The Ho Chi Minh monument in Moscow (

Russian Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including: *Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...

: памятник Хо Ши Мину) at Ho Chi Minh Square in

Akademichesky District Akademichesky District (russian: Академи́ческий райо́н, literally "academic district") is an administrative district (raion) of South-Western Administrative Okrug, and one of the 125 raions of Moscow, Russia. The area of the di ...

memorializes

North Vietnam North Vietnam, officially the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV; vi, Việt Nam Dân chủ Cộng hòa), was a socialist state supported by the Soviet Union (USSR) and the People's Republic of China (PRC) in Southeast Asia that existed f ...

ese president

Ho Chi Minh (: ; born ; 19 May 1890 – 2 September 1969), commonly known as ('Uncle Hồ'), also known as ('President Hồ'), (' Old father of the people') and by other aliases, was a Vietnamese revolutionary and statesman. He served as Prime ...

, who was Chairman and founder of the Workers' Party of Vietnam. The monument was inaugurated on May 18, 1990, on the eve of Ho Chi Minh's 100th birthday.

Description

The monument is made of

bronze Bronze is an alloy consisting primarily of copper, commonly with about 12–12.5% tin and often with the addition of other metals (including aluminium, manganese, nickel, or zinc) and sometimes non-metals, such as phosphorus, or metalloids such ...

and

stone In geology, rock (or stone) is any naturally occurring solid mass or aggregate of minerals or mineraloid matter. It is categorized by the minerals included, its Chemical compound, chemical composition, and the way in which it is formed. Rocks ...

, with a portrait of Ho Chi Minh embossed on a giant disc. Below the disc is a sculpture of a Vietnamese man rising from his knees. Behind the disc are images of tropical flowers and two curved

bamboo Bamboos are a diverse group of evergreen perennial flowering plants making up the subfamily Bambusoideae of the grass family Poaceae. Giant bamboos are the largest members of the grass family. The origin of the word "bamboo" is uncertain, bu ...

s. Below the monument is a quotation from Ho Chi Minh "Нет ничего дороже независимости, свободы" (''Nothing is more precious than independence, liberty''). The creators of the monument are the sculptor Vladimir Tsigal and architect Roman Grigoryevich Kananin. Tsigal visited Vietnam in 1985 to research Ho Chi Minh for his project. According to him, the round disc is "the image of Vietnam's sun, representing the dream for a bright future for Vietnam", and he used the image of the two curved bamboos "stemming from the understanding of the emblematic Vietnamese plant: the bamboo can be curved, but it's difficult to break, similar to the will and strength of Vietnam." The entire project cost about 1 million

roubles The ruble (American English) or rouble (Commonwealth English) (; rus, рубль, p=rublʲ) is the currency unit of Belarus and Russia. Historically, it was the currency of the Russian Empire and of the Soviet Union. , currencies named ''rub ...

History

Ho Chi Minh Square was inaugurated in 1969, after the death of Ho Chi Minh. In 1985, the

Central Committee Central committee is the common designation of a standing administrative body of Communist party, communist parties, analogous to a board of directors, of both ruling and nonruling parties of former and existing socialist states. In such party org ...

and

Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union The Council of Ministers of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics ( rus, Совет министров СССР, r=Sovet Ministrov SSSR, p=sɐˈvʲet mʲɪˈnʲistrəf ɛsɛsɛˈsɛr; sometimes abbreviated to ''Sovmin'' or referred to as the '' ...

decided to create a monument at the square. This decision was seen as counter to Ho Chi Minh's wishes, whose

last testament A will or testament is a legal document that expresses a person's (testator) wishes as to how their property ( estate) is to be distributed after their death and as to which person ( executor) is to manage the property until its final distributi ...

requested that no statues or monuments are to be made in his honor. The construction of the monument generated controversy among some Muscovites. Firstly, they contended that breaking down trees and bringing in

granite Granite () is a coarse-grained (phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies undergro ...

caused aesthetic and ecological damage to the area. Secondly, they believed that the cost of more than 1 million

for the monument could be better used to build 150 good apartments, helping to alleviate the housing situation in the city. On April 4, 1990, students in Moscow organized a rally to call on the government to strictly fulfill Ho Chi Minh's will. They demanded that the government dismantle the monument, sell it to Vietnam, and restore the square to its original condition. According to them, Ho Chi Minh had requested thrice in his wills that people honor him by planting trees, not by building monuments. A representative from the government replied that since Vietnam already had a monument to Lenin, the USSR should have a monument to Ho Chi Minh to reciprocate. According to the representative, the square had already been ruined and the government had already spent 200,000 roubles at the construction site and 500,000 roubles to cast the sculptures. On May 18, 1990, on the eve of Ho Chi Minh's 100th birthday, the Ho Chi Minh monument was inaugurated. During the

collapse of the Soviet Union The dissolution of the Soviet Union, also negatively connoted as rus, Разва́л Сове́тского Сою́за, r=Razvál Sovétskogo Soyúza, ''Ruining of the Soviet Union''. was the process of internal disintegration within the Sov ...

, some people demanded the demolition of the monument due to its association with

authoritarianism Authoritarianism is a political system characterized by the rejection of political plurality, the use of strong central power to preserve the political '' status quo'', and reductions in the rule of law, separation of powers, and democratic vot ...

. The Moscow government in 1991 wanted to destroy the monument. This idea was opposed by those sympathetic to Vietnam, such as the cosmonaut Gherman Stepanovich Titov, and Vietnamese diplomats, who suggested moving the statue to the Embassy of Vietnam in Moscow. However, as of 2020 the monument still stood at its original location.

Usage today

Muscovites nickname the monument the "

flying saucer A flying saucer (also referred to as "a flying disc") is a descriptive term for a type of flying craft having a disc or saucer-shaped body, commonly used generically to refer to an anomalous flying object. The term was coined in 1947 but has g ...

monument" (''памятник летающей тарелке'') because of its similar shape. In slang, it is also called the "

rouble The ruble (American English) or rouble (Commonwealth English) (; rus, рубль, p=rublʲ) is the currency unit of Belarus and Russia. Historically, it was the currency of the Russian Empire and of the Soviet Union. , currencies named ''rub ...

" (''рубль'') because of its similarity to the commemorative rouble with the portrait of

Lenin Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov. ( 1870 – 21 January 1924), better known as Vladimir Lenin,. was a Russian revolutionary, politician, and political theorist. He served as the first and founding head of government of Soviet Russia from 1917 to 19 ...

. Some people satirically call it the "monument commemorating 300 years of the Mongol-Tatar yoke" (''памятник 300-летию татаро-монгольского ига''). For former Soviet advisors who served during the

Vietnam War The Vietnam War (also known by #Names, other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vie ...

, the monument serves as the annual meeting location on the occasion of Ho Chi Minh's birthday, at 10 AM. The monument is often visited by members of the Vietnamese community in Russia, who use it as a public gathering place, as well as a wedding venue. Functionaries from Vietnam also often visit the monument and place wreaths of flowers.

References

External links

Video about the monument
(in Russian) {{coord, 55, 41, 16.7, N, 37, 34, 29.3, E, display=title Soviet Union–Vietnam relations Ho Chi Minh Monuments and memorials in Moscow Buildings and structures completed in 1990 Monuments and memorials built in the Soviet Union 1990 establishments in the Soviet Union