Military personnel take part in a parade to mark the founding of the Lao Issara Army in Huaphan province on January 20, 1949.

The ultimate victory of the democratic revolution in Laos

This article marks the 70th anniversary of the establishment of the Lao People’s Revolutionary Party, the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Lao PDR, and the 105th birth anniversary of President Kaysone Phomvihane

Recalling the situation in Laos 50 and more years ago, the country was under French rule and Lao people of all ethnic groups were brutally oppressed and exploited, deprived of freedom and their basic rights.  
This statement was part of a lecture delivered by Politburo member and Deputy Prime Minister Prof. Dr Kikeo Khaykhamphithoune last month to mark the 50th anniversary of the establishment of the Lao People’s Democratic Republic (Lao PDR) and the 105th birth anniversary of President Kaysone Phomvihane.
The lecture was given at the offices of the Propaganda and Training Committee under the Lao People’s Revolutionary Party’s Central Committee. 
The administrative system at that time was controlled by the French royalists and local authorities. The economy was weak and education was very limited. The school system was only available to the children of those with high social status. Most villagers did not have the opportunity to attend school and the country’s infrastructure was severely damaged by war. 
But the people of all ethnic groups did not give up and did not surrender to the enemy. Their anger grew stronger and the fighting movement became more and more intense, becoming a mass struggle that spread throughout the country, and the revolutionary forces grew ever stronger. 
After the Indochina Communist Party was founded in 1930, its influence expanded rapidly and widely in the three Indochina countries. 
In 1934, the Phak Khaen Lao (Lao Party of Lao Territory) was established by the Indochina Communist Party. Under the leadership of the Committee, the Lao people’s struggle resulted in a string of victories, until they were able to seize power and declare independence on October 12, 1945. 
This victory was of the greatest historical significance. It was the first time that ownership of their country was returned to Lao people of all ethnic groups, along with the ownership of their destiny, after being enslaved and oppressed for more than 100 years. 
That victory opened the stage for a new era, in which the Lao people were mobilised to join the deadly struggle against the enemy and take full possession of their homeland. 
But not long after Laos gained independence, in March 1946, the French invaded Laos for the second time. 
In the face of the new demands of the growing revolutionary movement, the Party formulated a strategic revolutionary path to match the new circumstances. 
On January 20, 1949, the Lao People’s Army was established under the leadership of the Party. In the following years, the army, with support from civilians, achieved great victories throughout the Indochina battlefield until the French colonialists were forced to sign the 1954 Geneva Agreement on Indochina, recognising the independence, sovereignty, unity and full territorial integrity of Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia.
The agreement brought the 60-year French colonial rule to an end, paving the way for a process that would lead to the collapse of colonialism on a global scale. 
On December 2, 1975, the National Congress of the people’s representatives in Vientiane proudly announced the abolition of the outdated monarchy and the establishment of a people’s democratic republic in its place.
This was a glorious victory for the nationwide democratic revolution and ended the brutal rule of the feudal and the colonialism regimes of the past.
Thus began a new era of independence, freedom and socialist progress for the Lao people. 
It was a historic victory of profound significance, and the most satisfactory outcome of the revolutionary struggle, which had incurred so many sacrifices and hardships on the part of the Lao people over numerous decades, under the leadership of the Indochina Communist Party in the past, and the Lao People’s Revolutionary Party in the present day.

By Times Reporters
(Latest Update November 28, 2025)