The old stone embankment (Photo: VOV)

Saint Petersburg's large seaport, with nearly 200 berths, is always bustling with ships. The first foreign ships arrived here more than 300 years ago. Before 1924, this place was called Petrograd seaport.

Mr. Aleksander Morozov of Saint Petersburg Seaport Management Board, Russia, recounted that in 1923, this seaport was not as bustling as present nor had as many industrial activities as it is now. It only had small cargo ships. And President Ho Chi Minh came here this way, at that time there were no ships carrying passengers from abroad.

Everything has changed. What remains from the old boat station is now a stone embankment of more than a hundred years old. Many people in Saint Petersburg do not know that this very ordinary old station was once the place where the footsteps of a patriotic young Vietnamese man started a great journey for the Vietnamese people.

Mr. Vyacheslav Kalganov, Vice Chairman of the Committee for Foreign Affairs of Saint Petersburg, Russia said that he felt moved. “Many things have changed. But from here we still see the church, see the rocky shore that has existed for more than 100 years ago. That's what Nguyen Ai Quoc saw with his own eyes when he came here. We took another step forward to establish a relic site of places attached to President Ho Chi Minh,” he added.

Two more years will bring the 100th anniversary of Uncle Ho's first arrival in the Soviet Union. A monument to President Ho Chi Minh is under construction and will be placed here, in the middle of the port city of Saint Petersburg, as a symbol of the friendship between the two countries./.

BTA (Source: VTV)