The most common dictator. The rise, fall and death of Saddam Hussein

SHEIKHS, SULTANS AND SADDAM Friendly relations with President Sadat and King Hussein, as well as extensive contacts with the royal family of Saudi Arabia, took a long time to establish, but these contacts were an example of a high-level relationship in which

IRAQ AND SADDAM HUSSEIN At the end of the 20th century, Saddam Hussein became one of the most ruthless dictators in the world, constantly plunging his people into wars and subjecting them to incredible hardships in order to maintain his power. I met him only once. Hussein was a product of the party

HUSSEIN SADDAM (born in 1937) Iraqi president, a bloody dictator who carried out genocide of his people, used chemical weapons against the Kurds, methodically destroyed the Shiites. Western psychiatrists diagnosed the Iraqi leader with a malignant narcissist. Former

Saddam Hussein Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti, during his lifetime, held various high-ranking government posts in Iraq, but went down in history as a tough political figure, the President of the Iraqi state (1979-2003), who achieved the highest level of development of his native country among the territories of the Middle East .

Known for large-scale reforms, military operations with Iran, the use of chemical weapons by its army during the war. In 2003, when world leaders represented by a coalition (US, UK) invaded Iraq, Hussein was overthrown, and subsequently punished by death by hanging.

Childhood and youth

An interesting fact is the meaning of the politician's name - Saddam, which means "opposing" in Arabic. This is how you can characterize the hero of this biography. From the point of view of the European understanding, the former President of Iraq did not have a surname. The word Hussein is the name of his own father, who did not possess wealth and power during his lifetime, but was a simple landless peasant.

Saddam was born on April 28, 1937 in the city of Tikrit, or rather, in the neighboring village of Al-Auja. Shortly before his birth, Hussein's father died, went missing, or, according to one version, left his family. There is also an opinion that the politician was born outside the family, but these are only rumors.

Before the birth of the future ruler, Saddam's mother had another son who died of cancer at the age of 12 during a period when the woman was in an interesting position. A terrible tragedy led to a deep depression. The mother did not even want to look at the newborn Hussein. The little boy was raised by his maternal uncle for several years, but after being imprisoned as a participant in an anti-British uprising, Hussein was forced to return to his mother.

According to the traditions of the Arab people, if the deceased husband has a brother, the widow becomes his wife. This is what happened to Saddam's mother, who was married by the brother of the deceased Hussein, Ibrahim al-Hassan. It is difficult to call a stepfather a kind and bright person, he raised his stepson in cruelty and the strictest discipline: he beat him, forced him to work hard. In this marriage, five more children were born (triplets and two girls).

Hussein's childhood passed in extreme poverty, in a state of constant hunger. It is known that the stepfather even forced the youth to steal cattle for its further sale in the market. Everyday bullying of the boy left a corresponding imprint in his character, but Saddam did not close himself off from society. He had many friends, friends among different age categories of people.

The inquisitive Hussein was thirsty for knowledge, asked his stepfather to send him to school, but he resisted, not wanting to part with an extra pair of working hands. Then the boy decided to run away to the city to his uncle - a devout Muslim, a nationalist and a fan, who had left the prison by that time. It was the uncle who helped the nephew become what he was in his mature years.

Saddam went to school in Tikrit. Education was not easy for him, because at the age of 10 Hussein could not even read and write. For comic daring tricks with peers and teachers, violation of the discipline of the future ruler was expelled from the educational institution.

At the age of 15, the young man experienced serious stress - the death of a horse that was his true friend. This led to paralysis of the boy's hand. After that, I had to treat Hussein for several months. From the memoirs of an already adult Saddam, it sounded that then he cried for the last time in his life.

When uncle Khairallah moved to Baghdad, his nephew decided to follow him and enter the military academy (1953), but to no avail. The following year, Hussein enters the al-Karkh school, where he finally completes his secondary education.

Party activities

The beginning of Saddam Hussein's political activity was closely intertwined with his further education. The young activist graduated from Harq College and later received a law degree from Cairo University.

In 1952, the Egyptian Revolution began, led by Gamal Abdel Nasser. This man was an idol for Hussein, an example to follow. Revolutionary actions led the head of the movement to the post of President of Egypt.

In 1956, the future ruler of Iraq joined the army against King Faisal II, but the coup was unsuccessful. A year later, Hussein became a member of the Baath Party, and already in 1958, during the next uprising, the king was nevertheless overthrown.

At the age of 21, Saddam was imprisoned as a suspect in the murder of one of the district's high-ranking officials. There is an opinion that the politician's uncle gave his nephew a task - to kill an opponent, which he "worthily" completed. At the scene of the incident, the local police did not find a single piece of evidence, so after 6 months Hussein was released and later took part in a special operation against General Qasem.

While studying at Cairo University (1961-1963), Saddam showed himself as an active political figure, gaining fame in the relevant circles. In 1963, the Baath Party defeated the Qasem regime, Hussein returned to his native Iraq and received a post there as a member of the Central Peasant Bureau. According to the young activist, the main representatives of the Baath party recklessly performed the functions assigned to them, and Hussein did not hesitate to talk about this at the general Arab meetings. Soon the Baathists were removed from power, and Saddam began to form his own association.

In 1964, a new party leadership (5 people) appeared, and Hussein entered it. The leaders decided to capture Baghdad, but the attempt failed. One of the main instigators, Saddam, was imprisoned, but in 1966 the politician escaped, and a few months later he became the deputy general secretary of the Baath Party. The range of his duties included operations related to intelligence of special secrecy.

In 1968, another coup began in Iraq, and in 1970 Saddam Hussein became the Vice President of the country. With serious influence, he carried out a number of reorganizations in the special service segment. The tough character of Hussein, formed in childhood, was reflected in the methods of his work.

Anyone who opposed the current government was severely punished: prisoners in prisons were mocked, using electric shock, acid, hanging, blinding, sexual violence, and also forcing the objectionable to watch their relatives being tortured. Today, these methods in Iraq, fortunately, have been canceled, although some of them still remain in use by local authorities.

Having the status of the country's second person, Hussein paid due attention to such issues as:

• Strengthening foreign policy.
• Literacy of women and the general population.
• Private sector development, rural modernization.
• Stimulation of entrepreneurial activity.
• Construction of various educational institutions, hospitals, technical enterprises, etc.

Saddam became a popular and promising person in the country, gaining respect among the common people and achieving a real economic boom in Iraq.

President of Iraq

In 1976, Hussein eliminated all his party competitors, created a strong army with the "correct" ideology. Soon, all significant structures of the state apparatus, including ministries and the armed forces, reported to a strict politician.

In 1979, the President of Iraq resigned, and his successor, the famous Saddam Hussein, took over his post. From the first days of his reign, he began to build lofty plans for his native state, wanting to see him among the world leaders. Thanks to the natural resources (oil) of the Iraqi territory, it became possible to conclude agreements with various countries and reach a new level of further development.

But Saddam was a warrior by nature, he wanted to own and rule. The wars with Iran, initiated by Hussein, subsequently led the Iraqi economy into decline.

Since 1991 (the post-war period), the previously flourishing country has turned into a lair of devastation and hunger. In the cities there was not enough food, water, various intestinal diseases "reigned". Many Iraqis have left their homes in search of a better life outside the country. Hussein was under pressure from the UN, and the President was forced to make concessions on oil exports.

The period of Saddam's rule is associated differently with different people. Some proudly claim that he was a great ruler who provided security to his people, while others, on the contrary, criticize the President for cruelty, and still others simply idolize him.

US invasion

In 2003, the US formed a coalition with world leaders to overthrow Saddam Hussein's rule in Iraq. A military operation was organized, which lasted for several years (2003-2011).

The reasons for the invasion of the American army into Iraqi territories include the following:

• Iraq's connection with international terrorism.
• Destruction of chemical weapons (factories for their production worked in Iraq).
• Control over the country's oil reserves.

The President of Iraq was forced to flee and hide every three hours in different places, but in 2004 he was found in his hometown of Tikrit and arrested. At court hearings in Baghdad in the area where the US military was located, Hussein was charged with many charges: inhuman methods of government, war crimes, the murder of 148 Shiites, etc.

Personal life

Saddam Hussein was married four times. His first chosen one was a girl named Sajida, who was the ruler's cousin. She gave birth to Hussein in the marriage of five children: two sons (Uday and Kusey) and three daughters (Ragad, Khala and Rana). This union was organized by the parents of the spouses when Hussein was only five years old. The fate of all the children and grandson of the former President of Iraq was tragic (execution).

The second marriage of the speaker took place in 1988. An imperious and accomplished man fell in love with the wife of the director of the airline. He invited the husband of his beloved to divorce his wife peacefully. And so it happened.

In 1990, Hussein married for the third time. His muse was a woman named Nidal al-Hamdani, but she could not keep a free personality in the family haven.

In 2002, the "father of the people" marries again. This time his love was the minister's 27-year-old daughter, Iman Huveish. During this period, hostilities begin on the part of the United States, so the lovers did not celebrate the wedding loudly and widely. The ceremony was held in a quiet, friendly circle.

There are legends about the love affairs of the Iraqi ruler. It is said that the girls who denied the ex-president intimacy were raped and killed. In the history of the personal life of a controversial personality, a woman named Mansia Khazer is noted. She claimed that their civil marriage lasted for 17 years, but Hussein asked to keep their relationship secret. There are also other ladies who have declared that they have children from Saddam, but it is now difficult to prove this.

Hussein's comrades-in-arms have always considered him only Sajida's legal wife, despite the constant hobbies and "imaginary marriages" of their comrade.

Death

In 2006, the ex-ruler of Iraq was sentenced to death by hanging. On December 30, he was taken to the place of execution. Before his death, Hussein was subjected to various insults and even spitting from the Shiite guards. Saddam tried to object, insisting that he wanted to save the country, but in the last minutes he quieted down and began to pray.

