Today, the strength of the uprising and the lessons from the August Revolution still hold true, creating the driving force for Ha Noi to be a pioneer with the whole country to continue writing glorious pages of history in the new era of the nation.
Victory of bravery, intelligence and creative spirit
Thang Long-Ha Noi with a thousand years of culture and heroism is not only a land of “spiritual land, talented people” and a place where the soul of mountains and rivers has been preserved for thousands of years, but also a cradle of revolution since the beginning of the 20th century.
The first organisation of the Revolutionary Youth Union and the first Party cell were established here. The Ha Noi Party Committee was honoured to be the earliest committee established in the country, on March 17, 1930 — only 45 days after the birth of the Communist Party of Viet Nam.
Before creating the historical miracle on August 19, 1945, Ha Noi had gone through 15 years of steadfast struggle right in the enemy’s lair.
Although the Ha Noi Party Committee was continuously suppressed and terrorised; with a strong spirit and iron will, one generation fell and another rose, and the destroyed organisation was quickly re-established. The revolutionary high tides of 1930-1931, 1936-1939, and 1939-1945 tempered the indomitable will of the Party Committee and the people of the capital city.
With its particularly important geopolitical position, Ha Noi has always been identified by the Party Central Committee and the Northern Regional Party Committee as a key strategic area, regularly leading and directing the revolutionary movement. Many experienced cadres, good at organising, and having a firm grasp of reality, were assigned to Ha Noi to build forces and directly direct the uprising.
Under the leadership of the Party Central Committee and the Northern Regional Party Committee, the Ha Noi Party Committee has prepared thoroughly in all aspects, ready to seize the once-in-a-thousand-years opportunity to revolt and seize power.
With strategic vision and skilful leadership, the Party has clearly identified the main enemy, deeply exploiting the contradictions within the enemy ranks. After the Japanese coup against the French (March 9, 1945), the Central Party Standing Committee promptly issued a directive titled “Japan and France fight each other and our actions”.
Implementing this directive, the Ha Noi Party Committee has promoted the movement to fight against Japan and save the country. The Party Committee has also actively fought politically and ideologically, exposing the false faces of Japanese fascists and their lackeys, and at the same time established many national salvation organisations among workers, farmers, youth, women, and students.
The publication of the “Cuu Quoc” (Saving the Country) and “Co Giai Phong” (Liberation Flag) newspapers enhanced the revolutionary will of the masses.
In addition, the Ha Noi Party Committee urgently opened many training courses for political and military cadres, launched a movement to collect donations and raise funds to produce and purchase weapons. In particular, the Party Committee promptly led the people to destroy the Japanese rice warehouse to relieve hunger, creating a solid foundation for the General Uprising.
Through the struggles, the revolutionary forces in Ha Noi grew ever stronger. Although there were only about 50 Party members, the Ha Noi Party Committee was tightly organised, with a team of loyal cadres capable of leading mass organisations, becoming the core of revolutionary leadership.
Along with that, hundreds of thousands of enlightened people always believed, united, and were ready to rise up and seize power.
On the night of August 13, 1945, the National Uprising Committee issued Military Order No.01 ordering the General Uprising. On the afternoon of August 15, 1945, the Northern Regional Party Committee decided to establish the Ha Noi Military Revolutionary Committee (Uprising Committee) with Nguyen Khang as the chairman.
On August 17, 1945, the Viet Minh forces turned the Tran Trong Kim Government’s forum into a revolutionary propaganda rally, calling for a general uprising for all people.
From this experience, the Uprising Committee decided to launch an uprising on August 19, 1945, by organising a rally, then turning it into an armed march and occupying important agencies.
On the morning of August 19, 1945, self-defence teams and people from inside and outside the city flocked to the Ha Noi Opera House, the revolutionary spirit rose strongly.
At exactly 11:00 a.m. on August 19, 1945, a large rally took place in front of the Ha Noi Opera House, then quickly turned into a demonstration and demonstration march. Armed forces spread out to occupy the Imperial Commissioner’s Palace, City Hall, Treasury, Post Office, Police Department, Security Camp, etc.
Faced with the boiling revolutionary atmosphere, the Japanese army was bewildered and forced to remain motionless after the Viet Minh’s skilful negotiations.
On the evening of August 19, 1945, the important agencies of the Bao Dai court in Ha Noi were in the hands of the revolution. The next day, the revolutionary government was established at the Bac Bo Phu (Tonkin Palace), marking the complete collapse of the colonial-feudal regime in Ha Noi.
On September 2, 1945, more than half a million people gathered at the historic Ba Dinh Square to listen to President Ho Chi Minh read the Declaration of Independence, giving birth to the Democratic Republic of Viet Nam and marking a new era of the nation — an era of independence and autonomy.
