Anyone visiting the Vietnamese capital Hanoi for the first time is advised to visit Van Myeu, the Temple of Literature. It has become a mandatory program item for heads of State and Government arriving in Vietnam on an official visit. American President B. Clinton, Chinese leader Jiang Zemin, King Norodom Sihanouk of Cambodia, and our President Vladimir Putin have all visited here. During the visit of the Russian president in March 2001, the central path of Van Mieu was expanded by two bricks, and rightly so: no other official visit has attracted such a large number of people from the local leadership to accompany the distinguished guest.

P. TSVETOV, In-house Correspondent for Asia and Africa Today magazine in Vietnam

TEMPLE OF LITERATURE

Visiting Van Myeu is very useful for understanding the soul of the Vietnamese people, their past and present. The temple was founded in the XI century, when the Li Dynasty, which came to power, began to strengthen Confucianism as a state ideology. Over the centuries, people have walked the paths of the Temple through several carefully designed rectangular gardens with gates and gates to approach the Sanctuary of the great success.

Even during the campaign to criticize Confucius in Maoist China, the leader of the Vietnamese nation, Ho Chi Minh, visited the birthplace of the great Chinese thinker in 1965 and remarked: "Don't you think that Confucius, Jesus, Marx and Sun Yat-sen had something in common in their views? They were all thinking about the welfare of society. I am sure that if they were alive today and lived together, they would get along quite well with each other."

Today, in the Van Myeu House of Ceremonies, a portrait of the greatest Vietnamese thinker of the XIV century, Tu Van An, is installed on the main altar. Incense is lit in front of the philosopher's portrait, and students are asked to help pass exams.

Wang Mieu is called "our first academy" or "our first university". This is not entirely true. Almost no one was taught anything here. In the Temple of Literature, competitions were held for knowledge of literature, the winners of which could occupy high positions in the state apparatus. And they received this knowledge first in their native places, then, competing, passed exams in the county and province. And only the winners of provincial competitions got to the capital. In Russian terms, Van Mijeu was the university that approved the dissertations, not the Moscow State University.

However, to today's visitors to the Temple, especially foreign visitors, Van Myeu seems to be primarily the embodiment of the cult of knowledge, culture, and civilization of Vietnam. The walls of the Temple contain sayings written in hieroglyphs, which the Vietnamese used until the beginning of the XX century: "Mastery is like the sky, you can't reach it with only one ladder", "Teaching is a path that you can't master without knowing the approaches", "The spirit of culture permeates millennia". The fact that these words have not lost their power is obvious: in the Temple you will always meet people who respect intelligence and knowledge - students reading books in the shade of ancient buildings, old people slowly talking about the past and the future.

"THE CENTURY OF VIETNAM"

The past XX century, or rather its second half, can be called the "century of Vietnam". Without belittling the role of any other nation, it is difficult not to recognize the fact that in the 50s, 60s, 70s and even later, Vietnam did not leave the front pages of world newspapers.

Vietnam of the 19th and early 20th centuries was quite different. How much did the rest of the world know about this country? In the 55 volumes of Lenin's writings, Vietnam is mentioned only three times. Even the French have started a war-

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the conquest of this country in order to create a foothold in it.

In the fall of 1945, Vietnam made the world pay attention to itself. The colony was one of the first in the Afro-Asian world to declare independence on September 2. The Soviet Union was one of the first countries in the world to recognize independent Vietnam, and diplomatic relations between the two countries were established in 1950.

Less than a month later, the French colonialists tried to restore the old order in Indochina. Ho Chi Minh and his associates had to take up arms to defend national independence.

The war with the colonialists lasted until 1954. In May of that year, the French expeditionary force suffered a crushing defeat at Dienoyen Phu, and in July, at an International Conference in Geneva, the world community recognized Vietnam's independence, although the country was divided into two parts. The Indochina war was over. Dien Bien Phu and the Geneva Conference are included in the annals of world history.