Hussein did not suffer for long, his death was instantaneous. One of the guards managed to capture the horrific sight on video from the phone (there is also a photo), so the whole world saw the execution of a bright historical figure. The media turned the President of Iraq into a despot, a hardline dictator, the embodiment of evil that had to be fought.

After his death, there were rumors that supposedly there was no execution, and Saddam is alive. It was also said that Hussein died back in 1999, and instead of him, a double ruled the country, who could not adequately lead the country out of the crisis and defeat the war. On this topic, based on the book of Latif Yahia, a former Iraqi battalion commander, directed by Lee Tamahori, a film was made in 2011 called The Devil's Double.

Saddam Hussein can be called the most famous dictator of the late 20th century. At the time when the name Osama bin Laden was still known only to specialists, the leader of Iraq was declared the main villain on the planet.

Saddam Hussein at the age of three. 1940 Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org

He has been gone for more than a decade, and peace has not yet come to the land of Iraq. And today, many Iraqis remember the first years of Saddam's rule as a "golden age", forgiving him all the atrocities committed.

Saddam Hussein Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti is a self-made man.

He was born on April 28, 1937 in the village of Al-Auja, 13 km from the Iraqi city of Tikrit, in the family of a landless peasant. Childhood did not bode well for Saddam: his father either died or ran away, his mother was sick, his family lived in poverty. Saddam's stepfather (such was the local tradition) was his father's brother, a former military man. There is conflicting information about the boy’s relationship with his stepfather, but one thing is clear for sure: the dictator’s youth was neither prosperous nor cloudless.

Despite all the troubles, Saddam grew up lively, sociable, and this attracted people to him. He dreamed of a career as an officer, which could pull him out of the very bottom of life.

Revolutionary

Saddam was heavily influenced by his other uncle, Khairallah Tulfah, former military man, nationalist, fighter against the current regime.

In 1952, a revolution took place in Egypt. For 15-year-old Saddam, its leader became an idol Gamal Abdel Nasser. Imitating him, Hussein is headlong involved in underground activities in Iraq. In 1956, 19-year-old Saddam took part in an unsuccessful coup attempt against the king. Faisal II. The following year, he became a member of the Arab Socialist Renaissance Party (Baath), of which his uncle was a supporter.

Saddam Hussein as a young member of the Ba'ath Party (late 1950s) Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org

Iraq at that time was a country of coups, and the Baath activist Saddam Hussein, as an active participant in them, very quickly earns a death sentence in absentia.

But even that doesn't stop him. An energetic young man is gradually making a career in the Baath Party. The activist is hunted, he ends up in prison, runs away and joins the fight again.

By 1966, Hussein was already one of the leaders of the Baath Party, heading the security service.

Iraqi "Beria"

In 1968, the Baathists come to power in Iraq. At the head of the Revolutionary Command Council stands Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr. Saddam is fifth on the list of leaders. But in his hands is a special service that helps to neutralize external and internal enemies.

In 1969, Hussein was already deputy chairman of the Revolutionary Command Council and deputy general secretary of the Ba'ath leadership.

The head of the Iraqi intelligence service, called the "General Intelligence Directorate", in the seventies, Hussein "cleanses" the "Zionists", Kurds, communists, oppositionists in the party. Despite the massacre of the communists, Saddam manages to establish a dialogue with Moscow and sign the Soviet-Iraqi Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation. Baghdad is receiving assistance in re-equipping the army and building industrial facilities.

The nationalization of the oil industry, coupled with high oil prices, allows Iraq to receive huge revenues from the sale of hydrocarbons. At the suggestion of Hussein, they are sent to the social sphere, the construction of new schools, universities, hospitals, as well as the development of local enterprises. During this period, he achieves the highest popularity among the people.

Saddam Hussein (center) promotes literacy among women. 1970s Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org

Friend of Moscow, friend of Washington

July 16, 1979 Saddam Hussein takes the last step to power. Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr, by then only a nominal leader, resigns, and 42-year-old Hussein becomes head of the Revolutionary Command Council, president and prime minister of Iraq.

But Saddam wants more: like his idol Nasser, he dreams of becoming the leader of not one country, but the entire Arab world. Hussein promises neighbors financial assistance and quickly gains authority in the region.

Hussein at that time was a classic secular dictator of a Middle Eastern country. A little more cruel due to a complex biography, with a slightly smaller outlook (he began to receive primary education at the age of 10, and graduated from the military academy, being the second person in the state), but not causing general rejection by his actions.

General Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee Leonid Brezhnev talks with Deputy General Leadership of the Arab Socialist Renaissance (Baath) Party of Iraq, Deputy Chairman of the Revolutionary Command Council of the Republic of Iraq Saddam Hussein. Photo: RIA Novosti / Sobolev

In 1980, Iraq, which has territorial disputes and ideological contradictions with Iran, in which the Islamic revolution took place, enters into a war that will last for almost a decade.

And here Hussein demonstrates miracles of resourcefulness: without breaking pots in the USSR, the leader of Iraq is establishing relations with Western countries. For Washington, which is in a tough conflict with Tehran, Saddam becomes a gift of fate. The United States provides all kinds of assistance to Baghdad and turns a blind eye to Hussein's extermination of his political opponents.

Kuwaiti trap

The Iran-Iraq war dragged on for a long eight years, turned out for both countries with great material losses, huge human casualties, and ended in peace on the conditions that existed before it began.

The war caused great damage to the economy of Iraq and resulted in a serious decline in the standard of living of its citizens. In addition, large loans were taken from other states for the conduct of the war. All this made the position of Hussein's regime rather unstable.

The leader of Iraq was painfully looking for a way out of the crisis. At this time, he remembered the long-standing claims to Kuwait.

During the Iran-Iraq war, Kuwait, frankly fearing the strengthening of Iran and the expansion of its influence in the region, provided Iraq with loans totaling $15 billion. However, after the end of the war, relations between the two countries began to deteriorate.

Iraq accused Kuwait of "stealing" oil from near-border Iraqi fields. By this was meant the use by Kuwait of inclined drilling technologies, which, by the way, were received by the Kuwaitis from the United States.

Kuwait had close ties with the Americans, which Hussein was well aware of. Nevertheless, on August 2, 1990, the Iraqi army launched an invasion of that country.

In the history of Iraq and the biography of Saddam himself, this moment will be a turning point. The United States will declare him an "aggressor" and unleash its military might on Iraq.

Hussein fell into a trap. On July 25, 1990, a week before the invasion of Kuwait, he met with the US Ambassador April Glaspie. The talks also discussed the "Kuwaiti issue." “I have a direct instruction from the President: to seek better relations with Iraq. We do not have a point of view on inter-Arab conflicts, such as your border dispute with Kuwait ... This topic is not connected with America, ”Glaspie said.

These words, according to experts, became a signal for the Iraqi leader to take action.

Why did the US need it? Strengthening the military presence in the oil-rich region near the borders of Iran, US military strategists considered it necessary. However, the deployment of large military forces without good reason could provoke resentment among the Arab countries, which already did not favor the Americans.

Defeated but not overthrown

Another thing is military intervention in order to restore justice and stop the aggression of large Iraq with a powerful army against its small and defenseless neighbor.

On January 17, 1991, the US-led multinational force will begin Operation Desert Storm. After five weeks of massive bombardment during a four-day ground operation, Kuwait will be completely liberated. Up to 15 percent of Iraqi territory will also be occupied.

42 divisions of the Iraqi army were defeated or lost their combat effectiveness, more than 20,000 servicemen were killed, more than 70,000 were captured. In the north of Iraq, the Kurds rebelled, in the south - the Shiites, Saddam lost control over 15 of the 18 provinces of the country.

One more blow was enough, and the regime would have fallen. Hussein, the undisputed culprit of the aggression, was perceived by almost the entire world community as a "legitimate target."

But the last blow did not come. Peace was made and the dictator was allowed to crush the rebels in most of the country. In the south and north of Iraq, the multinational coalition created "no-fly zones", under the protection of which Hussein's opponents created their own governments.

Saddam resigned himself to this, restoring his power in the remaining territory with even more harsh methods.

Iraq lived under sanctions. The regime was required to completely eliminate stocks of weapons of mass destruction. Hussein assured that the requirements were met, and he had no such weapons left.

Saddam Hussein with family. Clockwise from left to right: sons-in-law Hussein and Saddam Kamel, daughter Rana, son Uday, daughter Raghad with son Ali in her arms, daughter-in-law Sahar, son Qusay, daughter Hala, the president and his wife Sajida Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org

An outstanding case of political fraud

The tragedy of September 11, 2001 freed the hands of the United States for any action around the world under the slogan of combating terrorism. The Iraqi leader was accused of links with bin Laden and of developing weapons of mass destruction.

In the UN meeting room, the US Secretary of State Colin Powell waved a test tube, claiming that this is a sample of biological weapons at the disposal of Iraq, and therefore it is necessary to urgently begin an armed invasion of this country.

It was a bluff, an outstanding case of political fraud: there were no biological weapons in vitro or in Iraq, which Powell, as it turned out later, was well aware of. The Americans failed to convince Russia and China, which did not prevent them from starting a new armed invasion of Iraq on March 20, 2003.

By April 12, Baghdad had completely come under the control of the coalition forces, and by May 1, the resistance of the units loyal to Hussein was finally broken. President of the U.S.A George W. Bush rejoiced: the blitzkrieg was a success.

But the country, having lost its dictator, rapidly began to slide into chaos. Internal contradictions have resulted in civil strife, where everyone hates everyone, and most of all, the American occupiers.

Hussein, who fled from Baghdad, no longer played any role in these processes. Behind him was a real hunt.