From a city under colonial rule, where colonialists placed their centre of rule, Ha Noi became the capital of the Democratic Republic of Viet Nam — the first worker-peasant state in Southeast Asia.
Historical lessons create lasting strength
The victory of the August 1945 uprising was a brilliant milestone in the fighting tradition of Thang Long-Ha Noi. It was a testament to the remarkable maturity of the Ha Noi Party Committee, the vanguard of the working class and working people.
That feat not only opened a new page for Ha Noi but also created the position and strength for the capital to enter the period of building a democratic government, preparing for a long-term resistance war against colonialism and imperialism, and protecting the new Viet Nam.
80 years have passed, but the spirit of the August Revolution is still an immortal flame illuminating the development journey of Ha Noi today. The valuable lessons from that uprising remain intact, serving as a compass for the capital to firmly step on the path of construction and development.
That is a lesson about the steadfastness of the revolutionary ideal of national independence associated with socialism that the Party and Uncle Ho chose. No matter the circumstances, Ha Noi always stands firm, ready to sacrifice and devote itself to that noble ideal.
That is a lesson about being proactive, creative, and decisive in seizing opportunities. That is, Ha Noi has flexibly applied the Party’s guidelines, using skilful, bold, and effective fighting tactics.
It is also a lesson about the strength of great solidarity. From the Party Committee, the Viet Minh Front, to the working class, farmers, intellectuals, all patriotic forces have combined their will and determination to gain independence, creating an extremely great combined strength.
Those historical values are not only a source of pride, but also a fulcrum and inspiration for the Party Committee and people of Ha Noi to confidently overcome all difficulties and challenges, creating glorious feats and new miracles in the Ho Chi Minh era.
During the resistance war against France, the army and people of the capital started the National Resistance War with the will of “dying for the Fatherland to live”, together with the whole country to achieve the historic Dien Bien Phu Victory in 1954.
During the resistance war against the US, Ha Noi was both a pioneer in building socialism in the North and a leader in supporting the revolution in the South with the spirit of “Not a pound of rice is missing, not a soldier is missing."
Ha Noi is also the source of many patriotic emulation movements of historical significance, demonstrating the spirit of constant innovation and creativity. The peak was the victory of “Ha Noi-Dien Bien Phu in the Air” in 1972, which contributed significantly to the Great Spring Victory of 1975, unifying the country.
After the country was unified, Ha Noi entered a new revolutionary stage, both recovering and developing after the war, and fighting with the whole country to protect the border and fulfil international obligations.
Since the 10th Congress of the City Party Committee (October 1986), Ha Noi has joined the country in implementing the renovation policy, overcoming the socio-economic crisis, and promoting industrialisation and modernisation.
For nearly 40 years of renovation, the Party Committee, army and people of Ha Noi have always been the “vanguard” in movements, the “bright spot” in all fields, worthy of being the locomotive and the heart of the whole country. The rich reality of the capital has provided valuable experience for the Party and State to plan and implement major policies nationwide.
Specifically, after 17 years of administrative boundary expansion, Ha Noi has seen strong development in both scale and appearance, affirming its position as the national political-administrative nerve centre, a major centre of economy, culture, education and training, science and technology, and international integration.
With outstanding achievements, the Party Committee, army and people of Ha Noi Capital have been honoured to receive many noble awards, including 3 Gold Star Medals and the title of “Heroic Capital”. This provides a source of pride and great motivation for Han Noi to continue to rise up and fulfil its responsibilities to the Party and the nation.
In recent years, Ha Noi has vigorously implemented the resolutions and conclusions of the Central Committee, focusing on the Politburo’s Resolution No.15-NQ/TW on the direction and tasks of developing the Capital until 2030, with a vision to 2045.
Despite many difficulties, Ha Noi’s economy has maintained impressive growth. In 2024, the gross regional domestic product (GRDP) increased by 6.52%; state budget revenue reached 513 trillion VND for the first time, the highest in the country (an increase of nearly 28.3% compared to 2023).
In the first 6 months of 2025, GRDP grew by 7.63%, budget revenue reached 392.2 trillion VND, accounting for about 29.4% of the country’s total revenue.
Ha Noi continues to affirm its leading position and driving force for the development of the Capital Region, the Northern Key Economic Region, and the whole country.
Urban planning, construction, management and development have changed positively towards smart, green and sustainable. The city focuses on directing the implementation of the Capital Law (amended), the Ha Noi Capital Planning for the 2021-2030 period with a vision to 2050, and the Adjustment of the Ha Noi Capital Master Plan to 2045 with a vision to 2065; promoting the implementation of many socio-economic infrastructure projects, especially transport infrastructure, and has started construction of Tu Lien Bridge; inaugurating the National Exhibition Centre; focusing on renovating the To Lich River; launching a general environmental sanitation programme for the entire city; implementing a roadmap to renovate old apartment buildings; and so on.
