When Russian sailors, armed only with courage and rifles, rushed the Winter Palace, they could not have known that their action would help change the fate of remote Vietnamese peasants labouring in feudal slavery.

The gunfire from the cruiser Aurora that broke the dark sky over Saint Petersburg on November 7, awoke the entire world, including outstanding Vietnamese revolutionaries searching for the way to national liberation.

President Ho Chi Minh wrote about the event in this way: "Like the brilliant sun, the October Revolution shone over all five continents, awaking millions of oppressed and exploited people around the world.

"There has never existed such a revolution of such significance and scale in all the history of humanity."

And although 88 years have now passed and history has seen many more upheavals, the noble ideology of Vladimir I. Lenin and the October Revolution maintains its strength.

The achievements of the world's first revolution of workers and peasants have survived the test of time and are remembered by all progressive mankind.

The revolution founded an entirely new socio-political system totally different in nature from all those that preceded it or which then existed.

For the first time, the right of working people to control their own fate and the right of each country to equality and self-determination was ensured.

Millions of poor Russians set out to build a fair, equal and humane society  the dream of mankind  in a country that spread from Asia to Europe.

This had great historical meaning and was a great source of encouragement to working people of all colours and of all continents as they challenged oppression to live in freedom, independence and happiness.

American journalist John Reed, who witnessed "the days that shook the world" wrote that no matter what was said about Bolshevism, it could not be denied that the Russian Revolution was one of mankind's great events.

Speaking about the accomplishments of the State of workers and farmers that grew out of the October Revolution, Albert Einstein said that no state - except the Socialist Soviet Union - had done so much for people in such a short time while facing such great difficulties and challenges.

Einsteins conclusions were based on reality.

In a short time, the Soviet Union - the fruit of the October Revolution - grew from an average country into among the most powerful in the world. It produced record economic achievements and improvements in living standards.

Further, the people of the Soviet Union, led by the Communist Party, were the key to saving humankind from fascism during World War II.

Their effort created conditions favourable to revolutions for national liberation and the advance to socialism in Asia, Eastern Europe and the Western hemisphere.

Guided by the torch of the October Revolution and history's first Socialist state, myriad colonised countries rose to independence and the inevitable demolition of colonialism.

The collapse of the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe in the early '90s was a heavy loss and a step backward for Socialism but in history's road of about turns it taught precious lessons to Communist Parties and the international worker movement.

Still it was no surprise when some Western scholars and politicians, for their own political purposes, used subjective and imposed arguments to loudly deny the October Revolution's accomplishments.

It was "a mistaken step of history," "an adventure," "a uprising that was contrary to the rule," and "the death knell of Communism," they proclaimed.

In doing so, they intentionally denied the great achievements that the October Revolution brought the Russian people and the former Soviet Republics, as well as mankind.

They pretended not to know that the Socialism, originating from the October Revolution, was still a reality for more than one-fifth of mankind.

The Socialist countries, together with the international Communist and worker movement and progressive forces, have always stood at the front line in the fight for peace, development and a more equal and better world for all nations.

More dangerously, some Western extremists are attempting to stage a drama, that they call "the necessity to have the crimes of communism internationally condemned."

While it is not necessary to discuss the shady political thoughts of these people - thoughts which pay no regard to either reality or history - we ask them the following question: "What would have been mankind's future without the fight and sacrifice by millions of Soviet Communists and people to defeat fascism in World War II"?

How would the world political map have been drawn and where would they have fitted into such a map given their absurd judgement from such extraordinary reasoning?

The Vietnamese people, following the path set by the October Revolution and led by the Communist Party of Viet Nam and President Ho Chi Minh, successfully launched the August Revolution in 1945.

They defeated two major imperialists to gain national independence and reunification and in doing so set a bright example in the struggle by oppressed nations.

Viet Nam is now on the road to building socialism and its goal of a prosperous people, a strong country and a fair, democratic and civilised society.

Illuminated by the October Revolution, President Ho Chi Minh and the Vietnamese Communists acquired and creatively applied the basic principles of Marxism-Leninism to the specific conditions of their country's revolution and the formation of Ho Chi Minh Thought.

These combine great ethic and humane values through a system of arguments about the direction of the nation's development and the reasons people have for living.

The victory of the Vietnamese revolution and the achievements obtained through renewal, which were based on the spiritual foundation of Marxism-Leninism and Ho Chi Minh Thought, reflect the great power, intelligence and creativity of the Vietnamese Communists and people in the face of the new era's requirements.

At each stage of development, the Vietnamese people have always remembered President Ho Chi Minh's words: "Looking back at the sad days of losing the country and each stage of the revolutionary struggle that was filled with sacrifice and hardship as well as glorious victories, the working class and people of Viet Nam are all the more grateful to the great merits of Lenin and the October Revolution."