Comrade Nguyen Van Nguyen: The political writer who started the tradition of provincial journalism

BDK - Nguyen Van Nguyen was born on March 15, 1910, in Dieu Hoa village, My Tho province, now Ward 1, My Tho city, Tien Giang province. He was the son of a village teacher who taught Chinese characters and Vietnamese characters. In the literary world, he used the pen name Ngu Yen, derived from his first and last name Nguyen. Ngu Yen Nguyen Van Nguyen was the first Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee and also the founder of the province's first revolutionary newspaper - the Hammer and Sickle newspaper.

Comrade Nguyen Van Nguyen

Patriotic revolutionary soldier

Nguyen Van Nguyen's father died early when he was only 10 years old. His family was not well off, but seeing that his son was intelligent and studious, his mother worked hard to provide for his education. After graduating with a Baccalaureate degree from Collège de My Tho, he was awarded a scholarship to study at the Saigon Pedagogical College. As a patriotic young man, he actively participated in the movement to demand the French government release Phan Boi Chau (in 1925) and attended the memorial service for Phan Chau Trinh (in 1926). Because of these activities, he was expelled from school by the colonial government.

After graduating from school, Nguyen Van Nguyen applied for a job at the Indochina Railway Company and secretly kept in touch with friends and comrades to exchange thoughts and find life ideals. Luckily, he met and contacted a group of patriotic youth in the Vietnam Revolutionary Youth Association such as Tran Ngoc Giai, Tran Van Hoe, Mai Bach Ngoc and was admitted to the association in 1927. In 1930, he joined the An Nam Communist Party right from its inception and was assigned to work in My Tho. In April 1930, the Provisional Southern Regional Party Committee sent Mr. Nguyen Thieu to My Tho to establish a temporary Inter-Provincial Party Committee and appointed Mr. Nguyen Van Nguyen as Head of the Party Committee of Ben Tre and Tra Vinh.

Mr. Nguyen Van Nguyen started working in the province when he was only 20 years old with his newlywed wife, Mrs. Tran Thi Vong (pen name Chut Chit). He was one of the people who actively campaigned to organize the establishment of the first party cells in the province, leading to the establishment of the Ben Tre Provincial Party Committee in May 1931 at a silversmith shop on Clemenceau Street, now Le Loi Street, An Hoi Ward, Ben Tre City. The conference to establish the Provincial Party Committee elected 7 members to the Executive Committee; of which, Mr. Nguyen Van Nguyen was elected as the Secretary and the first Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee.

During the resistance war against France, Mr. Nguyen Van Nguyen held many important positions in the Party. He was directly in charge of propaganda work. He had many other outstanding activities in the fields of politics and ideology; he was an attractive lecturer on theoretical topics of Marxism-Leninism, domestic and international current events. His opinions were of profound theoretical nature, effective in guiding young cadres in absorbing the theoretical viewpoints of Marxism-Leninism.

Sharp political "pen"

Mr. Nguyen Van Nguyen was the founder of the Hammer and Sickle newspaper (in 1931), the Party's propaganda agency, the predecessor of today's Dong Khoi Newspaper. The newspaper was written and edited by Mr. Nguyen Van Nguyen himself. The newspaper was printed on wax paper, published monthly, and distributed in 300 copies by Mrs. Tran Thi Vong, carrying her small child, who went to distribute it to each Party cell.

Speaking specifically about his journalism career, Mr. Nguyen Van Nguyen regularly writes for major Party newspapers such as: Thong Nhat Magazine of the Southern Marxist Research Association, Research Magazine and Nhan Dan Mien Nam Newspaper. He is a diligent leader, reads a lot, writes a lot and writes very well in both Vietnamese and French. His articles are clear, coherent, have specific arguments, a lot of information, profound ideas, are concise, easy to understand, and attractive to readers. In particular, his writing style attracts readers, creates interest, is easy to remember and makes readers remember for a long time.

Typical of this writing style are the reportage “Con Lon, hell on earth” published in La Lutte newspaper and the essay “August sky strong autumn” published in Thong Nhat newspaper, the organ of the Southern Marxist Research Association, issue 15, August 15, 1950. This is one of the most prominent articles under the pen name Ngu Yen. The article was written one evening under the light of a small lamp in a small house in Tan Duc commune, Ngoc Hien district, Bac Lieu province. With his profound knowledge and talent expressed in many fields, with a refined, sharp writing style that moved people's hearts, Nguyen Van Nguyen created a very high reputation in the Southern press at that time.

In the literary world, Nguyen Van Nguyen stands out with the genres of reportage, current affairs commentary, literary criticism, he is an excellent political writer. All of Ngu Yen's literary criticisms affirm the communist stance, clearly stating the viewpoint of art for the sake of life and the method of socialist realism art.

In 1953, the Party Central Committee assigned Mr. Nguyen Van Nguyen to the North to take up his duties, but he suffered from severe typhoid fever and died in Binh Dinh on March 25, 1953. Nguyen Van Nguyen left behind many articles of profound ideological and literary value. His famous works include: Murder on Barbier Street (1939), Fallen Leaves Returning to Their Roots (1940), Revolutionary Cadres (1946). In 1987, his valuable articles were collected and published in a book entitled “August, Strong Autumn”.

Nguyen Van Nguyen devoted his whole life to the revolutionary cause of the Party, the Fatherland and the people. He was a sharp, insightful leader, a journalist and an erudite culturalist. As veteran revolutionary Tran Bach Dang - former Deputy Head of the Propaganda Department of the Central Office for Southern Vietnam commented: "Mr. Nguyen Van Nguyen is an erudite scholar, a communist, a talented writer and journalist".

Commenting on Nguyen Van Nguyen in the article “August, the strong autumn sky”, printed in the book History of Ben Tre Province Press, researcher Nguyen Van Chau wrote: “Nguyen Van Nguyen was active in the revolution for more than a quarter of a century, and died in his middle age. He proved to be a talented organizer and leader, an excellent communist journalist and writer. In the literary press team in the South, he was a leader, a senior writer. With the pen name Ngu Yen, he wrote quite a lot and until now what he wrote is still full of the breath of life, full of fighting spirit. Nguyen Van Nguyen is also the eldest brother of the Ben Tre Party Committee, the one who started the revolutionary press tradition of the Ben Tre Party Committee”.

Due to his many contributions to the Party, the struggle for national liberation and the country's press, on April 30, 1957, President Ho Chi Minh signed Decree No. C15 posthumously awarded Nguyen Van Nguyen the First Class Independence Medal and on January 5, 1980, Prime Minister Pham Van Dong signed a decision to award him the Certificate of Merit from the Fatherland.

Thanh Dong (synthesis)

Source: https://baodongkhoi.vn/dong-chi-nguyen-van-nguyen-cay-but-chinh-luan-khoi-dau-cho-truyen-thong-bao-chi-tinh-11062025-a147974.html