Since the beginning of the 2020-2025 term, Ha Noi has been at the forefront of implementing major policies of the Central Government, such as building a smart city, digital transformation, developing cultural industry, and creating a breakthrough in tourism and service growth. The work of building the Party, government, and political system has achieved positive results.
Implementing the revolution of streamlining the apparatus, arranging administrative units and organising a 2-level local government model, Ha Noi has restructured from 30 districts and towns and 526 communes, wards, and townships to 126 communes and wards, a reduction of 76.5%, thus ensuring the right progress, with a very high rate of approval and consensus from the people (at over 97%).
Despite many difficulties and obstacles, the political system of the 126 communes and wards has shown a spirit of solidarity, high responsibility, positivity, proactive learning, and adaptation to complete its tasks well.
Implementing Directive No.45-CT/TW of the Politburo on Party Congresses at all levels towards the 14th National Party Congress, the Ha Noi Party Committee has directed the organisation of Party Congresses at all levels to ensure progress and quality. The Party Committees of the 126 communes and wards have shown a strong spirit of innovation in drafting documents to promote all resources and exploit new development spaces.
The preparation work for the 18th Congress of the City Party Committee for the 2025-2030 term has been carried out in a synchronous, urgent, and innovative manner, with a high sense of responsibility. The congress documents have been elaborately and scientifically developed, demonstrating the spirit of “new vision – new global thinking, Capital thinking and Ha Noi action”; preparing the Draft Political Report, along with the Action Programme and specific projects, plans, and works.
National defence and security work has been comprehensively led and directed, closely combining socio-economic development with strengthening national defence and security.
Ha Noi builds an all-people national defence, an all-people national defence posture associated with a people's security posture, absolutely protecting the safety of key targets, political, diplomatic, and cultural events at the national and international levels.
All levels, sectors from the city down to the grassroots level and the people of Ha Noi are working day and night with the ministries, departments, central sectors, the army, the police and localities to prepare for the celebration, parade, and march of the 80th anniversary of the successful August Revolution and the National Day on September 2, and are determined to organise the great event of the country successfully, to motivate and inspire the country to move forward.
Ha Noi is also organising a series of practical and meaningful events to honour those who have contributed, educate the younger generation about traditions, especially to evoke pride and create motivation, belief, and aspiration for cadres and people to make efforts to contribute to building the capital and the country, worthy of previous generations.
Pioneering in creating a prosperous era
The country is entering a new era — the era of the nation’s rise. General Secretary To Lam pointed out that from now until 2030 is the most important period, this is also the period, strategic opportunity, the sprint stage of the Vietnamese revolution to achieve the 100-year strategic goal under the leadership of the Party, creating a solid foundation to achieve the goal of 100 years of national founding.
Along with the revolution of streamlining the apparatus, the Politburo has issued the “Quad Pillar” consisting of 4 resolutions with strategic vision as the political basis for building and developing the country in the coming period.
These are Resolution No.57-NQ/TW (dated December 22, 2024) on breakthroughs in science, technology, innovation and national digital transformation; Resolution No.59-NQ/TW (dated January 24, 2025) on international integration in the new situation; Resolution No.66-NQ/TW (dated April 30, 2025) on innovation in law-making and enforcement to meet the requirements of national development in the new era; and Resolution No.68-NQ/TW (dated May 4, 2025) on private economic development.
In that context, Ha Noi, with its role and responsibility as the capital - the heart of the whole country, is assigned the important responsibility of taking the lead in realising the development aspiration. Recently, General Secretary To Lam has devoted great attention, trust and expectations to Ha Noi through working sessions, associated with instructions and orientations for sustainable development with a long-term vision for Ha Noi.
The general secretary requested Ha Noi to be more deeply aware of its special important position, potential, and outstanding advantages; promote its cultural and heroic traditions; enhance the spirit of innovation, creativity, dare to think, dare to do; innovate thinking and ways of doing to develop more comprehensively and strongly, adding that Ha Noi must soon be built into a “socialist capital city”, becoming an exemplary city of the whole country, thus contributing to bringing the country firmly into the new era.
He also emphasised the development philosophy of the capital based on “5 pillars”: (1) Culture, people and thousand-year heritage of civilisation — the consistent foundation; (2) Developing green economy, digital economy; (3) Synchronous, modern infrastructure; (4) Digital society, smart city; (5) Science, technology and innovation. In addition, there are “3 transformations”: green transformation, digital transformation, and circular economics.
Deeply aware of the importance of the instructions of General Secretary To Lam, the Ha Noi Party Committee promptly issued a plan, specifying specific tasks associated with clear assignment of people, tasks, progress and implementation roadmap.