Saddam Hussein after his arrest, 2003 Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org

Scaffold for the President

On July 22, 2003, American special forces attacked a villa in Mosul where two of Saddam's sons were hiding: Uday and Kusei. Huseynov was taken by surprise, they were offered to surrender, but they accepted the fight. The assault lasted six hours, during which the building was almost completely destroyed, and Saddam's sons were killed.

On December 13, 2003, Saddam Hussein himself was captured. His last refuge was the basement of a village house near the village of Ad-Daur. Filming of a dirty, overgrown old man with a huge beard, who was barely recognizable as the former dictator, spread around the world.

However, once imprisoned, Saddam put himself in order and at the trial, which began on October 19, 2005, looked quite decent.

It was not an international process: Hussein was judged by his political opponents, who became power in Iraq thanks to the occupiers.

Saddam Hussein was not an innocent sheep, and the terrible crimes that were imputed to him did indeed take place. But what is interesting is that most of these episodes took place at a time when Hussein was not only a legitimate leader for Washington, but also a strategic partner. But no one began to understand all these intricacies.

Already in the first episode - the murder of 148 residents of the Shiite village of al-Dujail in 1982 - Saddam Hussein was found guilty and sentenced to death.

In the early hours of December 30, 2006, minutes before Eid al-Adha, the former Iraqi leader was hanged at the Iraqi military intelligence headquarters in the Shia neighborhood of Baghdad, al-Khaderniyya. Those who were present at the execution said that Saddam was calm.

The death of Saddam Hussein, the first state leader to be executed in the 21st century, did not bring happiness and peace to Iraq. International terrorism, the fight against which was declared one of the main goals of the invasion of Iraq, flourished in this land in full bloom. The crimes of the "Islamic State" (a group whose activities are banned on the territory of the Russian Federation), in their cruelty and the number of victims, eclipsed those that were incriminated to the regime of Saddam Hussein.

As they say, everything is known in comparison.

(born in 1937) Iraqi President

Saddam Hussein will probably go down in the history of world politics as the instigator of two conflicts in the Middle East - the war with Iran (1980-1988) and Kuwait (1990-1991).

Saddam Hussein was born in the city of Tikrit into a peasant family. However, he managed to get a good education: first he graduated from Cairo University, and then continued his studies at Muntasiriya University in Baghdad. Saddam Hussein is a lawyer by profession. However, this seemed to him not enough, and almost immediately he also entered the military academy.

In 1957, Hussein joined the Arab Socialist Renaissance Party (PASV). In 1959, when he was only 22 years old, he took part in a plot to assassinate Iraqi Prime Minister General Abdullah Karim Qasem. Hussein was hit by a bullet, but he managed to escape, while he cut the bullet out of his leg with a penknife. He was sentenced to death in absentia, but he fled to Egypt and then to Syria.

His further activities are already directly connected with the party. He works for her various organizations, first outside of Iraq. In 1963, Saddam Hussein returned to his homeland, where he immediately became one of the leaders and organizers of the revolution on July 17, 1968, as a result of which the PASV came to power.

Since that time, Saddam Hussein gradually began to concentrate power in his hands, occupying several leadership positions at once. Since 1968, he has been a member of the Revolutionary Command Council, and from 1969 to 1979 - Deputy Chairman of the Council. In addition, he becomes the general secretary of the regional leadership of the PASV.

In 1976, Hussein appointed himself commander-in-chief of the armed forces of Iraq and prime minister. Using his power, he distributes all the seats in the government among relatives and friends. It remained only to become president, and he becomes one. Since June 16, 1979, Saddam Hussein has been President of the Republic of Iraq, Prime Minister, Chairman of the Revolutionary Command Council and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, as well as Secretary General of the PASP.

In the immensity of power in Iraq, he resembles the ancient monarchs. But the similarities don't end there. Hussein seeks to strengthen his power and influence in the Arab world in every possible way. In 1980, he launched a war against Iran, which ended in vain, because Iran had an exceptionally strong army.

In 1990, Hussein invaded Kuwait, which he declared part of Iraq. Having captured this small country, he wanted to get his hands on the huge oil reserves in it, as well as get convenient access to the sea. However, his aggressive aspirations met with a sharply negative reaction from the entire international community and the UN. The war ended in just two months in 1991, thanks to the intervention of American troops, which brought Hussein's regime to the brink of collapse.

All these wars have claimed millions of lives and led to the destruction of the economy. Nevertheless, even today Hussein is firmly held in power.

The attitude towards him within the country is ambivalent. On the one hand, he causes fear, and on the other hand, admiration, because he was able to resist the forces of the West, primarily the Americans and their allies.

Biography

Saddam Hussein Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti - Iraqi statesman and politician, President of Iraq (1979-2003), Prime Minister of Iraq (1979-1991 and 1994-2003), General Secretary of the Iraqi branch of the Baath Party, Chairman of the Revolutionary Command Council, marshal (1979).

Saddam formally became president in 1979, although he had already been the de facto leader of Iraq for several years prior. After the elimination of all political opponents, mostly left-wing, including the communists, and a year after receiving dictatorial powers as a result of combining all the highest posts, he began a devastating war with Iran that lasted 8 years (1980-1988). During the war, Saddam Hussein ordered Operation Anfal against the Iraqi Kurds, during which Iraqi forces used chemical weapons while cracking down on anti-war activists, mostly members of the Shia community. The war was one of the largest conflicts since the end of the Second World War, resulting in the decline of all sectors of the economy and a sharp decline in the standard of living of the population in both countries. In addition, Iraq found itself in a severe financial crisis due to the accumulation of unpaid debts to foreign creditors. Two years after the end of the war, in 1990, on the initiative of Saddam, there was an Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, which led to the start of an international operation to liberate Kuwait lasting a little over a month, known as the Gulf War, during which Iraqi troops were first driven out of Kuwait, and then completely defeated in Iraq. The country suffered heavy economic and human losses. Due to the defeat of Iraq in the war in 1991, an armed uprising occurred (English) Russian. Shiites and Kurds, brutally suppressed by the government, resulting in the death of at least 100,000 people. Iraq has lost control of several Kurdish regions and much of its airspace as a result of US and allied no-fly zones. But the main damage was incurred from subsequent economic sanctions, which practically paralyzed the Iraqi economy, which by the beginning of the 90s was built exclusively on the sale of energy. After this defeat, Iraq's influence and economy have never been able to recover.

In April 2003, an international coalition led by the United States invaded Iraq and overthrew Saddam Hussein's regime. The basis for the intervention was the Iraqi leader's accusations of supporting international terrorism and developing weapons of mass destruction, which had no factual justification. Saddam himself was captured by US forces and executed on December 30, 2006 by the Iraqi Supreme Court.

Saddam (the Arabic name "Saddam" means "opposing") did not have a surname in the European sense. Hussein is his father's name (nasab), similar to a Russian patronymic; Abd al-Majid is the name of his grandfather, and at-Tikriti is a nisba indicating the city of Tikrit, where Saddam comes from.

Personal life

Childhood, adolescence, youth

Saddam Hussein was born on April 28, 1937 in the village of Al-Auja, 13 km from the Iraqi city of Tikrit, in the family of a landless peasant. His mother, Sabha Tulfan al-Mussalat (Sabha Tulfah or Subha), named the newborn "Saddam" (one of the meanings in Arabic is "one who opposes").

His father - Hussein Abd Al-Majid - according to one version, disappeared 6 months before the birth of Saddam, according to another, he died or left the family. There are persistent rumors that Saddam was generally illegitimate and the father's name was simply invented. In any case, Saddam built a gigantic mausoleum in 1982 for his dead mother. He did nothing of the kind to his father.

The elder brother of the future ruler of Iraq died of cancer at the age of 12. In severe depression, the mother tried to get rid of the pregnancy and even committed suicide. The depression deepened so much that when Saddam was born, she did not want to look at the newborn. Maternal uncle - Khairallah - literally saves the life of his nephew, taking the boy from his mother, and the child lives in his family for several years. After his uncle took an active part in the anti-British uprising and was imprisoned, Saddam was forced to return to his mother. In later years, he asked his mother many times where his uncle was, and received the standard answer: "Uncle Khairallah is in prison." At this time, Saddam's paternal uncle Ibrahim al-Hassan, according to custom, took his mother as his wife, and from this marriage were born three half-brothers of Saddam Hussein - Sabawi, Barzan and Watban, as well as two half-sisters - Nawal and Samira. The family suffered from extreme poverty, and Saddam grew up in an atmosphere of poverty and constant hunger. His stepfather, a former military man, kept a small farm and instructed Saddam to graze cattle. Ibrahim periodically beat the boy and mocked him. So, he periodically beat his nephew with a stick smeared in sticky resin. According to some reports, the stepfather forced the boy to steal chickens and sheep for sale. Eternal need deprived Saddam Hussein of a happy childhood. The humiliation experienced in childhood, as well as the habit of everyday cruelty, largely influenced the formation of Saddam's character. However, the boy, thanks to his sociability, the ability to quickly and easily get along with people, had many friends and good acquaintances, both among peers and among adults.

They told how once distant relatives came to visit their stepfather. With them was a boy, the same age as Saddam. He immediately began boasting that he was in the second grade of a preparatory school, that he already knew how to read, count, and even write his own name in the sand. The wounded Hussein rushed to al-Hasan: "Send me to school, father!" Stepfather once again beat Saddam. In 1947, Saddam, who longed to study, fled to Tikrit to enroll in a school there. Here he was again brought up by his uncle Khairallah Tulfah, a devout Sunni Muslim, nationalist, army officer, veteran of the Anglo-Iraqi War, who by that time had already been released from prison. The latter, according to Saddam himself, had a decisive influence on its formation. In Tikrit, Saddam Hussein finishes school and receives primary education. The teaching was very difficult for a boy who, at the age of ten, could not even write his own name. According to some reports, Saddam preferred to amuse his classmates with simple jokes. For example, once he planted a poisonous snake in the briefcase of a particularly unloved old teacher of the Koran. Hussein was expelled from school for this cheeky joke.

