Russia and Vietnam

The first bricks

After the Socialist Revolution of 1917, Vietnamese revolutionary delegates began to come to Moscow - more than 50 people, studying at the Communist University for Eastern Workers and the military schools of the Communist International Committee. In the years 1920-1930, leader Nguyen Ai Quoc lived and worked in Moscow for 6 and a half years. At his request, Moscow received a group of Vietnamese youths from Guangdong, who in 1941 volunteered to join the Red Army and sacrificed their lives in the battles against Nazi Germany to protect Moscow capital.
© Sputnik

The establishment of diplomatic relations

On January 30, through the Soviet envoy in Thailand, the Soviet Foreign Minister sent a telegram to President Ho Chi Minh informing that the Soviet Government recognized the Democratic Republic of Vietnam and agreed to establish the diplomatic relations with young goverment in Asian Pacific region.
© Sputnik

Valuable support in the fight against enemy invaders

In April 1965, just a month after the United States had started sustained aerial bombardment of North Vietnam, known as 'Operation Rolling Thunder', the first Soviet air defense missile systems and military specialists servicing them began arriving in the country, at the request of the Government of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam.

Throughout the war, Moscow provided Hanoi with 95 S-75 air defense missile systems, over 500 airplanes, 120 helicopters, more than 5,000 anti-aircraft guns and 2,000 tanks. In addition, more than 10,000 Soviet military specialists were dispatched to Vietnam: from missile crews, pilots and signalmen to tank crews and doctors.© RBTH

Shoulder to shoulder in the heinous war

A special role was also played by Soviet anti-aircraft gunners. They not only trained Vietnamese People's Army (VPA) personnel, but also took part in fighting together. It is in no small degree thanks to them that the U.S. Air Force and Navy, having lost more than 4,000 aircraft, failed to suppress North Vietnam's air defenses and defeat the country.© RBTH

The most difficult victory is the victory pay by blood

Since during the War of aggression in Vietnam, the Americans lost over 4,000 aircraft.

Eduard Lekanov, commander of a platoon of Volkhov surface-to-air missile launchers: "In July 1966, we were stationed near Hanoi, guarding the largest bridge in Southeast Asia. At the battery next to us, a Vietnamese crew was entrusted with carrying out a launch independently, but both their missiles missed the target.

The Phantom turned around to attack. In our battery, I was the only one wounded, while the crew that fired and missed were all killed. After that incident, the Vietnamese were for a long time suspended from carrying out independent launches: 'Military science must be learned properly!'"© RBTH

Build Peace from War Ruins while blood still bleeding

Built in the Da River basin in the northern mountainous province of Hoa Binh, at the time of its conception in 1979, Hoa Binh was the largest hydroelectric plant in Southeast Asia.

Hoa Binh was the largest hydroelectric plant in Southeast Asia. The construction was supported by the Soviet Union all the way through, designing, supplying equipment, supervising, and helping it go on stream. Construction began on November 6, 1979, with 40,000 officers, engineers and workers and 750 Soviet experts. It was completed 15 years later on December 20, 1994.

The plant was built during the trade embargo by the U.S. and a fight against the genocidal Pol Pot regime in Cambodia, and a border war with China looming.
© vnexpress.net

Shoot down B-52 by MiG-21MF and flew to space by Soyuz-37

Around 9PM, on December 27, 1972, Comrade Pham Tuan ordered to sortie from Yen Bai airport by MiG-21MF No 5121. Guided by the headquarters, he discovered two B-52s and a group of F-4 escorts. When he was still about 2-3km from the target, he calmly checked and fired two K13 missiles at once, a bright red flame falling in front eyes, B-52 was shot down.© qdnd.vn

Late at night on July 23 in Moscow time and dawn on the 24th in Hanoi. The Soviet Soyuz-37 spacecraft took off and flew into the sky. The commander of the ship is Mr. Victor Gorbatko, an astronaut who has flown around our planet twice. The research pilot is space rookie Pham Tuan.

July 24, previously entered the history of Vietnam, becoming a line in the annals of cooperation between the two countries. Also on July 24, but 15 years earlier, the Soviet anti-aircraft missile complexes that had just been received by the Vietnam People's Army successfully completed the first combat challenge.© Sputnik