Nguyen Ai Quoc was quite ill when he returned to the Soviet Union in the spring of 1934. He went to a hospital in Moscow for medical treatment. After his discharge, he began working again for the Comintern and enrolled in a course at the Stalin School under the name “Lin”. Life was stressful and his diet was inadequate. Despite an exercise regime, he was in poor physical health.

Map of Kazakhstan

Mountains of Yan’an

Cave homes in Yan’an, present time

It was now clear that the Soviet Union was the only Western country supporting the liberation of Viet Nam. Quoc knew that his people in Indochina were in favor of the Soviet system because of the great influence of Lenin.

In Moscow, Quoc was re-united with his old colleagues in the Indochina Communist Party - Le Hong Phong, Nguyen Thi Minh Khai, and Hoang Van Non. He also met many new Vietnamese participants at the Stalin School. He advised Giao (Bui Cong Trung), the student leader, to draw attention to the positive aspects of life in the Soviet Union. Quoc stressed, “ When you find less appealing aspects like the besprizorny (vagabond children) and the nepmen, you will have to explain them to our comrades so they do not leave with a bad impression.”

When Quoc arrived in Moscow, there was a suspicion that he had agreed to be a “spy” for the British government. This stemmed from the facts that his British lawyers had won his release and the unofficial use of the Governor’s launch to foster his escape to Amoy Island. Now Quoc found himself being sidelined by the Comintern. They gave him only a minor role in the Seventh International Congress held in July 1935. Even within the Vietnamese delegation, he didn\'t have any significant role. Deeply disappointed, Quoc was planning to return to Indochina.

In his spare time, Quoc gave Vietnamese lessons to those compatriots living in Moscow who needed to improve their reading and writing. Sometimes he gave lectures on politics and revolutionary morality, without criticizing the Stalin regime. Quoc and the Vietnamese students were aware of the anti-Trotsky campaign spreading throughout the Soviet Union under Stalin’s order. Quoc enjoyed going to art exhibitions and literary events and also took part in a collective farming project in Ryazan.

Back in Indochina, many public demonstrations took place in 1936. The Vietnamese demanded freedom, equality, and the release of political prisoners. A large number of leaders in the resistance forces, including Le Duan and Pham Van Dong, were imprisoned and they endured the most inhumane treatment by the French. From Moscow, Quoc communicated with his followers in Indochina in great secret. Often, he would roll up his messages and disguise them inside cigarettes.

In 1938, Quoc was taken before a disciplinary committee led Dmitri Manuilsky, Vera Vassilieva, and Kang Sheng. They were his colleagues in the Comintern. Vera and Dmitri defended him but Kang called for the severe punishment of Quoc. It was unclear as to why he was being disciplined. Quoc felt that this had to do with their suspicion that he was a spy for the British and his close relationship with Mikhail Borodin, a victim of Stalin’s purges.

In distress, Quoc wrote an appeal letter to Dmitri Manuilsky. The date happened to be June 6, the seventh anniversary of his Hong Kong arrest. Vera understood that Quoc was innocent, and she and Dmitri secretly tried to intervene on his behalf. Vera was a senior lecturer in the Indochinese Section and for many years she was also a liaison between Vietnamese students and the Comintern. With her husband being in prison, she was most sympathetic to Quoc’s situation. Carefully defending Quoc, Vera said, “He has a large amount of revolutionary experience, but because, like other Indochinese comrades, he has made many errors, we are now paying a lot of attention to these questions… he has made significant progress.”

"Three months later, Vera advised Quoc to return to China through Central Asia. Some arrangements had already been made for him. On September 29 Quoc resigned from the Stalin School."

It was a windy and cold evening of early October. Quoc walked quietly to a Trans-Siberian train at Yaroslavsky Station, going eastward. He quickly boarded the train. Sitting next to a window, he watched the grassland under the darkening sky. Quoc felt deeply grateful to Vera and Dmitri for protecting him through the worst years of the purges. The train was entering Kazakhstan, part of Soviet Central Asia. When it made a stop in Alma-Ata, Quoc got off the train with many other passengers. The terrain of Kazakhstan was filled with rocky canyons, steep hills, deserts, deltas, and snow-capped mountains. Following the 1917 Russian Revolution and a civil war, the territory of Kazakhstan became the Kazakh Soviet Social Republic.

Quoc joined a caravan in Alma-Ata and continued his journey. The caravan passed through Urumqi, the largest city of China\'s western interior known for its "beautiful pasture". Going toward northwestern China, the caravan arrived in Lanzhou, where Quoc received the assistance of the local representatives of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). They arranged for him to travel to Xian, the ancient imperial city and home of thirteen Chinese dynasties (from 11th century BC to 10th century AD).

In Xian, Quoc was welcomed by Wu Xiuquan, head of the local office of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA). Wu Xiuquan told Quoc that he had received an instruction from the "higher authorities" to receive an important guest but without giving the guest\'s name. Wu Xiuquan was told to treat the guest with great respect and to ensure his safety to Yan\'an, the headquarters of the Chinese Communist Party.

After two days in Xian, Wu Xiuquan arranged for Quoc to travel by bullock and horse cart to Yan’an. He helped Quoc to disguise himself as an “escort” for the horse carts. Traveling on foot, Quoc was dressed in tattered clothing and looked like a poor local Chinese living in the hills. To conceal his Vietnamese identity, Quoc communicated entirely in Cantonese, with a Hong Kong accent.

Arriving in the mountains of Yan’an, Quoc was received by General Zhu De, whose manners and relationships with members of the PLA impressed Quoc greatly. The general offered him army uniform and Quoc became “Commander Hu Guang” of the 8th Route Army of the PLA. China was fighting against the Japanese and there were about 200,000 PLA troops in Yan’an at the time, living in numerous caves. All wore dark blue uniform and cloth shoes. Like the soldiers, many senior members of the CCP also lived in caves. With his new role as Commander Hu Guang, Quoc was given accommodation in a large villa named Tao Yuan (Apple Garden). Later this same villa was reserved for the CCP’s Chairman, Mao Zedong.

>>Part 1: Paris, my two worlds
>>Part 2: A journey in search of freedom
>>Part 3: Nguyen the Patriot
>>Part 4: Indochina and little emperors
>>Part 5: The rise of patriotism
>>Part 6: Finding a compass
>>Part 7: Young Ho Chi Minh with Grand Chef Escoffier
>>Part 8: Young Ho Chi Minh in America
>>Part 9: Ho Chi Minh versus Albert Sarraut
>>Part 10: The path of destiny
>>Part 11: Moscow’s resolution on Indochina
>>Part 12: Lenin and Peoples of the East
>>Part 13: From Moscow to Canton
>>Part 14: A cross-cultural political training school
>>Part 15: Hong Kong, City without Gates
>>Part 16: "I’ll defend you because of honor, not for money"
>>Part 17: The Annamite prisoner is free
>>Part 18: Moscow and the razor’s edge