When Saddam was 15 years old, he experienced the first severe shock in his life - the death of his beloved horse. The shock was so strong that the boy's arm was paralyzed. For almost half a month he was treated with a variety of folk remedies, until his hand regained mobility. At the same time, Khairallah moved from Tikrit to Baghdad, where Saddam also moved two years later. Under the influence of his uncle Saddam Hussein in 1953 makes an attempt to enter the elite military academy in Baghdad, but fails the first exam. To continue his studies, he next year enters the al-Karkh school, which was known as a citadel of nationalism and pan-Arabism.

A family

Saddam's first wife was his cousin Sajida (the eldest daughter of his uncle Khairallah Tulfah), who bore him five children: sons Udey and Kusey, as well as daughters Ragad, Rana and Khalu. The parents betrothed their children when Saddam was five years old and Sajida was seven. Before her marriage, Sajida worked as a teacher in elementary schools. They married in Cairo, where Saddam studied and lived after the failed assassination attempt on Qasem (see below). Later, in the garden of one of his palaces, Saddam personally planted a bush of elite white roses, which he named after Sajida and which he cherished very much.

The story of Saddam's second marriage received wide publicity even outside of Iraq. In 1988, he met the wife of the president of Iraq Airways. After a while, Saddam suggested that his husband give his wife a divorce. The marriage was opposed by Saddam's cousin and brother-in-law, Adnan Khairallah, who at that time was Minister of Defense. He soon died in a plane crash.

The third wife of the Iraqi president in 1990 was Nidal al-Hamdani.

In the fall of 2002, the Iraqi leader married for the fourth time, taking as his wife 27-year-old Iman Huweish, the daughter of the country's defense minister. However, the wedding ceremony was rather modest, in a narrow circle of friends. In addition, due to the constant threat of the start of a US military operation against Iraq, Hussein practically did not live with his last wife.

In August 1995, a scandal erupted in Saddam Hussein's family. Siblings General Hussein Kamel and Colonel of the Presidential Guard Saddam Kamel, who were the nephews of Ali Hassan al-Majid, with their wives - the President's daughters Ragad and Rana - unexpectedly fled to Jordan. Here they told the UN experts everything they knew about the internal political situation in the country and about the secret work of Baghdad to create weapons of mass destruction. These events were a heavy blow to Saddam. After all, Saddam used to trust only relatives and countrymen. He promised his sons-in-law, if he returned to his homeland, to have mercy on them. In February 1996, Saddam Kamel and Hussein Kamel returned to Iraq with their families. A few days later, a message followed that angry relatives dealt with the "traitors", and later with their closest relatives. Saddam's personal physician describes how Hussein expressed his position on the fate of his sons-in-law as follows:

Saddam and all members of his family gathered for a festive dinner in one of the presidential palaces in Tikrit.

I gave them a promise not to punish them because they fled to Jordan and betrayed me,” Saddam said ... He paused a little, then looked at the large number of people gathered. Then he turned his gaze to Ali Hasan al-Majid, the son-in-law's uncle.

But this is a family matter.
Uncle nodded. He thought quickly.

During Saddam's rule, information about the presidential family was under strict control. Only after the overthrow of Hussein did home videos from his personal life go on sale. These videos provided the Iraqis with a unique opportunity to reveal the secret of the private life of the man who led them for 24 years.

The sons of Udey and Kusey during the years of Saddam's rule were his most trusted associates. At the same time, the eldest, Uday, was considered too unreliable and unstable, and Kusei was preparing for the role of Saddam Hussein's successor. On July 22, 2003, in northern Iraq, during a four-hour battle with the US military, Uday and Kusey were killed. Saddam's grandson, Qusay's son, Mustafa, also died with them. Some relatives of the ousted president received political asylum in Arab countries. Since then, Saddam never saw his family again, but through his lawyers he knew how they were and what was happening to them.

Cousin and brother-in-law - Arshad Yassin, who was the personal pilot and bodyguard of Saddam Hussein.

Hobbies

It is known that Saddam was an avid gardener and a passionate lover of yachting. He had a weakness for expensive Western costumes, ancient and modern weapons, luxury cars (his first Mercedes was in the Baath Museum). Favorite entertainment - ride with the breeze in a car and smoke a Havana cigar while driving. According to some reports, even before Desert Storm, he had more than two hundred European official suits, most double-breasted, and some of them from the workshop of the famous Pierre Cardin, sets of military uniforms (going to a black beret), as well as Arab tribal capes "jellaba".

The construction of palaces was also Saddam Hussein's passion. During the years of his reign, he erected more than 80 palaces, villas and residences for himself and his relatives. According to Arab media, the ex-president of Iraq owned from 78 to 170 palaces. But Hussein never spent the night twice in one place, fearing attempts on his life. In its ruined palaces, the Americans found thousands of volumes of classical literature in different languages, works on history and philosophy. According to unofficial data, among his books, he gave more preference to Hemingway's story "The Old Man and the Sea." Saddam loved to read and, according to people who knew the Iraqi leader, liked to watch the movie The Godfather and listen to Frank Sinatra songs.

Attitude towards religion

Saddam Hussein professed Sunni Islam, prayed five times a day, fulfilled all the commandments, went to the mosque on Fridays. In August 1980, Saddam, accompanied by prominent members of the country's leadership, made a hajj to Mecca. A chronicle of a visit to Mecca was broadcast to the entire Arab world, where Saddam, dressed in a white robe, performed a ritual circumambulation of the Kaaba, accompanied by the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, Fahd.

Saddam Hussein started in 1997 and finished in 2000 to donate blood to write a copy of the Koran. In total, he donated 28 liters of blood.

Saddam Hussein, despite his Sunni affiliation, paid visits to the spiritual leaders of the Shiites, visited Shiite mosques, allocated large sums from his personal funds for the reconstruction of many Shiite holy places, which caused the favor of the Shiite clergy towards himself and his regime.

personal fortune

The Iraqi leader, according to Forbes magazine for 2003, shared third place with Prince Hans-Adam II of Liechtenstein in the list of the richest rulers in the world. He was second only to King Fahd of Saudi Arabia and the Sultan of Brunei. His personal fortune was estimated at 1 billion 300 million US dollars. After the overthrow of Saddam, Trade Minister in Iraq's transitional government, Ali Alawi, gave a different figure - $40 billion, adding that for many years Hussein received 5% of the country's oil export revenues. The US CIA, together with the FBI and the Treasury Department, even after the fall of Hussein, continued to search for his funds, but they could not find them.

Revolutionary: The beginning of political activity

The Egyptian revolution of July 23, 1952 had a huge impact on the situation in Iraq. Saddam's idol was then Gamal Abdel Nasser, leader of the Egyptian revolution and future president of Egypt, founder and first head of the Arab Socialist Union. In 1956, 19-year-old Saddam took part in an unsuccessful coup attempt against King Faisal II. The following year, he became a member of the Arab Socialist Renaissance Party (Baath), of which his uncle was a supporter.

In 1958, army officers led by General Abdel Kerim Kasem overthrew King Faisal II during an armed uprising. In December of the same year, a high-ranking official of the district administration and a prominent supporter of Qasem was assassinated in Tikrit. On suspicion of committing a crime, the police arrested Saddam, and at the age of 21 he was in prison. According to another version, the uncle instructed his nephew to eliminate one of his rivals, which he did. Saddam Hussein was released six months later for lack of evidence. The Baathists at this time opposed the new government and in October 1959 Saddam took part in the assassination attempt on Qasem. Saddam was not part of the main group of assassins at all, but stood in cover. But his nerves could not stand it, and he, putting the entire operation at risk, opened fire on the general’s car when it was just approaching, was wounded and sentenced to death in absentia. This episode of his life was later overgrown with legends. According to the official version, Saddam, wounded in the shin, rode a horse for four nights, then he pulled out a bullet lodged in his leg with a knife, the stormy Tiger swam under the stars, reached his native village of al-Auja, where he hid.

From al-Auja, disguised as a Bedouin, he went on a motorcycle (according to another version, he stole a donkey) through the desert to the capital of Syria, Damascus, at that time the main center of Baathism.

On February 21, 1960, Saddam arrived in Cairo, where he studied for a year at the Qasr al-Nil High School, and then, having received a matriculation certificate, entered the Faculty of Law at Cairo University, where he studied for two years. In Cairo, Saddam grew from an ordinary party functionary into a prominent party figure, becoming a member of the Ba'ath leadership committee in Egypt. One of his biographers describes this time as follows:

Saddam did not shy away from nightlife, spent a lot of time playing chess with friends, but also read a lot.

In 1963, after the overthrow of the Qasem regime by the Ba'ath Party, Saddam returned to Iraq, where he became a member of the Central Peasants' Bureau. At the 6th All-Arab Congress of the Baath Party in Damascus, he delivered a poignant speech in which he sharply criticized the activities of Ali Salih al-Saadi, the general secretary of the Iraqi Baath Party since 1960. A month later, on November 11, 1963, on the recommendation of the all-Arab congress of the Baath Party, the regional congress of the Iraqi Baath Party released al-Saadi from the post of general secretary of the party, making him responsible for the crimes committed during the months the Baathists were in power. Saddam Hussein's activities at the pan-Arab congress made a strong impression on the party's founder and general secretary, Michel Aflaq. Since that time, strong ties have been established between them, which were not interrupted until the death of the founder of the party.

Seven days later, the Iraqi army, under the leadership of General Aref, removed the Ba'athists from power. Saddam, in conditions of deep underground, set about creating a virtually new party. In February of the following year, the all-Arab Baath leadership decided to create a new Iraqi Baath leadership consisting of five people, among whom were General Ahmed Hasan al-Bakr, popular in the country, and Saddam Hussein, who was included in the regional leadership on the recommendation of Aflaq. After two unsuccessful attempts to seize power in Baghdad, Saddam was arrested, shackled and imprisoned in solitary confinement. He spent some time in prison.

