Professor Tran Van Giau - a great scholar, a great personality

Tran Van Giau is certainly one of the greatest contemporary writers of Vietnam. He started his research and writing career very early. In the early 1930s, while still studying at the Lenin Oriental University in Moscow, he participated in drafting and writing a number of important documents of the Communist International related to the leadership of the Indochinese Communist Party. From 1935 to 1941, during nearly seven years in imperial prisons, sometimes in the Big Prison (Saigon), sometimes in Con Dao and in the Ta Lai concentration camp, Tran Van Giau often lay naked on the cement floor of his cell, diligently and secretly drafting dozens of propaganda and training documents. Overcoming the stalking and terror of secret police, the "Red Professor" of that time enthusiastically participated in teaching Party training classes in prison, contributing to equipping many generations of cadres and Party members with the most essential theoretical knowledge and propaganda and organizational skills. Many "students" of that "Revolutionary University" later became high-ranking Party officials, such as Ton Duc Thang, Pham Van Dong, Phan Dinh Khai (Le Duc Tho), etc. During the urgent days of racing against time, preparing forces to seize power in Saigon and Cochinchina on the eve of the August Revolution, Secretary of the Regional Party Committee Tran Van Giau himself compiled many small books as training and propaganda materials for workers and especially for intellectuals and high-ranking civil servants, in order to, through theory and enthusiasm, persuade and attract them to the revolutionary side. Unfortunately, up to now, most of his works - obviously of special value - are still lost and not many have been recovered.

Professor, People's Teacher, Labor Hero Tran Van Giau (1911-2010),

Former Head of the Department of History (Hanoi University), Secretary of the Party Committee of Hanoi University (1956).

The August Revolution succeeded, on September 2, 1945 the Democratic Republic of Vietnam was born, but just under three weeks later the French colonialists, hiding behind the British army, returned to launch a war to re-establish colonial rule in Vietnam. The people of the South were the brave pioneers who confronted the French invaders. Tran Van Giau stood at the vanguard of that vanguard army. In 1949, he was suddenly called to the Viet Bac resistance base and assigned many different tasks. From 1951 to 1954 he was the Director and professor directly teaching at the University Preparatory School in the Thanh-Nghe-Tinh liberated zone. During this period he continued to write, mainly theoretical propaganda and political training documents.

In November 1954, the University of Literature and the University of Science were established. Tran Van Giau was the first Party Secretary of the school, teaching subjects such as Political Science, Philosophy, World History and Vietnamese History. In the 1955-1956 school year, he was awarded the title of Professor by the State for the first time. In mid-1956, Hanoi University was established, he was appointed to the position of Party Secretary of the school and was one of the pioneers of the two fields of history and modern philosophy in our country.

During those years, Professor Tran Van Giau and Professors Dao Duy Anh, Tran Duc Thao, and Cao Xuan Huy had to open up the history and philosophy industry with great difficulty. There was a lack of teachers, books, especially tool books and textbooks. Without hesitation, Tran Van Giau and his students and colleagues had to "roll up their sleeves" to compile the first textbooks. Strangely enough! Under such conditions, the textbook he edited on Modern Vietnamese History, up to now, after many decades, can still be considered the most basic, profound, and significant textbook. Besides, he had to urgently compile books such asGeneral philosophy,History of anti-invasionAlreadyThe South holds the citadeletc. were used both as reference materials in schools and as propaganda materials, as a trumpet call calling on compatriots and comrades to rush to the South to participate in the resistance war against America to save the country.

Overcoming that period, in the early 60s of the last century, Professor Tran Van Giau embarked on elaborate and careful research works on Vietnamese history. His first book series was the series “Vietnamese working class"(3 volumes). This is the first systematic and elaborate research work on the history of the Vietnamese workers' movement. After more than four decades, today we can see that here and there the book needs to be supplemented and corrected in terms of historical materials, but the most important are the contributions of Professor Tran Van Giau in terms of methodology. With this book, for the first time, Vietnamese history is no longer just the history of leaders, political parties or religions, but is truly the history of the masses, created by the people.

