Platon Nguyễn Văn Thành

Platon Nguyễn Văn Thành (1922–2003), also known as Thành Nga (Thành Russia), Hai Thành, Platon Thành, born Platon Aleksandrovich Skrzhinsky , was a Russian soldier who fought for the communist-led Viet Minh during the First Indochina War. He served in Viet Minh's well-known 307th Battalion, which was active in Southern Vietnam.

Platon Thành returned to Hanoi and then the Soviet Union after the 1954 Geneva Accords. He worked at the Vietnamese Department of Radio Moscow and maintained contacts with his Vietnamese friends, with notable figures of North Vietnam and unified Vietnam. He once visited Vietnam in 1988 together with old comrades of the 307th Battalion. Platon died in Moscow at the age of 80.

Early life Platon Aleksandrovich Skrzhinsky was born on 28 March 1922 in Zhytomyr Oblast, Ukraine. Platon's father, Aleksandr Stanislavovich Skrzhinsky, was a Polish nobleman and a graduate of the Historical and Philological Institute of Prince Bezborodko in Nizhyn, who had the certification to teach Latin and Ancient Greek languages. Platon's mother, Anna Alekseevna Skrzhinskaya, was a Russo-Ukrainian noblewoman who had been living in Paris and attending Sorbonne University. Anna was also a proficient piano player. Aleksandr and Anna named their son "Platon" after a Greek word meant "broad-shouldered". Thanks to his family's assistance and influence, Platon managed to read many works of well-known writers. He also became fluent in Russian, French, German, Polish, and Ukrainian languages.

Service in the Red Army and prisoner of war Platon finished highschool in 1940 at the age of 18 and was drafted into the Red Army. Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union in the next year; and Platon, as a soldier, took part in the Great Patriotic War against Germany. Platon was reported to have been wounded several times but chose to keep fighting in the frontline rather than have medical recuperation. He served in the Rostov-on-Don, then in Astrakhan, and was sent to the Donbas to participate in the 1942 Second Battle of Kharkov. The battle ended in disaster for the Soviets and Platon was amongst the prisoners of war. He was imprisoned in Częstochowa (Poland). In prison he was forced to perform menial labour, military truck maintenance, and sometimes act as a translator due to his multilingual capability. Like many other Soviet POWs, Platon suffered from severe mistreatment and malnourishment, resulting in trauma that affected his mental health till the end of his life. During the imprisonment, Platon joined a secret anti-Nazi organization associated with the Polish Home Army. Amongst the members was an anti-war German military officer. In 1944, as the organization's identity was leaked, a German officer arranged its members, including Platon, to be relocated to another prison facility in Denmark. It is also said that USSR's rapid advance to the Polish border contributed to the reason for the relocation.

After Germany was defeated in 1945, Platon and Soviet POWs were allowed to return to their homeland. However, due to Platon's good relationship with a French-speaking German warden, he was suspected as a German spy. Moreover, under the influence of alcohol, Platon had a heated argument with an NKVD sergeant about roles and activities of Soviet POWs during the war. Afraid of misunderstanding and punishment from Soviet authorities, Platon fled from the prisoner camp. He first arrived at Hamburg and worked for a German busisnessman. Dissatisfied with the employer's attitudes towards poor people, Platon took part in smuggling goods out of the warehouse. The employer soon discovered this and sacked him. Platon then moved to Bavaria and worked in a kitchen for the U.S. military, he also did not stay long due to conflicts with American personnel, whose attitudes Platon considered as "mockery" and "cynical". He then was employed by a plantation owner in southern France; this job was also short-lived as the employer became unsure about Platon's identity. The French employer nonetheless gave Platon some compensation money and advised him to join the French Foreign Legion, which was recruiting soldiers. Platon accepted the offer to satisfy both his survival needs and his own dream of travelling aboard. He became a translator after retirement, mostly focused on French literature and some works of Vietnamese writers, and also acted as advisor for Soviet and Russian researchers about Vietnam-related themes. Platon also kept in touch with his Vietnamese associates, frequently worked and met with Vietnamese government and state delegations, trade union leaders, writers' unions, composers, playwrights, and artists, and contributed to the works of Soviet/Russia – Vietnam Friendship Association. He and Anna visited Bến Tre, Vietnam, during a meeting of the surviving members of 307th Battalion in 1988.

Platon Nguyễn Văn Thành died on 26 March 2003 in Moscow, a few days before his 81st birthday.

His funeral was attended by the representative of the Vietnam Embassy in Moscow and other Vietnamese associates.

Family Platon Thành married a French-Vietnamese women named Nguyễn Thị Mai (Collete Mai) in 1948, with the recommendation and arrangement of their Vietnamese associates. They had a daughter, born on 28 August 1949, named Anna Platonovna Skrzhinsky in Russian and Nguyễn Hồng Minh in Vietnamese. She was usually called "Janine" by her family and Platon's friends. Due to wartime circumstance, Collete relocated to Bến Tre city. She remarried a Chinese man and had another two children. Collete's remmariage upset both Platon and Collete's mother but Platon respected his wife's decision. Janine lived with Platon after 1954 and she followed in her father's footsteps to work at the Vietnamese department of Radio Moscow.