In July 1966, Saddam's escape was organized, and in September Hussein was elected Deputy Secretary General of the Iraqi Baath Party, Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr. He was instructed to head a special apparatus of the party under the code name "Jihaz Khanin". It was a secret apparatus, consisting of the most dedicated personnel and dealing with intelligence and counterintelligence.

Party leader

Second person in state

On July 17, 1968, the Baath Party came to power in Iraq in a bloodless coup. According to the official version, Saddam was in the first tank that stormed the presidential palace. Baghdad radio announced another coup. This time, the Ba'ath Party "took power and put an end to the corrupt and weak regime, which was represented by a cabal of ignorant, illiterate greed, thieves, spies and Zionists."

President Abdel Rahman Aref (brother of the deceased President Abdel Salam Aref) was sent into exile in London. Having come to power, the Baathists immediately began to get rid of potential rivals. 14 days after the coup, the conspirators Nayef, Daoud and Nasser al-Khani, who were part of the Arab Revolutionary Movement, were removed from power. Power was concentrated in the hands of al-Bakr.

After coming to power in the country, the Ba'ath Party formed the Revolutionary Command Council, headed by Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr. Saddam Hussein was number 5 on the Council's list. Saddam, al-Bakr's deputy in the party and state lines, was responsible for internal security in the country, in other words, oversaw the party and state secret services. Control over the intelligence services allowed Saddam Hussein to concentrate real power in his hands. Beginning in the fall of 1968, a series of large-scale "purges" were carried out by the Iraqi intelligence services, which resulted in the arrest of many individuals who, in the opinion of the Baath, could pose a threat to it, as well as a number of prominent figures of the Baath itself. The so-called "Zionist conspiracy" uncovered by Saddam received particular notoriety. For many Jews accused of collaborating with the Israeli secret services, gallows were built in the squares of Baghdad and public executions began. Huge crowds of people danced in the streets, celebrating the death sentences of "traitors".

In 1969, Saddam graduated from Muntasiriya University in Baghdad with a law degree and took the positions of Vice Chairman of the Revolutionary Command Council and Deputy Secretary General of the Ba'ath leadership. In 1971-1978, with a break, he studied at the military academy in Baghdad.

On August 8, 1971, the death warrant was read to 22 members of the Ba'ath Party and former ministers. In 1973, Saddam reorganized the intelligence service, giving it the name "General Intelligence Directorate" ("Da'irat al Mukhabarat al Amah"). There is numerous evidence that the secret services under the leadership of Saddam used torture (electric shock, hanging prisoners by the hands, etc.), and, according to the human rights organization Human Rights Watch, jailers were rewarded for using torture.

Saddam himself, when asked by a Newsweek correspondent about torture and executions, answered with surprise: “Of course, this is all there. And what do you think should be done with those who oppose the government? In a 2001 report, the non-governmental organization Amnesty International described the methods used in Saddam's prisons as follows: “Victims of torture were blinded, their clothes were torn off and they were hung from their wrists for long hours. Electric shocks were applied to various parts of their bodies, including their genitals, ears, tongue and fingers… Some victims were forced to watch their relatives and family members being tortured in front of them.” As the Washington Post writes, at present, Iraqi jailers “out of habit” continue to use the same “interrogation methods” as under Saddam: electric shock, hanging prisoners by the hands (American soldiers also use torture), however, such "eccentric forms of torture favored by Saddam Hussein" like acid, sexual assault, mass executions are abolished.

It is worth noting that many of the methods of torture that were used in Saddam's Iraq are widely used under the current Iraqi authorities (not only by "former jailers", but also by employees of other law enforcement agencies, including soldiers of the international coalition).

As UN rapporteur on torture Manfred Nowak noted in 2006:

Most people say that the situation with torture in Iraq is absolutely out of control. The situation is so dire that many say it is worse now than it was under Saddam Hussein.

According to Yevgeny Primakov, both the USSR and the USA staked on Saddam as a promising leader.

On the way to power. Foreign policy

An important milestone on Saddam's path to a leading position in the party and state was the signing of an agreement between him and Mustafa Barzani on March 11, 1970, which proclaimed the autonomy of Iraqi Kurdistan and, as it seemed, put an end to the bloody 9-year war with the Kurdish rebels. Having consolidated his position thanks to this treaty, Saddam Hussein in the next two years concentrated almost unlimited power in his hands, increasingly pushing the nominal head of the party and state, Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr, into the background.

After the planned assassination attempt on the life of the leader of the Kurdish resistance by the Iraqi authorities, Mullah Mustafa Barzani stated:

Iraq is a police state ruled by Saddam Hussein who has megalomania and an obsessive desire for power. He eliminated Hardan and Ammash, he tried to eliminate me, he will eliminate Bakr.

In February 1972, Saddam Hussein makes a visit to Moscow; The result of this visit and a return visit to Baghdad by Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR Alexei Kosygin was the signing on April 9 of the Soviet-Iraqi Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation, which provided comprehensive Soviet support to the Iraqi regime. Relying on this support, Saddam Hussein nationalized the oil industry, rearmed the Iraqi army, and finally "resolved" the Kurdish problem by liquidating the Kurdish national liberation movement. To achieve the latter goal, he had to endure fierce fighting with the Kurdish rebels (March 1974 - March 1975), who enjoyed the support of Iran. Saddam managed to achieve victory over them only by signing the Algiers Agreement with the Iranian Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi on March 6, 1975.

Modernization of the country

Huge revenues from oil exports have made it possible to implement large-scale reforms (many under the direct leadership of Saddam Hussein) in the field of the economy and in the social sphere. Saddam came up with a program of reforms, the goal of which was formulated briefly: "a strong economy, a strong army, a strong leadership." Trying to cope with the shortcomings of the socialist economy, Saddam decided to encourage the development of the private sector. By the mid-1970s, he was stimulating entrepreneurs in every possible way and increasingly attracting private companies, local and foreign, to government development programs. Across the country, universities and schools were being built, highways and power plants, water pipes and sewerage systems, small and large houses. Multidisciplinary and specialized hospitals were opened. A system of universal education and health care was created. Under Saddam's leadership, an intensive campaign against illiteracy began. The result of Saddam's campaign to combat illiteracy was an increase in the literacy rate of the population from 30 to 70 percent, according to this indicator, Iraq became the leader among the Arab countries. However, there are other data showing that in 1980 (at the height of the campaign) the adult illiteracy rate (over 15 years old) in Iraq was 68.5 percent, and a decade later (1990) - 64.4 percent. In accordance with the statement of the Revolutionary Command Council of March 11, 1970 on a peaceful democratic settlement of the Kurdish problem, a department of Kurdish education was created in the Ministry of Education. Electrification is being carried out, and the road network has been significantly increased. The standard of living in Iraq has become one of the highest in the Middle East. Iraq has created one of the most advanced healthcare systems in the Middle East. Saddam's popularity grew every year.

After nationalizing foreign oil interests, Saddam set about modernizing the countryside by mechanizing agriculture on a large scale, as well as allocating land to the peasants. According to estimates by international banks and other financial institutions (IBRD, IMF, Deutsche Bank and others), Iraq has a very large foreign exchange reserve of $30-35 billion. As a result of the economic boom in Iraq, a significant number of migrants from Arab and other Asian countries. Qualified foreign specialists were invited to manage some high-tech processes in the construction and manufacturing industries. The American researcher Turner wrote:

The money that poured into the treasury after 1973 in ever-increasing amounts from the oil industry, nationalized in 1971, is successfully used to develop the country's resources. In particular, an excellent system of free education was introduced. Women enjoy unrestricted economic rights. A comprehensive program for improving social welfare and centralized economic planning were established. The latifundist system of large-scale landownership has been broken, and the land has been distributed among the peasants. The percentage of successful government actions in these areas is surprisingly high.

By the early 1980s, Iraq became, along with Egypt, the most developed state in the Arab world.

The End of the Power Struggle

Saddam Hussein, meanwhile, consolidated his power by promoting relatives and allies to key roles in government and business. In 1976, having eliminated the most influential Baathists in the army - General Hardan al-Tikriti and Colonel Salih Mahdi Ammash, Hussein set about the total "Baathization" of the country - ideological and administrative. Saddam started with the state apparatus, merging it with the party one. There was a "cleansing" in the army: all officers disloyal to the regime were fired or sent to serve in Kurdistan, and only party members were admitted to military academies and colleges. The Jihaz Khanina functionaries destroyed all independent factions and groups within the Baath itself. The "Ba'athization" of the army, as conceived by Saddam, was intended to create an "ideological army" aimed at protecting the power of the party. With the help of the secret service, Saddam managed to cope with the security forces opposing him in the party and government, put loyal people (mainly from the related Tikrit clan) in key positions, and establish control over the most important levers of government.

By 1977, the provincial party organizations, secret services, army commanders and ministers already reported directly to Saddam. In May 1978, 31 communists and a number of individuals accused by Saddam of complicity in the creation of party cells in the army were executed. Saddam declared the communists "foreign agents", "traitors to the Iraqi homeland", arrested almost all representatives of the ICP in the PPF and banned all publications of the ICP. Thus, the front ceased even its formal existence and the ICP went underground, and a one-party system was established in the country. Real power shifted more and more tangibly from al-Bakr to Saddam Hussein.

On July 16, 1979, President al-Bakr resigned, allegedly due to illness (it was alleged that he was placed under house arrest). His successor was announced as Saddam Hussein, who also headed the regional leadership of the Baath Party. In fact, Saddam Hussein thus arrogated dictatorial powers to himself. The General Secretary of the Revolutionary Command Council, Abd al-Hussein Maskhadi, was immediately arrested, who, under torture, testified about a gigantic conspiracy allegedly arose in the Baath in favor of Syria. At a party congress held two days later, Maskhadi was taken to the podium, and he pointed out 60 delegates as his accomplices, who were immediately arrested.

