The University was awarded the Friendship Order of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam at a ceremony that included the presentation of the first annotated translation of one of the most important sources on military strategy by Vietnam’s first president.

The Friendship Order is Vietnam’s highest honour conferred to foreign citizens and organisations. It was awarded for the work of the Ho Chi Minh Institute, which opened at SPbU on 19 May 2010 and is the only research centre of its kind outside Vietnam. Over the years, it has become an advanced academic and research centre for the study of Vietnam’s history and culture, as well as the ideology of its prominent political leader and cultural figure, Ho Chi Minh. 

The opening of the Institute at St Petersburg University is an important event for Vietnam, said Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam Dang Minh Khoi in his welcoming speech. 100 years ago in Petrograd, Vietnam’s first President Ho Chi Minh studied Vladimir Lenin’s theses and found the way to fight for the freedom and independence of his people. On behalf of the Vietnamese government and people, the diplomat thanked the SPbU for its great contribution to promoting the Vietnamese language in Russia, strengthening and developing friendly relations and the strategic partnership between Vietnam and Russia.

This honourable award expresses the high esteem of the State and Government of Vietnam for the merits and contribution of the Institute’s staff to the development of relations between the Socialist Republic of Vietnam and the Russian Federation.
Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam Dang Minh Khoi

‘It is also a symbol of the strong and great friendship between our peoples,’ said Dang Minh Khoi. ‘The Ho Chi Minh Institute has made significant contributions to the training of cadres for our country, as well as Russian specialists in Vietnam studies, which has contributed to the strengthening of friendly, scientific and cultural ties between our countries’. 

Nikolay Kropachev, Rector of the University and Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, noted that it is now more important than ever to fully support and develop friendly relations between educational and scientific institutions of Vietnam and Russia. He said that St Petersburg University has been one of the cradles of Russian Asian studies. The Faculty of Asian and African Studies was founded by order of Nicholas I on 3 November 1854, and St Petersburg became the first city in Russia where Asian scholars began to explore Vietnam. Since 1930, the university has been a leader in the Soviet Union in the study of Vietnam. ‘Today, SPbU has a dedicated centre for Vietnam studies with a long and rich history. This is why the first and only Ho Chi Minh Institute outside of Vietnam has been opened at our university. We are proud of it and we will do our best to open more similar centres around the world, such proposals have already been made by our partner universities,’ Nikolay Kropachev stressed.

The university’s commitment to developing not only Vietnamese studies but also friendly relations with Vietnam has been recognised at the highest level. Today’s award of the Friendship Order shows that our efforts to strengthen and develop cooperation between Russia and Vietnam are sincere and serious. This award is the highest recognition of the contributions of our faculty and staff to the development of Vietnamese studies not only in Russia but worldwide.
Nikolay Kropachev, Rector of SPbU, Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences

‘We will continue our efforts in this direction,’ said Nikolay Kropachev. ‘Allow me, on behalf of St Petersburg University, to thank the President, the Ambassador and all the people of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam for the award and the honour bestowed upon us. I am sure that new achievements are ahead of us’. 

SPbU has flagship projects aimed at developing and popularising Vietnamese language and culture worldwide. For example, the university holds an annual conference on the spiritual legacy of Ho Chi Minh, and since 2012 has launched a project to study the Eurasian system of arcs of instability. The impressive exhibition of ancient Vietnamese cultures at the State Hermitage Museum "Treasures of the Red River. Archaeological Collections from Vietnamese Museums", was visited by more than a million city residents and guests. 

The university also published the world’s first translation of Sun Tzu’s "The Art of War" with Ho Chi Minh’s commentary. The book was presented at the award ceremony for the Friendship Order of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. The foreword to the edition was written by Vietnamese Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Dang Minh Khoi.

To purchase the book "Sun Tzu’s Laws of War. 1945-1946", visit the SPbU Publishing House website.

Two modernised translations of Chinese military leader and strategist Sun Tzu’s classic treatise, The Art of War, were prepared by prominent Vietnamese leader Ho Chi Minh on the eve of the August Revolution in 1945 and before the outbreak of the First Indochina War in 1946. The series is one of the most important works on Vietnamese military strategy. University experts have produced a bilingual edition, where the original text and the Russian translation appear parallel on the page for easy comparison. The book was published by SPbU Publishing House in both textbook and photobook formats. In May 2023, Dmitry Medvedev, Deputy Chairman of the Security Council of the Russian Federation, member of the SPbU Board of Trustees, SPbU alumnus, presented such a photo book to the Secretary General of Vietnam. At the time, the book was highly praised by the Vietnamese government. 

The translator, Vladimir Kolotov, Director of the Ho Chi Minh Institute and Head of the Department of the History of the Far East Countries at SPbU, noted that he deliberately chose to deviate from the traditional translation of the title "The Art of War". In the course of his work, he studied the treatise in Classical Chinese, compared it with English, French and Vietnamese translations, and decided to use its original title, The Laws of War. ‘These are not rules that people agree on, but objective laws that exist in social life. They are not subject to the whims of generals or politicians. Those who abide by the laws of war win. Those who ignore them are defeated,’ explained Vladimir Kolotov. 

According to Professor Kolotov, the great generals of antiquity understood that knowledge of the enemy cannot be gained by comparison, conjecture or calculation. Only specially trained people — spies — can provide relevant information, and only on the basis of this information can the actions of the other party be predicted and lured into a trap. ‘This is exactly what Ho Chi Minh demanded of his followers. He wrote that one must learn to anticipate the enemy’s actions. On the basis of this knowledge, even before the outbreak of the First Indochina War, he anticipated what France’s strategy would be and what Vietnam’s counter-strategy would be. All this was done on the basis of clear analysis,’ said Vladimir Kolotov. ‘Ho Chi Minh, as a far-sighted politician, understood perfectly well that not only the head of state, but also generals and ordinary soldiers should learn to think in strategic terms. Only this approach provided the synergy necessary for victory. I hope that this book will allow us to learn the history and actual strategy of the Vietnamese government, which proved victorious during in both the First and Second Indochina Wars, and to use this knowledge to enhance the security of our country as well.’ 

The Ambassador discussed with the Rector of SPbU the possibility of signing a cooperation agreement with the Vietnamese Ministry of Education, as well as the implementation of programmes with a Vietnamese studies element at the university, and the development of cooperation in science and education. Nikolay Kropachev invited Dang Minh Khoi to head the board of one of the educational programmes and donated to the Embassy 30 copies of the book "Sun Tzu’s Laws of War. 1945-1946" and two replicas of the Annamese language textbook written in 1936 by Yulian Konstantinovich Shchutsky, a lecturer at LSU. Representatives of the Vietnamese delegation also laid flowers at the Ho Chi Minh monument on the university campus.