In the 60s and 70s, Vietnam became a symbol of the indomitable will of the people in the struggle for national independence. The textbooks of world history include the names of the underground hero Nguyen Van Choy and the self-immolating Buddhist monk Thit Quap Duk, the communication system that connected the North and South of Vietnam, the Ho Chi Minh Trail and the village of Songmi, whose civilians were exterminated by the American aggressors. At an international conference in Paris in March 1973, an agreement was signed to end the war and restore Peace in Vietnam, and in 1975 Vietnam was fully reunited, becoming the Socialist Republic of Vietnam in 1976.

Many factors played a role in the victory of the people in two wars of resistance, first to the French colonialists, and then to the United States. Of course, we must not forget about the large-scale military assistance of the Soviet Union. But even the mountains of weapons would not have decided the outcome of these wars if the Vietnamese patriots had not been able to win over world public opinion and convince it of the justice of their struggle. Including-and this was especially important - in those countries whose rulers waged war against Vietnam. Recall that in June 1954, the Laniel government received a vote of no confidence in the French National Assembly for delaying the settlement of the Indochina conflict. The Vietnam War was constantly featured in the election programs of US presidential candidates. Generations of young people in the West have been trained in political and social struggles in protest movements against the Vietnam War. Ho Chi Minh, along with Che Guevara, was their idol.

THE VIETNAMESE MIRACLE

In the 1990s, Vietnam once again made the whole world talk about itself as a country that had performed an economic miracle. The once-hungry country, which had been importing food for decades, became firmly one of the world's top three rice exporters in the early 1990s. Moreover, the export is not at the expense of its own people: the consumption of rice per capita is constantly growing, there are no hungry people in the country now. In the same years, Vietnam has established itself on the world markets as a major exporter of crude oil, coffee, tea, and seafood.

The rapid growth of the Vietnamese economy is impressive: between 1991 and 1995, the annual GDP growth rate was 8.2 percent. Even the financial crisis in Southeast Asia in 1997 could not throw Vietnam off the path of rapid development. And in the difficult five - year period of 1996-2000, the average GDP growth rate was seven percent.

You can be envious of the country's natural resources, as the first American ambassador to Vietnam, D. D., did. Peterson, who exclaimed: "They have mountains of bauxite and iron ore, they have uranium, they have gold, they have semiprecious stones!" But all this was in Vietnam 30 years ago and 130 years ago.

The objective external conditions of the last decade were not favorable for Vietnam: with the collapse of the Soviet Union, the country lost its main economic and political support, relations with the United States were not settled until the mid-90s, and the 1997 Asian crisis hit Vietnam's closest neighbors hard. They did not indulge in natural conditions, causing damage either by floods or droughts.

The main factor in the rise of the Vietnamese economy was the policy of renewal ("doi moi") initiated in the second half of the 80s, which provides for the free development of all socio-economic structures, including private ones, updating the mechanism of centralized management of the national economy, and "opening doors" in foreign economic relations.

Due to the transition to personal land use on a long-term legal basis, the production of agricultural products has increased, and its range has become more diverse. Granting access rights to an external server-

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The NOC allowed individual enterprises, companies, and regions to cover the deficit in fertilizers, metal structures, and petroleum products that were previously imported to Vietnam from socialist countries in the early 1990s.

In December 1987, the Law on Foreign Investment was passed, which guaranteed that enterprises with foreign capital could not be nationalized. And while there was no shortage of foreign critics, the investment climate in Vietnam has remained attractive over the years: in the first five years after the law was passed, five billion dollars were invested in the Vietnamese economy. By 2000, foreign direct investment reached $ 24.6 billion.

Another important achievement was the establishment of order in the sphere of monetary circulation. At the end of the 1980s, measures were taken to sharply limit the mass of monetary and credit resources in economic turnover. State-owned industrial and commercial enterprises were removed from budget subsidies, and card distribution was canceled. Bank interest on deposits of enterprises and individuals has increased, and loan rates have increased. Due to the fact that new interest rates exceeded the level of inflation, the inflow of funds to banks increased. The free purchase and sale of gold within Vietnam was allowed, which is vital for Vietnamese society, where gold bars, in which houses and other real estate are valued, remained the universal equivalent at the end of the 20th century.