President of Iraq

After becoming president, Saddam began to talk more and more about the special mission of Iraq in the Arab and "third" world, claiming the laurels of a pan-Arab leader of such magnitude as AbdelGamal Nasser. At a conference of non-aligned countries in Havana in 1979, Hussein promised to provide developing countries with long-term interest-free loans equal to the amount received from the increase in oil prices, thereby causing an enthusiastic ovation from the audience (and indeed gave about a quarter of a billion dollars - the difference in prices in 1979 ).

As already noted, by the time Saddam took office, Iraq was a rapidly developing country with one of the highest living standards in the Middle East. The two wars initiated by Saddam and the international sanctions caused by the second of them brought the Iraqi economy into a state of acute crisis. As a result, as the BBC notes:

In 1991, the UN announced that Iraq had become a state of the pre-industrial period, and the reports of the following years showed that the standard of living in the country had fallen to the subsistence level.

By the beginning of 2002, 95% of the vital industrial enterprises operating in 1990 had been restored.

Iran–Iraq War

Upon coming to power, Saddam Hussein immediately faced a serious threat to his rule from neighboring Iran. Ayatollah Khomeini, the leader of the Islamic revolution that had won in Iran, was going to spread it to other countries of the Persian Gulf; in addition, he had a personal grudge against Saddam Hussein. Iran began to support the underground Shiite group Ad-Daawa al-Islamiya, which launched a campaign of assassination attempts and terrorist acts against representatives of the Iraqi leadership.

Saddam Hussein decided to launch a limited military operation against Iran in order to force the Iranian government to stop hostilities. The pretext for starting the war was Iran's failure to fulfill its obligations under the 1975 Algiers Agreement, according to which Iran was to transfer certain border territories to Iraq. After a series of clashes on the border on September 22, 1980, the Iraqi army invaded the territory of a neighboring country. The offensive failed almost immediately; after long fierce battles, the Iraqi army occupied Khorramshahr, but was stopped near Abadan, which they could not take. As a result of the mobilization of Iranian society to fight the aggressor, the Iraqi offensive was stopped by December. In 1982, Iraqi troops were driven out of Iranian territory, and the fighting was already transferred to Iraqi territory. The war entered a protracted phase, with Iraq and Iran using chemical weapons, rocket attacks on cities, and attacks on third-country tankers in the Persian Gulf by both sides. In August 1988, the Iran-Iraq war, which cost both sides huge human and material losses, actually ended on the terms of the status quo. Saddam Hussein announced the victory of Iraq, on the occasion of which the famous Swords of Qadisiyah arches were erected in Baghdad. And the very day of the end of the war on August 9 was declared by Hussein "the day of the great victory." Festivities began in the country, during which the president was called the savior of the nation.

During the war, Saddam's attempt to obtain nuclear weapons was also thwarted: on June 7, 1981, an Israeli air raid destroyed a nuclear reactor purchased by Saddam in France.

The West feared the rise of Ayatollah Khomeini's radical Islamism and did everything possible to prevent an Iranian victory. In 1982, the US removed Iraq from the list of countries supporting terrorism. Two years later, bilateral diplomatic relations, interrupted during the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, were restored. At the same time, Iraq continued to be an ally of the USSR and receive weapons from it. However, several Western countries, including Great Britain, France and the United States, also supplied weapons and military equipment to Baghdad. The US provided Saddam not only with intelligence on his adversary and billions of dollars in loans, but also with materials to build chemical weapons.

anfal

After the Islamic Revolution in Iran, the Kurds living there took up arms. In the context of the war between Iran and Iraq, the Iranian Kurds received a valuable ally in Saddam Hussein. In response, Tehran began to provide aid in money and weapons to the Iraqi Kurds. In the fight against his internal enemies, Saddam in 1982 concluded an agreement with Turkey on a joint fight against the Kurds. This agreement gave Turkish and Iraqi units the right to pursue Kurdish militants in each other's territory for 17 km. At the same time, Kurdish rebels under the command of Mustafa's son Barzani Masoud regrouped their combat units and established control over most of the border mountainous regions in the north and northeast of the country. In an effort to defeat the Kurdish resistance in northern Iraq, Saddam sent a huge military force to Kurdistan. This was also due to the fact that the Iranian army, with the support of the Iraqi Kurds, launched military operations in Northern Iraq.

During the war, Saddam Hussein carried out a military special operation to clean up the northern regions of Iraq from the Kurdish Peshmerga rebel detachments, called Anfal, during which up to 182 thousand Kurds (mainly men, but also a number of women and children) were taken out in an unknown direction and, as it turned out, shot: with the fall of the Saddam regime, their graves began to be discovered. Earlier, in 1983, all the men of the Barzan tribe, starting from the age of 15, were destroyed in a similar way - 8 thousand people. Some Kurdish girls were sold into slavery in Egypt and other Arab countries. A number of Kurdish villages and the city of Halabja were also bombarded with chemical bombs (5 thousand people died in Halabja alone). In total, 272 settlements suffered from the effects of chemical weapons. The UN adopted a resolution condemning Iraq's use of chemical weapons. However, the governments of the United States and other Western countries continued to support Baghdad both politically and militarily until almost the very end of the Iran-Iraq war. In addition, during the operation, almost all villages and small towns in Kurdistan (3900) were destroyed, and 2 million people from the 4 million population of Iraqi Kurdistan were resettled in the so-called "model villages" - in fact, concentration camps.

interwar time

The end of the 1980s for the region of the Near and Middle East passed under the sign of an obvious decline in tension, which was associated primarily with the cessation of the Iran-Iraq war. After the ceasefire, Iraq began to provide military assistance to the commander of the armed forces of Lebanon, General Michel Aoun, who opposed the Syrian army stationed on Lebanese territory. Thus, Saddam Hussein tried to weaken the position of Syrian President Hafez al-Assad and expand and strengthen his influence in the region. The rapid growth of Iraq's weight in the region has made its longtime allies wary. Created in the midst of the confrontation between Baghdad and Tehran, the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Persian Gulf (GCC), headed by Saudi Arabia, sought to restore parity between Iraq and Iran so as not to become dependent on either one or the other. The small countries of the Gulf, after the end of the war, hastily set about restoring relations with Iran. Under the new conditions, Hussein decided to accelerate the re-equipment of the army with modern weapons and develop the military industry. As a result, in just two post-war years, he managed to create the largest military machine in the Arab East. Almost a million Iraqi army, equipped with modern weapons, has become one of the largest in the world (4th largest). At the same time, due to repressions against the Kurds, the attitude of Western countries towards Iraq began to change.

On February 16, 1989, at the initiative of Saddam Hussein, an agreement was signed in Baghdad on the creation of a new regional organization - the Arab Cooperation Council, which included Iraq, Jordan, Yemen and Egypt. At the same time, the king of Saudi Arabia is invited to Baghdad, and during his visit, the Iraqi-Saudi non-aggression pact is signed. From the second half of 1989, the Iraqi press began a large-scale propaganda campaign against the policies of the GCC countries in OPEC, accusing them of being guilty of OPEC not going to increase Iraq's quota and thus blocking the recovery of the Iraqi economy.

Saddam's personal popularity peaked at the beginning of the Arab summit meeting in Baghdad in May 1990, where he called on the participants to form a united front against Western aggression, emphasizing the importance of greater Arab coordination. However, instead of creating a united front led by Baghdad, the meeting showed signs that other Arab governments were ready to challenge Saddam's claim to leadership. Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak did not share this call, saying that "the Arab mission must be humane, logical and realistic, free from exaggeration of its role and intimidation." The Egyptian-Iraqi rapprochement after that came to naught. On August 15, Hussein addressed the President of Iran with a proposal for an immediate conclusion of peace. Iraqi troops were withdrawn from the Iranian territories they occupied, and at the same time the exchange of prisoners of war began. In October, diplomatic relations were resumed between Baghdad and Tehran.

Invasion of Kuwait

As a result of the war with Iran, the Iraqi economy suffered significant damage. During the eight years of hostilities, an external debt was formed, estimated at about $80 billion. The country did not have the opportunity to repay it; on the contrary, additional financial receipts were required for the restoration of industry. In this situation, Saddam Hussein saw potential prerequisites for the emergence of social instability and, as a result, a threat to his regime. He assumed that he would be able to solve the social and economic problems of the country that had accumulated during the war in a short time, relying on the help of the Arab countries that had sided with him during the war, and above all the countries of the GCC. However, it soon became obvious that no one was going to forgive him a large debt, and even more so to continue gratuitous financial assistance. On several occasions, Saddam asked the Arab countries to write off Iraq's debts and provide new loans, but these appeals were largely ignored.

In July 1990, Iraq accused neighboring Kuwait of waging an economic war against it and of illegally extracting oil from the Iraqi side of the Rumaila border oil field. Indeed, Kuwait has been exceeding its OPEC oil production quotas for some time now, and thereby contributed to the decline in world oil prices, which deprived Iraq of a certain part of the profits from oil exports. However, there is no evidence that Kuwait was pumping oil from Iraqi territory. The Kuwaiti side was in no hurry to provide Iraq with the compensation it required ($2.4 billion), preferring to start negotiations with the aim of softening Iraqi demands as much as possible. Saddam Hussein's patience wore out, and on August 2, 1990, the Iraqi army invaded and occupied Kuwait. On August 8, the annexation of the country was announced, which became the 19th province of Iraq under the name Al-Saddamiya.

The invasion of Kuwait caused unanimous condemnation of the world community. Sanctions were imposed on Iraq, and an international coalition was created under a UN mandate, in which the United States played the leading role, with the support of all NATO countries and moderate Arab regimes. Having concentrated a powerful military grouping in the Indian Ocean and the Persian Gulf, the United States and its allies conducted Operation Desert Storm, defeating Iraqi troops and liberating Kuwait (January 17 - February 28, 1991).