Next, Professor Tran Van Giau took upon himself an extremely difficult task that no one had been able to do before: compiling a history of Vietnamese thought. He himself also found this to be a very difficult task, but he could not refuse. This is what he said when volume I of the book series was published: “Going into the field of history of ideas alone, at least in the beginning, is really worrying and scary, not without moments of hesitation. (...) here the problem is very attractive, the work is very difficult, everything is quite new, only one thing is familiar: methodology, but how to apply the principles of methodology to the history of Vietnamese ideas is correct, certainly we have to work for a long time to know clearly.”.

In that way, after many years of painstaking research, the book finally consisted of 3 volumes.“The development of Vietnamese thought was born”.Evaluating this monumental work, David G. Marr, one of the world's most renowned historians and leading expert on Vietnam, wrote:“Among the works published in all languages ​​of the world, it is the best history of Vietnamese thought.”[1]I think, the above comment of a great Western historian like David G. Marr is enough to speak of the true value of the work that Tran Van Giau "painfully" spent more than 20 years to complete, no need for further comment. Also with these two works, Professor Tran Van Giau was awarded the Ho Chi Minh Prize, Phase I, in 1996 by our State.

Professor Tran Van Giau is the teacher of many generations of Vietnamese Historians.

After the South was liberated and the country was unified, he returned to live in Ho Chi Minh City. Despite his old age and poor health, he continued to diligently research, contemplate, and complete previously cherished works and publish new works. Many generations of students, from those who were once tutored by him and have now become famous scholars, to the new generation of students who have just started their careers, read his books and consider themselves his indirect students, still flock to meet him to hear him speak, see him smile, and receive his guidance on many things. Foreign scholars, with different nationalities and political views, if they research Vietnam in the modern and contemporary period but have not met him - to interview, to consult and debate, then they still consider themselves as not "enlightened"...

The works are selected and published in volumes I and II of the book series "The work was awarded the Ho Chi Minh Prize.” are of course his most representative works. Although the two volumes are very large (with a total of 3,558 pages), they only showa small partThe academic contributions that Tran Van Giau has made to the Revolution, the Nation, and the Social Sciences and Humanities of Vietnam.

As mentioned above, Tran Van Giau started his writing career very early in the field of political theory. In addition to propaganda and training documents, he also compiled many books on philosophy, political economy, and literary essays. ButIt is in history that he most clearly established his great contribution and comprehensive academic reputation.

The influence and prestige of Tran Van Giau in the field of modern and contemporary Vietnamese history research is affirmed first of all not because of the huge number of works he has published, but rather because ofapproachandprofessional attitudeHe expressed himself consistently in all of these works. There is no doubt that Tran Van Giau is a Marxist historian. Marxism – as one of his students, Professor Tran Quoc Vuong, said – has “eaten” into his blood and flesh.

What needs to be made clear here is that the Marxist worldview is expressed in a very unique way in the way Tran Van Giau approaches and studies history. He certainly belongs to the first generation of Western-educated intellectuals.voluntaryaccept the Marxist method of thinking in a completely rational and scientific way and treat Marxism-Leninism in a scientific way - exactly as Marx demanded. Thanks to that, while applying Marxist methodology to the study of national history,He minimized the defects caused by dogmatism and mechanicalism.This is a rather serious disease of Marxist historians not only in Vietnam but also in many countries in the former socialist bloc. Indeed, he pondered a lot in applying the theory of socio-economic formations and the doctrine of class struggle to the periodization of Vietnamese history, and he himself soon realized that it was impossible to "force" this or that period of national history into this or that socio-economic formation.

Professor Tran Van Giau and his wife, with his students: Professor, Meritorious Artist Tran Quoc Vuong, Professor, People's Artist Dinh Xuan Lam,

Prof. Dr. Ha Van Tan, Prof. Dr. Phan Huy Le

The most important principlein the perception and presentation of history of Tran Van Giauis to respect the truth. That is the way of writing history that he called "things have dates, people have names". The books he wrote, fromAnti-invasion,Vietnamese working class(two sets) toThe South holds the citadelandThe development of thought in VietnamHe was always full of documents, documents from many sides, exploited from many sources. He was also very careful in collecting and using historical documents, always criticizing, comparing, and determining their reliability. The documents he used often had to be clearly cited. Any parts that were unclear or doubtful, he also clearly stated so that readers could be careful and verify for themselves. Although his work was full of documents, readers were not bored, but on the contrary, were strongly attracted by his eloquent and coherent way of explaining. Therefore, not only history students and researchers in the country but also foreign scholars were eager to read his books.He is the most cited contemporary Vietnamese scholar in foreign works on modern Vietnamese history.If you look at the references at the end of the research works of famous foreign scholars such as David G. Marr, William J. Duiker, Jayne S. Werner, Huynh Kim Khanh, Alexander B. Woodside, Stein Tonnesson, Daniel Hemery, Pierre Brocheux, Martin Murray, Bernard B. Fall, Shawn F. McHale, Furuta Motoo, Wilfred Lulei, etc., there will always be a few references by Tran Van Giau. Not all of the above scholars, when referring to his books, agree with his arguments. Even if their opinions are different or completely contrary to his - in science, that is also normal - they all show respect for him. Many people praise him no less than his students do in the country.