The state is still responsible for pricing a very limited range of essential goods and material and technical resources (electricity, oil products, etc.). All other prices, as well as the exchange rate of the dong for a freely convertible currency, are determined by the market.

As a result of financial reforms, inflation dropped from 700 percent in 1986 to 67 percent in 1990. In the following 90-ies, it averaged 9-10 percent per year.

The tax policy of the state during the renewal period is also of interest. It was rather sparing, especially in relation to small producers and farms. Only in the second half of the 1990s was a value-added tax introduced, and strict measures were taken against malicious defaulters. Objectively, such a policy contributed to the expansion of the layer of commodity producers.

The Vietnamese reform Communists did not stir up society by overthrowing former authorities and denying the past. The transition from a centralized to a market economy took place without social and political upheaval. A politically stable Vietnam has created conditions for progressive development.

"MORE FRIENDS..."

In search of sources of raw materials and markets, the French bourgeoisie reached the banks of the Red River and the Mekong, turning Indochina into their colony. Under the influence of the October Revolution in Russia, Vietnamese patriots turned to the Marxist-Leninist strategy and tactics of the national liberation struggle. The victory of the anti-fascist coalition in World War II created extremely favorable conditions for the declaration of independence in Hanoi on September 2, 1945. Washington's transformation of Vietnam into a springboard of armed confrontation between two socio-political systems led to a long and bloody war in which Vietnamese patriots won the struggle for national independence and unification of the country. In the nineties, unlike in the past, the country developed in a favorable and peaceful international climate. Vietnamese diplomacy has adopted the principle that " Vietnam wants to be a friend of all peoples who stand for peace, national independence and development." Before that, only socialist countries were considered" friends".

In the early 90s, Vietnam opened cultural centers in France, Great Britain and Germany. Taiwan, Singapore and Japan have become leading investors in the Vietnamese economy. In 1995, the ASEAN countries, once at odds with Vietnam, accepted it into their organization. The process of normalizing relations with the United States and China has begun.

In 1992, Washington allowed American companies to open offices in Vietnam. In 1994, the United States lifted the embargo on economic ties with Vietnam, and in 1995, US President Bill Clinton announced full normalization of relations with Vietnam. The apogee in the recent history of Vietnam-US relations was the visit of the head of the White House to Vietnam in November 2000. Shortly before that, the two countries signed a trade agreement that made it easier for Vietnamese textiles, shoes, agricultural products and seafood to enter the American market. It entered into force in December 2001.

Vietnam-China relations, which had been deteriorating since the late 1970s, were changing rapidly. In November 1991, the normalization of relations was officially announced. In November 1993, Vietnam's President Le Duc Anh visited China, the first visit by a Vietnamese head of State in many years. In December 2000, during the visit of President Tran Duc Luong, a Joint Declaration on Comprehensive Cooperation between the two countries in the new Century was signed. At the end of 2001, the new General Secretary of the CPV Central Committee, Nong Duc Man, was warmly received in China. And in early 2002, Chinese leader Jiang Zemin visited Vietnam. By that time, Vietnam-China relations were characterized by a high level of cooperation in all areas, including ideology, party building, and economic reform.

All these years, the two sides have been engaged in intensive negotiations to resolve the border issue. They made the most successful progress on the land border and delimitation in the Gulf of Tonkin (Bakbo). As a result, the Vietnam-China border has become a border of peace and friendship. On New Year's Day 2002, I happened to cross the border of the two states at the Druzhba checkpoint. I hadn't been there in ten years and was surprised by the noticeable changes. In the early 90s, there was a certain tension on the border, but now everything is orderly and peaceful at the checkpoint. And if earlier goods from China were delivered on their shoulders by porters, now they have been replaced by trucks. The flow of tourists from the Chinese side, which is found even in the southern resort of Vung Tau, is also not impoverished. According to official data, Chinese citizens make up 40 percent of foreign tourists who visited Vietnam last year.

