The clandestine communist newspapers in French prisons in Vietnam from 1930 to 1935

Aware of the great power of the press, Vietnamese communists always paid attention to press publishing in all circumstances, even when imprisoned in French colonial prisons. Publishing revolutionary newspapers in prisons is an extremely special activity because it not only requires courage but also intelligence and knowlodge. The communist presses in French colonial prisons in Vietnam from 1930 to 1935 had their own unique characteristics in terms of form and organization as well as content. They played an important role in propagating the policy of the Communist Party of Vietnam, as a tool to educate Party members and the masses and as a weapon to fight against opposing ideas. Based on a survey of colonial government documents on the prison presses, on the memoirs of those who participated in the writing of newspapers between 1930 and 1935, and a survey of a few newspapers remaining to this day, the article clarifies some content, forms, and authors of newspapers published in colonial prisons, thereby showing a part of the history of the struggle against colonialism and national liberation of the Communist Party of Vietnam in the early days of its establishment.