Ly Tu Trong was one of eight young people who were recognized as the first member of Vietnamese Communist Youth Union. His self-confidently declared: “the way of youths is no one but only revolutionary way”.
President Ho Chi Minh used to tell about him: "The first member of Vietnamese Communist Youth Union, he is the communist who has fought for the national revolution and for the Party till the last breath".
Ly Tu Trong statue in Hanoi
Ly Tu Trong, whose real name is Le Van Trong, was born on 20/10/1914 originally comes from Thach Minh commune, Thach Ha district, Ha Tinh province but was born in Ban May village, Nakhon province, Thailand in a patriotic family.
After the Vietnam Revolutionary Youth Association was founded, President Ho Chi Minh planed to establish an organization mainly for the young people. In 1926, President Ho Chi Minh sent his staff to Thailand to find Vietnamese young people and gathered them to make a group and trained them to be revolutionists. Ly Tu Trong was one of eight members of the group. President Ho Chi Minh trained them by himself.
Ly Tu Trong (+) and Vietnamese students of Hoang Pho School (Guangzhou) and staff of Vietnam Revolutionary Youth Association visited the grave of martyr Pham Hong Thai at Hoang Hoa Cuong, 1925
In 1929, Ly Tu Trong returned to Vietnam with the hard mission of founding the Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Union and connecting the South Region Party Committee with the Vietnam Communist Party. He was a liaison officer for communists abroad while working on ships to Sai Gon seaport. On February 09, 1931, at the one-year anniversary of Yen Bai rebellion, he shot dead a French spy, Legrand, who rushed to arrest the man hoisting the flag and speaking. He was immediately arrested then barbarously tortured. He was executed to death on 20/11/1931 when he was 17 years old.
Ly Tu Trong was named for a road now in the downtown of Ho Chi Minh City.
Thu Nhuan
EN: Tran Trang