An old Vietnamese proverb calls for having "more friends, fewer enemies." Now it is difficult to find the "enemy" of Vietnam, they only want to be friends with him. Many countries invite Vietnamese citizens to work and study.

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The Vietnamese theme was reflected in the French and American cinema films "Indochina", "Lover", "Smell of green papaya" and others.

There are 480 philanthropic non-governmental organizations from all over the world that maintain relations with Vietnam. Over the past 10 years, they have provided $ 500 million in charitable assistance to the country. And official aid from leading Western countries has reached more than six billion dollars in the last five years.

AN OLD FRIEND

Vietnam's relations with Russia have a special foundation. The friendship between the peoples of the two countries has deep historical roots and has passed the harsh tests of time. The Vietnamese people treat Russia with sincere sympathy and great love.

This was clearly evident during Vladimir Putin's visit-not only in the signing of the Declaration on Strategic Partnership, but especially in the surprisingly friendly atmosphere that surrounded the distinguished Russian guest. An unforgettable impression was left by his meeting with graduates of universities of the former Soviet Union on March 2, 2001. The largest one (1300 seats)was reserved for it hall of the capital in the Palace of Culture of Trade Unions named after Vietnam-Soviet Friendship. But it could not accommodate everyone, because only according to official statistics, more than 50 thousand Vietnamese citizens graduated from Russian universities. People filled the foyer, the mezzanine, creating problems for security, breaking the scripts of protocol services. The hall was packed an hour before the arrival of Vladimir Putin and, in order not to waste time, rehearsed slogans of friendship and three cheers! When the car with the Russian president drove up to the Palace, probably everyone present came out to meet him. To the sound of drums beating - as is customary at the most solemn events in Vietnam that day, 50 drummers showed their efforts-the Russian president walked through the crowds of graduates, many of whom wanted to get his autograph (several Vietnamese publishing houses published books about Vladimir Putin for the visit), looked at the book exhibition and went to the hall that met him standing ovation. The entire meeting was held in Russian.

The Russian president immediately won the sympathy of the audience, identifying himself with the graduates of Soviet universities gathered in the hall. I also remember his warm words about Vietnam and his determination to promote the comprehensive development of relations between the two countries. In conclusion, the entire audience sang "Moscow Region Evenings".

The meeting, which was broadcast live, left an indelible mark on the memory of the entire Vietnamese people.

Despite the successful and very

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mutually beneficial cooperation between the two countries in the oil and gas industry, our trade and economic relations lag behind both the opportunities and the level of friendly feelings.

But there are some forms of our cooperation that sometimes arouse the envy of representatives of third countries. Thousands of young people are learning Russian in Vietnamese schools and universities without any financial support from Russia. Mostly based on old textbooks, on the old methodology, with low efficiency, but even in a remote province you can meet a boy or girl happily saying something that resembles "Hello". As before, the majority of Vietnamese people choose Russia when they go to study abroad, and only 10 percent of them receive scholarships from the Russian government, while the remaining 90 percent pay for the opportunity to get higher education here. All-Vietnamese Olympiads in the Russian language are regularly held, the winners of which then come to Moscow and achieve medals there at international competitions of young Russian students.

Vietnamese people are very attracted to Russian culture. This was evident during the Days of Moscow in Hanoi in 2001 and the Days of Russian Culture in Vietnam. The concert halls were crowded, and the audience did not want to let go of their old friends - the State Academic Choreographic Ensemble "Beryozka", the vocal trio "Relikt" - for a long time.

