Tố Hữu (4 October 1920 – 9 December 2002) was a Vietnamese revolutionary poet and politician. He published seven collections of poems, the first of which was the 1946 collection entitled Từ ấy (Thenceforth), which included many of his most popular and influential works that were written between 1937 and 1946. Following the establishment of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, he became a prominent figure in the ruling Communist Party of Vietnam. Biography Tố Hữu, whose real name is Nguyễn Kim Thành, was born 4 October 1920 in Hoi An, Quang Nam province, as the youngest son of the family. At the age of 9, he and his father returned home and lived in Phu Lai village, now in Quang Tho commune, Quang Dien district, Thua Thien province. His father was a poor scholar, could not earn a living and struggled to earn a living, but he liked poetry, liked collecting proverbs and folk songs. He taught To Huu to write old poems. His mother was also the daughter of a scholar, knew many folk songs of Hue and loved him very much. His parents helped to nourish the soul of To Huu poetry. In 1938 he met a teacher, who had given him the pseudonym "Tố Hữu", taken from Đỗ Thị's sentence which means "big willpower available in my son". Tố Hữu accepted this name but interpreted it as a "pure friend". His mother died when he was 12 years old. At the age of 13, he entered Hue National University. Here he was directly exposed to the ideas of Marx, Engels, Lenin, Gorky, ... and approached through books, combined with the mobilisation of members of the Communist Party of Vietnam (Le Duan, Phan Dang Luu, Nguyen Chi Dieu) soon communist ideals. In 1936 he joined the Indochina Democratic Youth Union. In 1938 he was admitted to the Indochina Communist Party. In April 1939, he was arrested, tortured and exiled to Thua Phu Prison (Hue) and transferred to Lao Bao Prison (Quang Tri) and many other prisons in the Central Highlands. In March 1942, he escaped from the prison Đắc Glêi (now in Kon Tum), went to Thanh Hóa and contacted the party (through his secret activities in the district Hậu Lộc, Thanh Hoa province). In 1945, when the August Revolution broke out, he was elected Chairman of the Rebellion Committee of Thua Thien-Hue. Tố Hữu moved quickly and