Tố Hữu | |
|---|---|
 First DeputyChairman of the Council of Ministers Deputy Prime Minister of Vietnam | |
| In office 7 February 1980 – 21 June 1986 5 years, 154 days | |
| Prime Minister | Phạm Văn Đồng |
| Preceded by | First deputy chairman |
| Succeeded by | Võ Chí Công |
| Constituency |  Vietnam |
| Member of the4th and5th Politburo | |
| In office 20 December 1976 – 21 June 19865 years, 150 days | |
| Alternate Member of the4th Politburo of the Communist Party of Vietnam | |
| In office 1976–1980 | |
| Head of theCentral Propaganda Department of the Communist Party of Vietnam | |
| In office 1968–1982 | |
| Preceded by | Trường Chinh |
| Succeeded by | Bùi Thanh Khiết |
| Director of the Government's Committee for Culture and Education | |
| In office 1960 – January 1963 | |
| Preceded by | First |
| Succeeded by | Lê Liêm |
| Secretary of the Secretariat (2nd to 4th terms) | |
| In office 1958–1980 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Nguyễn Kim Thành (1920-10-04)4 October 1920 |
| Died | 9 December 2002(2002-12-09) (aged 82) Hanoi, Vietnam |
| Nationality | Vietnam |
| Political party | Communist Party of Vietnam |
| Spouse | Vũ Thị Thanh |
| Education | Quốc Học Huế High School |
| Occupation | poet, politician |
Tố Hữu | |
|---|---|
| Occupation | Poet, politician |
| Language | Vietnamese |
| Nationality | Vietnam |
| Education | Quốc Học – Huế High School for the Gifted |
| Period | 1936–2002 |
| Genre | Revolutionary poetry |
| Subject | Revolution |
| Literary movement | New Poetry Movement |
| Notable works | Từ ấy,Việt Bắc |
| Notable awards | Ho Chi Minh PrizeGold Star Order |
| Spouse | Vũ Thị Thanh |
| Children | (3)Nguyễn Thanh Hoa (eldest daughter)Nguyễn Vũ Phương (son)Nguyễn Minh Hồng (youngest daughter) |
Tố Hữu (4 October 1920 – 9 December 2002) was aVietnamese revolutionary poet and politician.[1] Tố Hữu is considered one of the most important Vietnamese poets of the 20th century.[2] His poems are known for their lyrical beauty, their political engagement, and their insights into the Vietnamese people. Tố Hữu's poetry is a valuable record of the Vietnamese revolution and the Vietnamese people's struggle for independence. His poems are also a testament to the power of poetry to inspire and to give voice to the oppressed. He published seven collections of poems, the first of which was the 1946 collection entitledTừ ấy (Thenceforth), which included many of his most popular and influential works that were written between 1937 and 1946.[3] Following the establishment of theDemocratic Republic of Vietnam, he became a prominent figure in the rulingCommunist Party of Vietnam.
Tố Hữu, whose real name is Nguyễn Kim Thành, was born 4 October 1920 inHội An,Quảng Nam province, as the youngest son of the family. At the age of 9, Thành and his father returned home and lived in Phu Lai village, now in Quảng Thọ commune,Quảng Điền district,Huế. Thành's father was a poor scholar, could not earn a living and struggled to earn a living, but he liked poetry, liked collecting proverbs and folk songs. He taught Thành to write old poems. Thành's mother was also the daughter of a scholar, knew many folk songs of Hue and loved him very much. His parents helped to nourish the soul of Thành's poetry. Thành's mother died when he was 12 years old. At the age of 13, Thành entered Hue National University, where he was directly exposed to the ideas ofKarl Marx,Friedrich Engels,Vladimir Lenin, andMaxim Gorky. Thành approached these ideas through books, combined with the mobilisation of members of the Communist Party of Vietnam (Lê Duẩn,Phan Đăng Lưu, Nguyen Chi Dieu) soon communist ideals. In 1936, Thành joined the Indochina Democratic Youth Union, and then in 1938, he was admitted to theIndochina Communist Party.
In 1938 Thành met a teacher, who gave him the pseudonym "Tố Hữu"素有, taken from a remark byLady Du that her son – Zhao Kuangyin, the futureEmperor Taizu of Song – "always had great aspirations" (吾兒素有大志);[4] Thành accepted this pseudonym and interpreted it as "pure friend", written with the homophonous characters素友. In April 1939, Tố Hữu was arrested, tortured and exiled to Thua Phu Prison (Hue) and transferred toLao Bảo Prison (Quang Tri) and many other prisons in the Central Highlands. In March 1942, he escaped from the prison Đắc Glêi (now in Kon Tum), went to Thanh Hóa and contacted the party (through his secret activities in theHậu Lộc district,Thanh Hóa province). In 1945, when the August Revolution broke out, he was elected Chairman of the Rebellion Committee ofThua Thien-Hue.
Tố Hữu moved quickly and successfully through what became theCommunist Party of Vietnam.[5] During the pre-unification period (before 1975) Tố Hữu was most influential in setting cultural policy inNorth Vietnam, especially in deciding the bounds of what was permissible for intellectuals and artists to publish and perform during this tightly controlled period. His control of intellectual and artistic production was matched only byTrường Chinh andHồ Chí Minh himself.[6][7] Intellectual discontent with this control was expressed by the poet Lê Đạt who, during theNhân Văn affair, declared that Tố Hữu considered writers and artists petty bourgeois elements, and regarded literature as a mere tool of politics. As an example, he mentioned the case ofNam Cao whom Tố Hữu compelled to write a work on the rural taxation system, a topic with which the writer was by no means familiar.[8]
He continued to hold many important party and government posts, including member of thePolitburo, Secretary of theCentral Committee,Deputy chairman of theCouncil of Ministers (as the government cabinet was then called), and the same post that was later renamed Deputy Prime Minister.
As the leader of the cultural section, he was named as the chief instigator of the persecution of intellectuals during theNhân Văn affair. However, according to the musicianVăn Cao, one of the prominent victims, the main author of this policy wasTrường Chinh, the general secretary of the communist party at that time. According to Văn Cao, Tố Hữu, as a poet, was not sufficiently hard-hearted to pursue such a policy on his own. (See thearticle at theVietnamese Wikipedia).[9][10]
During his career Tố Hữu was awarded theGold Star Order, the 60-year membership badge, and the Hồ Chí Minh Award, the highest award for literary and artistic accomplishments conferred by the Vietnamese state.[5]
Tố Hữu enjoyed a steep rise in the party and government culminating in an equally steep and precipitous decline. He was blamed for the disastrous 1985 attempt atmonetary reform and the ruinous inflation that resulted from its unsuccessful implementation.[citation needed] Inflation had risen 700% by 1986. Tố Hữu had to step down from his position as deputy prime minister and played no further political role in Vietnam. Despite his political fall from grace, Tố Hữu remained the Communist Party'spoet laureate. He died in 2002, at the age of 80.[11]
A poem written about the photograph by the national poet Tố Hữu, "O Du Kích Nhỏ" [O Young Guerrilla], is commonly memorized by schoolchildren.
He also trained a few Vietnamese to forget the Vietnam nation, like Poet Tố Huu, who heard the dead Lenin, Tố Hữu poeticized a poem, "I cry my dead parents are only one time I will cry to my Uncle Ho Chi Minh only three times, But I cry for ...
