based on Marxism-Leninism and scientific socialism. With that spirit, it is necessary to affirm that the Russian October Revolution is still the greatest revolution in human history.

During the process of leading the Vietnamese revolution, President Ho Chi Minh and the Communist Party of Vietnam were fully aware of the important position and role of the Russian October Revolution in 1917 and followed its path. Under the light of the new times—the light of Marxism-Leninism, the spirit of the October Revolution was inspired to Vietnam right at the time when our people's resistance movement against French colonialism was undergoing profound changes, the working class developed vigorously in quantities and stepping into the political stage. This helped to end the crisis of national liberation in Vietnam in the early 20th century. At the same time, the victory of October Revolution consolidated President Ho Chi Minh and our Party’s confidence in determining the path to national salvation and liberation and the path to socialism. Nguyen Ai Quoc withdrew a profound conclusion on V.I. Lenin's 1920 Theses on the Issue of Ethnicity and Colonial Peoples: “There are numerous doctrines and theories, but Leninism is the most genuine, reliable and revolutionary” ⁽¹⁾. Comparing the French, American, and Russian revolutions, the Russian Revolution was a “complete revolution", liberating people from all oppression and exploitation. From then on, he believed and followed the path of the October Revolution. Based on Vietnamese reality, he absorbed, creatively applied and developed Marxism-Leninism, proposed the correct path for the Vietnamese revolution, linked national independence and democracy with socialism, and national liberation with class liberation and human liberation. He made a famous argument that the colonial revolution could proactively and self-reliantly stand up to fight and won before the revolutions in capitalist countries. That was the people's national democratic revolution moving towards socialism, skipping the stage of capitalist development. At the same time, the positive influence of the Russian October Revolution in 1917 and the great and comprehensive support and assistance of the Party, State and people of the Soviet Union for the Vietnamese revolution created a very important premise for the Communist Party of Vietnam to lead our people to overcome countless difficulties and challenges to win the August Revolution in 1945, followed by the Dien Bien Phu victory in 1954, “a landslide victory”, then the Great Spring Victory in 1975 that liberated the South and unified the country; and the victory in the fight to protect the Southwestern and Northern borders of Vietnam, fulfilling noble international obligations, maintaining our sovereignty and territorial integrity, and firmly stepping on the socialist path. Even in the 1990s of the 20^th century, when the Soviet Union and the socialist countries of Eastern Europe collapsed, many communists wavered and doubted the legitimacy of the 1917 Russian October Revolution and Socialism. Accordingly, they denied the revolutionary and scientific nature of Marxism-Leninism, completely negated the historical position of the proletariat and criticized scientific socialism. Under these circumstances, the political upheaval of the Soviet Union and the post-Soviet situation continued to provide the Communist Party of Vietnam and the Vietnamese people with updated realities on efforts to restore the leadership of the Communist Party towards society; on the principle of combining construction and defense of the Fatherland; on resolving class, national and international interests. With the spirit of looking straight at the truth, correctly evaluating the truth and stating the truth as clearly defined at the 6th National Party Congress (December 1986), our Party has been steadfast in Marxism-Leninism, Ho Chi Minh Thought, continued to follow the path of the Russian October Revolution in 1917, resolutely overcame mistakes and shortcomings in the process of building socialism in Vietnam. In any circumstances, the Party stays steadfast in its goal of national independence associated with socialism; at the same time, constantly selectively absorbs and appropriately applies the values ​​of human civilization to realize the revolutionary path that the Party, President Ho Chi Minh and our people have chosen, as President Ho Chi Minh once said: “Following the path outlined by the great Lenin and the path of the October Revolution, the Vietnamese people have won great victories. That is why the Vietnamese people have deep and profound love and gratitude for the glorious October Revolution and for great Lenin” ⁽²⁾, for the goal of prosperous people, a strong, democratic, equal, and civilized country with socialist orientation. The Communist Party of Vietnam and its people, with steadfast loyalty are forever grateful to the Russian October Revolution in 1917, respectfully grateful to the great contributions of V.I. Lenin and the Soviet people for finding new paradigms of development model in social fields so that our Party and people can inherit and absorb revolutionary and scientific experience on the basis of promoting national traditions.

Promoting lessons from October Revolutions, to fulfil two strategic tasks in the new situation, our Party need to focus on improving the quality of the Party’s building work on the basis of seriously implementing Conclusion 21-KL/TW, dated on October 25, 2021, issued by the 4th Plenum of the Party Central Committee (13^th tenure). At the same time, it is necessary to continue to research, supplement and perfect the policy system to strengthen and consolidate the great national unity bloc based on the core of the alliance of workers, farmers and intellectuals. In practice, over 37 years of renewal, our country has achieved great achievements of historical significance: “Our country has never had the fortune, potential, position and international prestige as it does today. This is the pride, motivation, important resource, and belief of the entire Party, people, and army to overcome all difficulties and challenges and continue firmly on the path of comprehensive and unified renovation; rapid and sustainable development of the country”⁽³⁾ and that was also confirmed by the Resolution of the 13th Party Congress, demonstrating the profound meaning of the October Revolution, especially the lessons drawn from successes and failures in the process of exploring and testing to build a new social regime and protect the Socialist Fatherland.

With those lessons in mind, the Communist Party of Vietnam will definitely lead our country to take advantage of all opportunities, overcome all challenges, and successfully build socialism, for the goal of “well-being people, powerful country, and democratic, equal, civilized society”; proactively contributing to the struggle of the world's people for peace, national independence, democracy and social progress./.

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(1) Ho Chi Minh (1995), Complete works, Vol. 2, National Political Publishing House, H., p.267- 268.

(2) Ho Chi Minh (2011), Complete works, Vol. 15, National Political Publishing House, H., p.397.

(3) The Communist Party of Vietnam (2021), Documents of the 13^th Party Congress, Vol.1, National Political Publishing House Su that, H., p.104.