When delivering his opening address at the 3rd National Party Congress in 1960, President Ho Chi Minh stressed the dual tasks facing the whole nation: building socialism in the north and fighting for peace and national reunification. Just a few years before the Congress, he had paid two visits to Irkutsk, which was considered a fine example of economic development in the Soviet Union. Many people therefore associate his plans for realising the goal of “building socialism” with what he had learned from his visits to the Soviet city.
During these trips, not only did he learn about the city’s development but local residents also learned about Vietnam’s great leader, whose personality touched the hearts of people living in the East Siberian city./.
