War and peace: The Russian version of Dang Thuy Tram's Diary. — VNS Photo

HA NOI — The Russian version of the 2005 best-selling war book Dang Thuy Tram's Diary will be presented to public in Ha Noi on Tuesday.

Publication of the book has been done to mark the official Day for Martyrs and War Invalids the following Friday.

The diary was translated into Russian by a group of leading Vietnamese and Russian experts.

The book is the first significant Vietnamese literature to be translated into Russian since 1991.

The Russian version is expected to be a bridge reuniting Russian readers with Vietnamese literature.

Penned by the North Vietnamese woman doctor Dang Thuy Tram in the 1960s while working in a field hospital in central Quang Ngai Province, the diary reveals the doctor's emotional tumult and personal aspirations.

She was killed by US troops in June 1970 at the age of 27.

The diary was found and preserved by an American soldier, Fred Whitehurst, 35 years before he donated it to the Viet Nam Centre and Archive at Texas Tech University.

The diary was returned to her family in 2005 thanks to the aid of American war veteran Tom Engelmann and American writer Lady Borton.

In the same year, thousands of copies of the diary were published in Viet Nam, becoming a literary phenomenon.

The diary also reveals the doctor's optimism and belief in the country's peaceful and bright future.

So far, the diary has been translated into 18 languages. A movie adapted from the diary won the Viet Nam Cinematography Association's Golden Kite Award in 2010. — VNS