Nguyen Phu Trong, Secretary General of the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV), has been bestowed the Lenin Prize, one of the noblest awards by the former Communist Party of the Soviet Union and the Communist Party of the Russian Federation (KPRF).

Nguyen Phu Trong, Secretary General of the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) awarded the Lenin Prize in Hanoi on Dec 15.

The prize awarded on the occasion of the 150th birthday of Lenin demonstrates the respect and recognition of Nguyen Phu Trong’s contributions in his political career and to the solidarity between Vietnam and Russia, KPRF Vice Chairman Leonid Kalashnikov said at the award ceremony held in Hanoi on December 15.

Trong described the Lenin Prize as a recognition for himself and the KPRF and Russian people’s respect for the CPV, State, and people of Vietnam. It manifests the special long-standing ties between the CPV and the Soviet Union’s Communist Party in the past and the KPRF at present.

Launched in 1925, the Lenin Prize is awarded to foreign citizens rather than to citizens of the Soviet Union, for their contributions to the peace cause.

In 2018, the Lenin Prize was reintroduced for achievements in the humanities, literature, and art to coincide with the 150th birthday of Lenin in 2020.

Nguyen Phu Trong, 77, a Hanoi-born Communist, was trained in the Soviet Union between 1981 and 1983.

Since taking the position of the CPV’s Secretary General in 2016, he initiated an anti-corruption campaign that sent dozens of high-ranking officials to prison and disciplined dozens of others, regaining public trust in the party and state.