The success of the coalition forces caused a general uprising against the regime, both in the Shiite south and in the Kurdish north of Iraq, so that at some point the rebels controlled 15 out of 18 Iraqi provinces. Saddam suppressed these uprisings using the Republican Guard units released after the peace. Government troops attacked the most important Shiite shrines and mosques where the rebels gathered. Western journalists who visited Karbala after the suppression of the uprising testified: "At a distance of five hundred yards from two shrines (the tombs of Imam Hussein and his brother Abbas), the destruction resembled London at the height of its bombing by German aircraft during the Second World War." The suppression of the uprising was accompanied by torture and mass executions of Shiite Muslims, executions of those suspected of opposition activities in stadiums or using helicopters. Having dealt with the Shiites, Baghdad sent troops against the Kurds. They quickly pushed the Kurds out of the cities. Aviation bombed villages, roads, places of accumulation of refugees. Tens of thousands of civilians rushed to the mountains, where many of them died from cold and hunger. During the suppression of the Kurdish uprising, more than 2 million Kurds became refugees. The brutality with which the regime cracked down on the rebels led the coalition to introduce "no-fly zones" in the south and north of Iraq and launch a humanitarian intervention (Operation Provide Comfort) in northern Iraq. In the fall of 1991, Iraqi troops left three northern provinces (Erbil, Dahuk, Sulaimaniya), where a Kurdish government (the so-called "Free Kurdistan") was created under the cover of international troops. Meanwhile, in the areas that returned under his rule, Saddam continued the policy of repression: this applied both to Kirkuk and other regions of Kurdistan, where "Arabization" (the expulsion of Kurds with the transfer of their homes and lands to Arabs) continued, and in the Shiite south, where shelters the rebels - the swamps at the mouth of the Shatt al-Arab - were drained, and the tribes of the "marsh Arabs" living there were evicted to specially built and completely controlled villages.

Despite the victory of the international coalition, sanctions (both military and economic) were not lifted from Iraq. Iraq was given the condition that tough economic sanctions against it would continue until the complete elimination of all weapons of mass destruction, including nuclear, chemical and biological. Representatives of international organizations were sent to Iraq to monitor the possible production and storage of weapons of mass destruction. The sanctions regime was somewhat softened in 1996, when the UN Oil for Food program was adopted, which provided for the sale of Iraqi oil under UN control, followed by the purchase (by the same organization) of food, medicine, etc. This program, however, became a source of corruption both for the UN administration and for Saddam Hussein himself.

Cult of personality

At the Baghdad airport, named after Saddam Hussein, portraits of the country's president were hung out, and the inscription: "Allah and the president are with us, down with America" ​​was painted on the concrete columns of the city's railway station.

Saddam Hussein ordered that every tenth brick used in the restoration of the ancient buildings of Babylon be marked with his name. So, as a result of this order, the ancient palace of King Nebuchadnezzar was rebuilt: the name of Saddam was imprinted on the bricks.

On the bricks of many palaces in the era of Saddam Hussein, his signature or an eight-pointed star with the words "Built in the era of Saddam Hussein" was affixed.

In 1991, the country adopted a new flag of Iraq. Hussein personally wrote the phrase "Allah Akbar" on the flag. In addition to this phrase, three stars were imprinted on the flag, symbolizing unity, freedom and socialism - the slogan of the Baath Party. In this form, the flag lasted until 2004, when the new Iraqi government decided to get rid of it, as another reminder of the era of Saddam Hussein.

During the reign of Saddam Hussein in Iraq, many of his statues and portraits were installed, monuments to Hussein stood in all state institutions. The first such monument was unveiled in Baghdad on November 12, 1989. A great many monuments were erected along the streets of Baghdad, in almost any institution or building, even on fences, shops and hotels. The portrait of the leader of the country was depicted in a variety of forms and forms, Saddam could be in a marshal's uniform or a strict suit of a statesman, against the backdrop of hydroelectric dams or smoking chimneys of factories, in a coat with a rifle in his hands, in the clothes of a peasant or a Bedouin, etc. Assistant and the speechwriter of the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the USSR Shevardnadze Teimuraz Stepanov, who visited Iraq with him in early 1989, wrote in his diary: “Baghdad clearly ranks first in the world (ahead of Pyongyang and Damascus) in the number of portraits of the first person of the state.”

Huge portraits of Saddam in attire and entourage corresponding to the activities of this or that ministry hung on all ministries of the country. On key rings, hairpins, playing cards and wristwatches - almost everywhere, over time, a portrait of Saddam Hussein appeared. About the extraordinary courage of Saddam Hussein, novels were written and films were made.

On television, the obligatory presence in the corner of the screen of the image of Saddam Hussein against the backdrop of the mosque was established. When it was time for the next prayer, the reading of the Koran was certainly accompanied by the image of the praying president. And since 1998, a new mosque has been opened annually on the birthday of the leader.

The Iraqi media were supposed to present Saddam as the father of the nation, the builder of schools and hospitals. In many video footage from his reign, Iraqis can be seen simply approaching the president and kissing his hands or himself. Schoolchildren sang hymns of praise and recited odes celebrating the life of the president. At school, the first page of textbooks featured a portrait of Saddam, while the rest of the pages, covered with portraits of Saddam Hussein and his quotes, praised the leader and the Baath Party. Articles in newspapers and scientific works began and ended with the glorification of the president.

Many institutions, weapons and even areas have been named after Saddam Hussein: Saddam International Airport, Saddam Stadium, Saddam Hussein Bridge (renamed Imam Hussein Bridge in 2008), Baghdad's Saddam City, Al-Hussein missiles (formerly Scud), Saddam Hussein University (now Al-Nahrain University), Saddam Arts Center, Saddam Dam, and even April 28 Street (named after Saddam's birthday; renamed in 2008 to Street "Al-Salhiya"). Captured Kuwait was declared the 19th province of Iraq under the name "Al-Saddamiya".

Since Saddam Hussein was considered the "father of the nation", he started a special telephone through which citizens could "consult" with him, express their claims. True, after some time it was canceled.

Image of Saddam on Iraqi money

One of the most striking manifestations of Saddam's personality cult was the printing of banknotes and the issuance of coins with his image. For the first time coins with the image of Saddam appeared in 1980. Since 1986, the portrait of the Iraqi president began to be printed on all banknotes of the country. Throughout the reign of Saddam Hussein, two currencies were in circulation in Iraq - old and new dinars. Dinars with Saddam were finally introduced after the Gulf War (1991). Dinars of the old sample are the main currency of the autonomous region in the north of Iraq - Kurdistan.

Museum of Gifts to Saddam Hussein

After becoming president of Iraq, Saddam opened a museum of his gifts in Baghdad. The building was located in the center of Baghdad, in a tower known as the Baghdad Clock. Next to the museum is the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and the square where military parades were held during the reign of Saddam Hussein. All gifts, as well as some of Saddam's personal belongings, were placed in five halls, each of which was dedicated to a specific topic: weapons, author's works, orders, jewelry and paintings.

In 1997, on his sixtieth birthday, Hussein commissioned a group of calligraphers to write the text of the Holy Quran using his own blood instead of ink. As you know, the Koran contains about 336 thousand words. This book took almost three years to write. On the day of his 63rd birthday, at a solemn ceremony held at the Dar al-Nasr presidential palace in Baghdad, the desired gift was presented to Saddam Hussein.

On the birthday of the President of Iraq, the queue of those eager to present a gift to their leader stretched for several hundred meters to the Saddam Hussein Museum. For the people of Iraq, this date was celebrated as a national holiday: on August 26, 1985, the birthday of Saddam Hussein began to be officially celebrated throughout the country as the President's Day holiday. A military parade, a demonstration of workers were indispensable attributes of this day.

Saddam Hussein medals

Medals belonging to Saddam Hussein glorified both him and his merits. In particular, some of them praise the Iraqi president for conducting the "mother of all battles" in Kuwait or for "putting down the Kurdish uprising." However, the medals praise not only the military prowess of Hussein. Some are given for their services in oil refining, others for an open cement plant. The "religiosity" of Saddam's reign was expressed in the medal "Fight in the Name of Allah". One insignia wishes the president a "long life." To reward Saddam Hussein in Iraq, they established the "Order of the People", made of pure gold with diamonds and emeralds.

Knowledge of the biography

On February 12, 2000, President Saddam Hussein, as the leader of the ruling Baath Party, expelled from its ranks several members of the party who did not pass the exam on knowledge of his biography. Those who failed the exam were considered unworthy to hold responsible positions and posts in party and state structures.

Saddam - writer

Saddam Hussein wrote several works of poetry during the last years of his reign, as well as prose. He is the author of two novels about love. Of these, the most popular is the anonymously published (under the pseudonym "Son of the Fatherland") novel "Zabiba and the Tsar", written in 2000. The action takes place in a certain Arab kingdom many centuries ago. The hero is the king: all-powerful, but lonely. And on his way there is a beautiful and wise girl Zabiba. He is fascinated by her, but their happiness is destroyed by a foreign invasion. Barbarians are destroying a kingdom that was the cradle of civilization. Zabiba is brutally raped. This happens on January 17 (January 17, 1991, the first Gulf War began). Iraqi critics sang hymns to Saddam's poetry and prose and praised his work as the pinnacle of Arabic literature. The book immediately became a bestseller and was included in the compulsory school curriculum. Attentive readers of Hussein's work were also CIA analysts who doubted that Hussein was the author of the work. Despite these speculations, they tried to penetrate his mind by deciphering the Arabic script of his poems and novels. In the last months before the invasion, Saddam Hussein wrote a novel called The Death Curse. The narrative covers the history of Iraq from antiquity to the present day.

