A statue of President Ho Chi Minh in Russia (Photo: VNA)The monument was inaugurated on May 18, 1990 on theoccasion of President Ho Chi Minh’s 100th birth anniversary.
Russian sculptor Vladimir Efimovich Tsigal, one of thetwo creators of the monument, visited Vietnam in 1985 to research for hisproject. After witnessing what are going on in the country, he had come up withan entirely new idea for the monument. According to him, the round disc symbolizesVietnam’s sun, representing the halo of President Ho Chi Minh always shineslight for Vietnamese men to stand up for the country. The creator’s initialintention was for the man to hold a rifle, but after the visit, he decided toremove the rifle to imply the strong rise of Vietnam in peacetime.
He also used the image of bamboo trees, the emblematic treeof Vietnam, to represent the will and strength of the country as the bambootree can be bended, but it is difficult to break.
President Ho Chi Minh visits construction site of Irkutsk hydropower plant. (Photo: VNA)In 1955 and 1957, President Ho Chi Minh visited Irkutsk,now part of Russia. Vera Pavlovna, then an elementary school student, was amongthose greeting him in welcoming ceremonies. “He came hugging each of us and we puta red scarf around his neck,” Pavlovna recalled, “I could not forget his face.”
The president also came talking to lecturers and studentsof the Irkutsk State Pedagogical Institute of Foreign Languages, under theIrkutsk State University, said Nguyen Quang Duong, president of the associationof Vietnamese people in the province. His speech in Russian and French receivedbig applause from the audience. After the president passed away in 1969, theinstitute asked to be named after him.
President Ho Chi Minh was warmly greeted everywhere hevisited in Russia, said Sergey Levchenko, first secretary of the RussianCommunist Party organisation in Irkutsk. Vietnam is developing and gaining manygreat achievements, he noted, hailing the country’s socio-economic success overthe last decade./.
VNA