Faced with the requirements and tasks in the new period, the Party Committee, government, and people of Ha Noi Capital are determined to “promote the thousand-year tradition of civilisation and heroism, solidarity, bravery and creativity; pioneer in rising up with the nation, building a civilised and modern capital city, with happy people.” This is also the theme of the 18th City Party Congress, 2025-2030 tenure, which is seeking opinions from all walks of life.
To do that, the Ha Noi Party Committee determined that it is necessary to create a breakthrough from strongly innovating thinking about development institutions, modern urban governance models and methods of organising the implementation of the Party’s guidelines and the state’s laws; developing high-quality human resources, science, technology, innovation and digital transformation; developing a modern, smart and connected infrastructure system.
The focus is on promoting rapid and sustainable growth; proactively implementing synchronous, focused and key solutions; determined to implement solutions to accelerate and make breakthroughs to strive for a high double-digit growth rate of GRDP in the next 5 years; strive to be a creative city, a financial, technological and cultural centre, with its own identity of Vietnam; deeply integrate into the global urban network; and create the image of a “green-smart-liveable-internationally attractive capital.”
There is also a focus on promoting green transformation in industries and fields such as energy, transportation, tourism, services, agriculture, etc., as well as promoting urban economic development, creative industries, technology finance, smart logistics, healthcare, high-quality education, and cultural tourism as key growth drivers.
Ha Noi will focus on concretising and effectively implementing the 4 strategic resolutions of the Politburo, bringing the capital and the country into a new era. The strong development of science, technology, innovation and digital transformation to create important breakthroughs is the main driving force in rapidly developing modern production forces, contributing to perfecting production relations, innovating production and management methods, and developing the city’s socio-economy.
It will promote the position of the capital city, synchronously, effectively and comprehensively implementing foreign affairs and international integration; ensuring substance and effectiveness; maintaining a peaceful and stable environment and creating favourable conditions; and attracting resources, especially technology, high-quality human resources from abroad, to serve development as well as consolidate and enhance the prestige and international position of the capital.
Aiming to ensure the comprehensive and direct leadership of the Party Committee in the orientation of building specific mechanisms and policies for the capital in the direction of both ensuring the requirements of state management and encouraging creativity, liberating all productive forces, and unleashing all development resources, the city will further improve the quality of concretisation, completion, and implementation of institutions serving development, enhance digital transformation, and apply artificial intelligence and big data in law-making and enforcement.
The city will create a creative startup ecosystem; proactively remove barriers in mechanisms and policies, reduce administrative procedures, reduce time, reduce compliance costs, reduce efforts for people and businesses; and create conditions for private enterprises to grow and cooperate with the FDI sector, especially in technology transfer.
Clearly defining the role of Ha Noi as the driving force and locomotive of the country’s economic growth, as the nucleus with a spreading nature of the Northern region in most fields, the city will rebuild the development space in an open, multi-centre, and regionally integrated direction, overcoming the limits of the traditional urban model so that the capital can lead the development of the Northern region and the whole country.
Ha Noi will enhance competitiveness with capitals and major global cities in attracting brainpower, innovation and economic-cultural-social influence as well as living, studying and working environment worthy of its position and potential according to Resolution No.15-NQ/TW of the Politburo.
Party organisations and cadres and party members must renew their thinking, raise awareness of cultural industry; focus on developing key cultural industry products; promote human resource development; strengthening the application of science and technology, developing cultural and sports infrastructure; attracting and supporting investment; expanding domestic and international cultural exchanges and cooperation; focusing on building, developing and positioning the UNESCO “Creative City” brand; building Ha Noi people in the new era; skilfully combining traditional values with modern values; preserving and promoting cultural quintessence, raising awareness, strongly promoting the construction and implementation of values, standards, and characteristics of elegant and civilised Hanoians in the new era, considering this an important resource and driving force in the development strategy of the “Cultured – Civilised – Modern” capital city.
In particular, it is necessary to continue to build and rectify the Party, build a truly clean, strong, comprehensive, innovative, intelligent, honest, united, civilised, and active Party organisation.
The 80th anniversary of the successful August Revolution (1945-2025) and the National Day of the Socialist Republic of Viet Nam is a sacred festival for millions of hearts of the people of the Capital city to turn to their roots, with deep gratitude for the immense contributions of the Party, of the great President Ho Chi Minh, and of the generations of fathers and grandfathers who sacrificed their blood and bones to write the golden history of the nation.
From the immortal flame of the August Revolution and the heroic spirit of Thang Long-Ha Noi, the Party Committee, government and people of the capital are determined to innovate further, be more creative to build an increasingly rich, civilised, modern Ha Noi, with happy people, pioneering with the country to create an era of prosperous development.