Two setsHis book is about the history of the Vietnamese workers' movement.are the most referenced and cited works both domestically and internationally. People refer to these two sets of books first of all because they are lively and full of documents, as mentioned above. But what makes these sets of books highly appreciated and widely referenced is also the method and approach that Tran Van Giau presents in these research works. Abroad and especially in Vietnam, many people have sought to present and explain the processes and events of modern and contemporary Vietnamese history in different ways. However, in most of the works published in many languages ​​in many countries, there is a common perspective and presentation that makes history only the history of political parties, leaders, religions and groups.eliteall kindsOnly in the above works of Tran Van Giau is history truly presented as "the cause of the masses".in which the appearance, form, thoughts, aspirations, and activities of the masses were vividly and specifically recreated. Tran Van Giau's historical writing style clearly had a strong influence on the epistemology and approaches of many scholars at home and abroad. In Vietnam, following his work, a number of other very valuable studies on workers, farmers, women, etc. were conducted according to this approach. Abroad, it was not until the mid-1990s that a few studies appeared in the direction of "bottom up”, including David G. Marr's massive book on the August RevolutionVietnam 1945: the Quest for Poweris the most typical project.

Professor Tran Van Giau spoke at the ceremony to receive the title of Labor Hero of the Faculty of History (University of Social Sciences and Humanities) in 2000.

Nowadays, the application of anthropological, sociological andfolklorestudy and present history in the style of "bottom up" is becoming increasingly popular among historians in many countries, and has begun to show signs of becoming an extreme trend, "seeing the trees but not the forest". It is in this context that the book seriesVietnamese working classTran Van Giau's work further affirms its methodological value. While writing history, although taking the mass movement as the main subject, Tran Van Giau did not fall into any kind of "populism". He still maintained a multi-faceted, multi-dimensional, non-extremist, non-biased view. Researching workers, he pointed out the clear yet fragile socio-political boundary between two classes of people, one class is "teachers", the other class is "workers"; pointing out the interaction between the political system, mass organizations and the working class, in Vietnam only Tran Van Giau was able to do it, while abroad Joseph Buttinger and Martin Murray were only able to suggest a few ideas.

Another book series by Tran Van Giau that is also very famous both domestically and internationally is the three-volume workThe development of thought in Vietnam from the 19th century to the August Revolutionwhich he published between 1973 and 1993. This is the collection of works that heWork hard, work hard, work smartmore than to complete. Having specialized in writing textbooks, researching and reconstructing the history of mass movements, when he began to step into the field of researching the history of Vietnamese ideology, Tran Van Giau knew very well that he was taking on a very difficult and complicated task.

Finally, to approach Tran Van Giau's scientific works, perhaps we should also know that he was a man who had to endure many great pains.Life is full of worries and troubles" - Uc Trai said so - it happened to Uc Trai and to Tran Van Giau like that. The stormy and bumpy path of his life, from a Western-educated intellectual, a rich kid, to a professional revolutionary, a prisoner, a leader, and finally a scholar, a historian, is the path ofmany human painsHis father died while he was still abroad. Many years later, he escaped from the secret police and returned to quietly pay homage to his father's grave in a field in the middle of the deserted night. Then his mother also quietly passed away while he was still wandering around.p battlefields. His virtuous wife spent her youth waiting for her husband, and at one point had to become a nun to avoid the malicious slander of public opinion... But those were only "small pains". There were greater sorrows and pains that haunted him for many years. Only by understanding his inner feelings can we somewhat see his extraordinary willpower, and understand that he was not only a staunch revolutionary soldier, a scholar, a great teacher, but also a GREAT PERSONALITY.