Recently, authorities in Nghe An have denied the ‘misinformation’ about Lenin statues in Vinh City, which is about to be being erected
Nghe An Province said that a 3-meter-high Lenin statue will be brought from Russia to Vinh City when the project is completed and the construction is expected to be completed at the end of March this year. According to information published by Vietnam newspaper last weekend, this is a project “with the consent of the Central Government, Nghe An Province” and Vinh City is implementing its construction.
The monument is expected to be located in roundabout intersection No. 5 of the city with a total project area of about 4,300 m2.
“The statue is 3m high, cast in bronze, made in Ulyanovsk province, Russia, then transported Nghe An,” the Vietnamese newspaper quoted from Nghe An provincial party committee.
“This work represents a special friendship between Nghe An province – the hometown of the great Uncle Ho and Ulyanovsk – the hometown of Lenin, the leader of the communist movement and international workers, and also demonstrates friendship between Vietnam and Russia.”
On Vietnamese social networks over the past time, there have been some critical comments about this project.
The first to be raised is the high cost of construction in a poor province.
Thanh Nien newspaper confirmed that the cost of building flower gardens and fountains for this project is more than VND8 billion.
Now, the Vietnamese newspaper said that “the leaders of the provincial Propaganda Department affirmed that the information on social networks in the past few days was incorrect and distorted with malicious intent.”
However, Nghe An provincial party committee did not say what “incorrect information” was.
The second reason, according to critics, is the obsolete character of Lenin, the symbol of the violent communist model in Russia after 1917.
An article in the Vietnamese newspaper in Hungary in 2014, said that worshiping Stalin or Lenin were “blind personality worship.”
In addition, “Lenin was more or less a supporter of the application of revolutionary violence as an essential and necessary means to resolve social and political conflicts.”
“His authoritarian and undemocratic made big figures with the same ideal like Rosa Luxemburg or writer Maxim Gorky felt greatly disappointed.
After the Soviet Union disbanded, many republics once belonged to the federation brought down the Lenin statue, considering it a symbol of oppressive dominance from Moscow.”
In 2017, photographer Niels Ackermann and writer Sebastien Gober published “Finding Lenin” about thousands of Lenin statues erased in Ukraine.
However, there is also a “retrograde” phenomenon like in 2018 in Tajikistan.
According to Radio Ozodi, a broken Lenin statue in Shahritus, southern Tajikistan, was raised by the local Islamic council to restore it.
According to RT.com in September 2017, a public opinion survey in April said that 58% of Russians wanted Lenin to be properly reburied.
This line of opinion suggests that the maintenance of mummified remains of the deceased is inconsistent with Russian Orthodox customs.
In general, the devastating legacy of the period when the communist regime formed in the Soviet Union still divides even among the Russian people and intellectuals.
Most recently, the judge of the Constitutional Court of Russia, Konstantin Aranovsky, said that Russia today should not “take over the evil legacy of communist rule in the Soviet Union.”
The presence of Lenin in statues in Hanoi and in books and pictures of the Vietnamese state has a slightly different meaning.
It is the assertion of the unique, entire leadership role of the Communist Party of Vietnam, which is still Leninist.
Culturally, this phenomenon seems to be more and more indigenous to Vietnam than it is related to post-Soviet historical changes in Europe and the former Soviet Union.
80 years later, Boris Yeltsin, former communist and the first president of the Russian Federation, determined: “It was an abominable crime. The massacre is one of the most embarrassing things in Russian history. Yeltsin said that organizing burial of innocent victims is a way of redemption. The massacre is the result of extremism, dividing Russian society. According to Yeltsin, it is time to end the era of blood and violence in Russia.”
After recounting one of Lenin’s crimes, Doan Bao Chau asked Nghe An authorities to consider: “Why are many parts of the world such as 14 countries once belong to the Soviet Union, countries of Eastern Europe, Mongolia, China, North Korea, etc. competing to break the monument Lenin? Why does the people of the Russian Federation now constantly offer to remove Lenin from the mausoleum that was built for him? Chau noted, over time, the Lenin judgment will be more drastic and frank. “
Facebooker Nhat Chi Mai said: Lenin is a sadist, a criminal of humanity. Did the Nghe An provincial government erect Lenin statues for advocating for violence and killing? Facebooker AB Bui recalled: Lenin was the one who initiated the Soviet-style socialist state model. It is estimated that in the 20th century, the communist states killed hundreds of millions of people and Lenin was responsible for this crime.
Mr. Chu asked: “Why is the government of Nghe An province going against the trend of both Russia and the world?
Why honor an individual whom his compatriots want to dismiss such as erasing a stain?
Why not erect a statue of your ancestor but honor a person like Lenin and create more difficulties for postpartum when your children and grandchildren must remove?
Why erect Lenin statue without soliciting opinion from Nghe An people whether they want it or not?”
Ms. Do Thi Hoa commented:”It is unlikely that the government of Nghe An province loves Lenin. The problem is that this implementation plan is approved by the superiors, so the implementation will bring money. Being criticized but having the opportunity to corrupt, the communists would do. A lot of people agree with this comment, such as Hien Ha Ngoc: Having “begged in the past” does not care about people’s expectations, the feelings of others and the trend of the times!”
When discontented but unable to prevent the government officials from taking their money, people criticize and joke. Some people suggested to build Lenin statue with face of Vietnamese such as Le Duan or Le Dinh Kinh, etc.
Knowing that it is impossible to stop the construction of the Lennin monument because it is an opportunity for officials’ corruption, Pham Thanh Hung hopes that, when the construction is completed, the Lenin statue will turn out … the statue of Le Dinh Kinh!
When Nghe An built a memorial park and erected a statue of Lenin, tens of thousands of social network users exchanged information for each other, in 2018, Nghe An only had revenues of VND12.691 billion while spending up to VND23.780 billion.
The shortfall due to the difference of revenue and expenditure of more than VND11,000 billion, of course, continues to apply as it has been, and the province will continue to ask the government for support.
Trung Tran tried calculating (taking VND11 trillion for 365 days) and reminded everyone: Every day, the whole country had to give Nghe An about VND30 billion to spend and Nghe An eagerly erect Lenin statue.
Hai Yen from Ha Noi – Thoibao.de (Translated)