In this country, you meet with amazing manifestations of love for Russia. A graduate of Voronezh State University, philologist Le Van Nyan writes poetry in Russian and has even published several collections. His colleague Pham Van Beat composes songs based on poems by A. S. Pushkin, Sergei Yesenin, and I. S. Nikitin. The Vietnam National Symphony Orchestra gives concerts of works by Russian classical composers several times a year. In the largest city of Vietnam, Ho Chi Minh City, there has been an amateur Russian song club for several years. No event of Vietnamese-Russian friendship takes place without the participation of singers of this club. And in 2001, the Society for Friendship with Russia and Ho Chi Minh City Television held a review competition of Russian song performers. By the way, in Vietnam, the song "Million Red Roses" is present in the repertoire of almost every pop singer.

Russia won the battle for the souls of the Vietnamese in the 20th century. Time will tell whether it will be able to compete in Vietnam with the world's business leaders in the 21st century.

TOWARDS GLOBALIZATION

Where is Vietnam going? It is difficult to answer this question at the initial stage of its transformation by historical standards. But you can imagine where they're taking him. The vector of future development is outlined in the documents of the ruling Communist Party.

Today's society is called by local theorists "the market economy of a socialist orientation." By 2020, it is planned to turn Vietnam into an industrially developed country with a modern material and technical base. It will be a society in which the productive forces will be freed from manual labor, the electrification of the entire country will be completed, and labor productivity will increase significantly. In a multi-layered economy, the public sector will play a leading role. Together with the cooperative sector, it should form the foundation of the national economy. At the same time, state-capitalist, individual, small-scale and private capitalist management is preserved. Industrialization should be closely linked to modernization, which involves informatization, attracting scientific achievements and advanced foreign technologies. It is predicted that Vietnam will pass the stage of industrialization faster than other countries. Vietnam will build an open economy with multilateral and diverse ties, with production that focuses on export and import substitution.

At the end of 2001, the Politburo of the CPV Central Committee adopted a resolution on such a pressing issue as Vietnam's entry into the world economic community. As in other countries, globalization and specific issues such as joining the World Trade Organization meet with different reactions. For Vietnam, joining the world economic community is primarily associated with the task of eliminating socio-economic backwardness and reaching the level of a developed state. The document calls on Vietnamese businesses to expand their external relations, find new markets, new partners, and new investors. And from manufacturers, entering the foreign market will require increasing the competitiveness of Vietnamese goods.

One of the architects of the current Vietnamese diplomacy, including economic diplomacy, Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Vietnam, Vu Khoan, noted in an article in Tapti Kongshan magazine in early 2002 that a state is competitive on a global scale when it is stable in socio-economic terms, when it has a developed legal framework, when it has a modern road network and electricity transmission lines, when there is a healthy financial system and reasonable taxes are collected, when there is a well-trained staff of specialists.

The Nobel Prize-winning American economist Joseph Stiglitz, who recently visited Vietnam, gave a positive assessment of the changes taking place in Vietnam, especially the skillful combination of economic growth with a reduction in the number of poor people, and gave a number of useful recommendations. He advises continuing to pay attention to the countryside (it is obvious that it was the rural reforms that created the basis for the successful development of the entire Vietnamese economy) and introducing new technologies in the agricultural sector. He recommends not to take risks by taking loans from abroad, but to rely on internal savings, as well as direct financial flows to new enterprises, and not to reconstruct old ones.

The future will show what advice from venerable economists will be useful to Vietnam. In the meantime, globalization is already being felt in the daily life of the country: even in the outback in a roadside tavern, unfortunately, it is easier to find pepsi-Cola than traditional national drinks made from natural fruits - " tien da "( lemon juice with ice) or " kam vata "(freshly squeezed orange juice). For a middle-income Vietnamese family, a mobile phone and a personal computer with Internet access are not uncommon. American militants flooded the rental of video films. But personally, I am most struck by the henna-and hydrogen peroxide-colored hairstyles of Hanoi youth, who are striving to "reach the world level" in hairstyles and clothing.

Only the cult of knowledge remains unshakeable, and today's leaders are calling for the "intellectualization" of Vietnamese society.

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