# Ho Chi Minh monument

The Ho Chi Minh monument (Russian: памятник Хо Ши Мину) is a monument located in Akademichesky District, Moscow; just next to one of the entrances of Akademicheskaya metro station. It memorializes North Vietnamese president Ho Chi Minh, who was the 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 and stone, 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 bamboos. Below the monument is a quotation from Ho Chi Minh "Нет ничего дороже независимости, свободы" (transl. 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 costed about 1 million ₽.

## History

* This article is part of a series aboutHồ Chí Minh
President of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam
Chairman of the Workers' Party of Vietnam
Early life and family
Overseas sojourn
French Communist Party
Struggle for Independence
Indochinese Communist Party
French Indochina in World War II
Viet Minh
OSS Deer Team
August Revolution
Declaration of Independence
Presidency
Elections
1946
1960
1964
Land reform
Socialist Constitution
Ho Chi Minh trail
First Indochina War
Prelude
1945–1946
Fontainebleau Agreements
Ho–Sainteny agreement
1947–1950
1954
Battle of Dien Bien Phu
Geneva Conference
Vietnam War
1955
1956
1957
1958
Invasion of Laos
1959
1960
National Liberation Front
1961
1962
1963
1964
1965
1966
1967
1968
Tet Offensive
1969
Ho Chi Minh Thought
Communism
Marxism–Leninism
Nationalism
The Path Which Led Me To Leninism
President Ho Chi Minh's Testament
Legacy
Ho Chi Minh City
Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum
Ho Chi Minh Museum
Ho Chi Minh monument, Moscow
Ho Chi Minh Sarani, Kolkata
Other works
The Prison Diary
Le Paria
Thanh Niên :
vte :
Ho Chi Minh Square was inaugurated in 1969, after the death of Ho Chi Minh. In 1985, the Central Committee and Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union decided to create a monument at the square. This decision was seen as counter to Ho Chi Minh's wishes, whose last testament requested no statues or monuments 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 caused aesthetic and ecological damage to the area. Secondly, they believed that the cost of more than 1 million roubles 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, some people demanded the demolition of the monument due to its association with authoritarianism. 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, the monument still stood at its original location to this day.

## Usage today

Muscovites nickname the monument the "flying saucer monument" (памятник летающей тарелке) because of its similar shape. In slang, it is also called the "rouble" (рубль) because of its similarity to the commemorative rouble with the portrait of Lenin. 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 monument serves as the annual meeting location on the occasion of Ho Chi Minh's birthday, at 10 a.m.
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.