Introducing many free resources on Vietnamese political history and Ho Chi Minh

The speaker at the scientific event was Ms. Oliva Pelletier, Officer in charge of the Indochina Department at the Overseas Archives Center. On the side of the Faculty of Political Science, there were Associate Professor, Dr. Lai Quoc Khanh, Dr. Luu Minh Van and many staff, graduate students and researchers of the faculty.

GrandmaOliva PelletierIntroducing documents on Vietnamese political history and Ho Chi Minh at the Overseas Archives Center (France)

At the meeting, Ms. Oliva Pelletier introduced to the staff, lecturers, graduate students and postgraduate students of the Faculty of Political Science the source of documents preserved at the Overseas Archives Center on Vietnamese history, politics and Nguyen Ai Quoc - Ho Chi Minh.

The Overseas Archives Center was established in 1966 and currently stores up to 38 km of documents, of which 6 km are related to Indochina. The center stores 150,000 photos, 60,000 maps, 120,000 books, newspapers, magazines... about the colonial period. It is especially noteworthy that most of these sources of documents can be exploited for free. Everyone can access them at: http://www.archivesnationales.culture.gouv.fr/anom/fr/

The source of documents on the colonies is divided into many collections, such as the collection of state agencies in France, the collection of French government agencies in the colonies, etc. For example, the collection of the Governor General of Indochina has many documents before 1945: monitoring press activities, immigration, correspondence, etc.; The collection of military documents refers to the expeditionary army, monitoring foreigners operating in Vietnam, those working for the colonial government and documents on Nguyen Ai Quoc. In this collection, the source of documents on Nguyen Ai Quoc is very rich, about 7 boxes of files with about 8,000 pages of documents and these documents have also been digitized and posted on the Center's website; etc.

Researchers are exchanging and interacting with the speaker

Regarding Vietnamese politics, the archive currently has about 5,600 files, the most prominent of which are files on Nguyen Ai Quoc. The file data includes: documents of the French government and colonial government, images, sounds, correspondence, articles, etc. Currently, this source of documents has also been digitized and posted on the website of the Overseas Archives Center.

After the introduction to the data sources, Ms. Oliva Pelletier guided the staff, graduate students and researchers of the Faculty of Political Science on how to access and search for the above data sources.

Responding to researchers' questions about the quantity, level of exploitation and use of these sources of documents, Ms. Oliva Pelletier shared: Currently, the Overseas Archives Center has been and is continuing the process of digitizing documents to post on the Center's website. The number of documents that have been digitized and posted on the website is quite rich, including many documents about Nguyen Ai Quoc... These documents are completely free for readers. Anyone can access, download, print and use.

France has passed a law on the right to access information, so documents after 50 years can be declassified and made available to everyone. However, when downloading and printing documents, there will be symbols to mark the copyright; if individuals or organizations want to access the original documents, they must apply for permission. Some documents related to commercial publishers will have to pay a fee, while other documents will be free to use the original.

Associate Professor, Dr. Lai Quoc Khanh, Deputy Head of the Faculty of Political Science, spoke at the scientific meeting.

Associate Professor Dr. Lai Quoc Khanh, Deputy Head of the Faculty of Political Science, expressed his thanks for the content shared by Ms. Oliver Pelletier. This is very useful scientific information for those doing research at the University of Social Sciences and Humanities in general, and the Faculty of Political Science in particular, because archival materials are the foundation and basis for scientific research, especially research on political history, on Ho Chi Minh, etc. This scientific activity is the beginning of a series of activities to support political science researchers, Ho Chi Minh studies, to access and exploit archival sources at home and abroad.

Access to domestic and foreign archives will open up many new research directions on Ho Chi Minh studies, Vietnamese political history, etc. Researchers of the Faculty of Political Science will make efforts to carry out individual and collective research to exploit these sources of documents.