During the three years spent in an American prison, Saddam Hussein wrote not one poem, but entire cycles. At the very first court session, Hussein wrote a short poem:

Stand up proudly, take gunpowder as a dowry.
A wrong step is not terrible - there is time ahead.
Our resolve is a hidden fire
And behind the first trench there is a second trench.

He wrote poetry to his jailers and court. After the death sentence was read to him, he sat down to write his last poem, which became his testament to the Iraqi people. Saddam Hussein is also the author of a number of works on military strategy and a 19-volume autobiography.

Saddam and the Iraqi people

The UN sanctions imposed after the 1991 war caused enormous economic damage to Iraq. Destruction and famine reigned in the country: residents experienced a lack of electricity and drinking water, sewerage systems were destroyed in many areas (30% of rural residents lost modern sewage) and water treatment plants (half of the rural population did not have clean drinking water). Intestinal diseases, including cholera, were widespread. In 10 years, child mortality has doubled, and a third of children under the age of five suffer from chronic diseases. By May 1996, the country's health and economic situation had deteriorated, and the health care system had been destroyed. In this environment, Saddam Hussein was forced to agree to most of the UN conditions, including the appropriation of 1/3 of Iraq's income from permitted oil exports to pay compensation to the victims of the Gulf War, as well as the allocation of up to $150 million to allowances for Kurdish refugees. In 1998, program coordinator Denis Halliday resigned, stating that the sanctions had failed as a concept and only hit innocent people. His successor Hans von Sponeck resigned in 2000, saying the sanctions regime had resulted in "a real human tragedy." The difficult economic situation of the country and the regime of hard power forced many people to leave the country.

According to a 2001 report by the Human Rights Alliance France, between 3 and 4 million Iraqis fled the country during Saddam's rule (then Iraq's population: 24 million). According to the United Nations Commission on Refugees, Iraqis were the second largest refugee group in the world.

Witnesses describe brutal reprisals against civilians without trial or investigation. During the war with Iran, massacres of Shiite Muslims were common. Thus, a woman from Najaf reports that her husband was killed because he refused to support the invasion of Iran in prayer. The authorities killed her brother, and she herself had her teeth knocked out. Her children, aged 11 and 13, were sentenced to 3 and 6 months' imprisonment respectively. There is also evidence that soldiers tied explosives to the "accused" and then blew them up alive.

On the other hand, for the Iraqis themselves, the era of Saddam Hussein has become associated with a period of stability and security. One of the Iraqi school teachers noted that during Saddam Hussein's time "there was also a huge gap between the ruling class and the common people in terms of living standards, but the country lived in security and people were proud to be Iraqis."

In the field of education, the state provided in Iraq free and universal secular education at all stages, from kindergarten to university. At the beginning of 1998, up to 80% of the population could read and write.

Assassinations and conspiracies

During the years of his reign, Saddam Hussein was assassinated more than once. In most cases, the organizers were military or opposition movements. Thanks to the effective measures of the Iraqi intelligence services, all attempts at a conspiracy were suppressed, but not always successfully. Often, members of the president's family became the targets of the conspirators; So in 1996, an attempt was made on the eldest son of Hussein Udey, as a result of which he was paralyzed and could only walk with a cane for several years. The most notorious coup and assassination attempts on Saddam include:

On July 8, 1982, on the highway passing near the village of Al-Dujail, unknown militants made an unsuccessful attempt on the President of Iraq. Saddam Hussein miraculously survived, 11 of his bodyguards were killed. As a result, hundreds of villagers were arrested, of which 250 people went missing, 1,500 were imprisoned, and 148 of them (all Shia Muslims) were sentenced to death and executed.

In 1987, members of the Daawa party attacked the Iraqi president's motorcade - ten of his guards were killed, but Hussein was not injured.

At the end of 1988, there was an attempt to assassinate the president and organize a coup, thanks to the security system, it failed. Several dozen officers were executed who tried to carry it all out.

In September 1989, at a military parade, a T-72 without a number with a loaded gun joined the tank columns. The tank managed to pass the barriers. But when 50 meters remained to the podium, the tank was stopped. Soon 19 conspiring officers were executed.

In 1996, with the support of the CIA, the Iraqi National Accord attempted to organize a coup in Iraq. $120 million was provided for the operation, but the plot was uncovered. On June 26, 120 conspirators, including members of the Iraqi National Accord and 80 officers, were arrested and executed.

At the end of September 1997, the Iraqi opposition attempted to carry out an assassination attempt on Saddam Hussein on the Samarra-Tikrit road, along which the Iraqi president was supposed to follow. The car, in which one of the organizers of the assassination was traveling, had a wheel burst at high speed, and it rolled over. The security forces who arrived at the scene of the accident subjected the car to a thorough search and found documents that seemed suspicious to them. The arrested man confessed to the conspiracy and gave out the names of his accomplices. All of them - 14 people - were arrested and executed.

In January 2000, the Iraqi opposition, led by the commander of the second brigade of the Republican Guard, General Abdel Kerim al-Dulaimi, were going to set up an armed ambush along the route of the Iraqi President's motorcade to the Iraqi Army Day ceremony. However, the plot was uncovered. All of its participants - 38 people - were summarily executed in a military camp west of Baghdad.

In October 2002, the Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Qabas reported another assassination attempt on Saddam Hussein. An Iraqi military pilot piloting a MiG-23 tried to strike at the Tartar presidential palace, where the Iraqi leader was at that moment. The attempt failed and the pilot died.

In December 2003, Israel admitted that it was preparing a plan to assassinate Saddam Hussein in 1992. It was supposed to throw a unit of special forces deep into Iraqi territory, who were supposed to fire missiles specially designed for this purpose at Saddam during the funeral of his uncle. The plan had to be abandoned after five Israeli soldiers died during training.

re-election

In accordance with the constitutional amendment of 1995, the head of state is elected for a 7-year term in a popular referendum. On October 15 of the same year, a referendum was held in Iraq on the re-election of Hussein for another seven-year term. In the first-ever referendum in the country's history, 99.96% of Iraqis were in favor of nominating Saddam Hussein for president. In May 2001, he was again chosen as the general secretary of the regional leadership of the Iraqi Ba'ath Party.

On October 15, 2002, a second referendum was held in Iraq to extend the powers of President Saddam Hussein for another seven years. The ballot, with only one candidate, had to answer "yes" or "no" to a simple question: "Do you agree that Saddam Hussein retain the presidency?" As a result of the vote, Saddam Hussein retained the presidency with 100% of the vote. A day after the vote, Saddam took an oath on the Constitution. At a ceremony held in the Iraqi parliament building in Baghdad, the president was presented with a gilded sword and a symbolic pencil - symbols of truth and justice. During his inauguration, Hussein stated:

The world has changed since 1995. But it is ruled by the same people, people who do not understand what loyalty to principles and readiness to defend them means.

In his address to parliamentarians, Saddam spoke about the importance of Iraq, which, in his opinion, hinders the implementation of America's global plans. From this, Saddam Hussein concludes that the plans of the US administration are directed not only against Iraq itself, but also against all mankind. Summing up his address, Hussein said:

We are in a situation where we have to choose between good and evil. And I hope the Lord will guide me on the right path. Long live Iraq and the Iraqis!

Those present at the inauguration ceremony greeted the president's speech with a standing ovation, and the sound of applause was drowned out only by the melody of the national anthem, which was performed by a military band.

On October 20, on the occasion of his "100% victory" in the referendum, Saddam Hussein announced a general amnesty. By his decree, both those who were sentenced to death and political prisoners were released. The amnesty extended to Iraqi prisoners inside and outside the country. Assassins are the only exception. By order of Saddam, the killers could be released only with the consent of the relatives of the victims. Those who committed the theft must find a way to make amends for the victims.

US invasion of Iraq

Before the war

Back in 1998, Bill Clinton signed the Iraq Liberation Act, according to which the United States was supposed to contribute to the overthrow of Hussein and the democratization of Iraq. The Iraqi crisis that emerged in 1998 attracted wide international attention. In November 2000, George W. Bush became president of the United States, making it clear from the very beginning that he intended to pursue a tough policy towards Iraq, and promising to "breathe new life" into the sanctions regime. He continued Bill Clinton's funding of Iraqi opposition groups, in particular the exiled Iraqi National Congress, hoping to undermine Saddam Hussein's rule.

The decision to invade was made by the George W. Bush administration in mid-2002, and military preparations began at the same time. The pretext for the invasion was the accusation of the Iraqi government of continuing work on the creation and production of weapons of mass destruction and involvement in organizing and financing international terrorism. The UN refused to support military intervention in Iraq, and the US and British leaderships decided to act on their own, despite the opposition of Germany, France and Russia. Saddam Hussein said:

America is a complex country. Few even in professional intelligence can understand it. Actually, I forbid intelligence from drawing conclusions from reading the American press. This is not what intelligence should be doing when they can't get hard facts and turn to the press, which I already know. To obtain information in this way is my task ... The Iranian experience also teaches us this

America is a complex country. It takes a political sense to understand it...
- Saddam Hussein, 1990

Until 2002, most Arab and Muslim countries were very cautious about restoring relations with Iraq to the same extent. Relations with Kuwait continued to be tense after the end of the Gulf War. In December, Saddam Hussein, in an address to the Kuwaiti people, apologized for the invasion of Kuwait in August 1990 and offered to unite in the fight against the United States:

We ask forgiveness from God for all the deeds that angered him in the past, the blame for what we did not know before now lies with us, and we apologize for this also to you.

But the Kuwaiti authorities did not accept Hussein's apology. However, a number of European countries (France, Italy, Spain, Greece, Germany, etc.) returned their diplomatic missions to Baghdad, which was mainly motivated by their economic interests in Iraq.

On the eve of the outbreak of hostilities, the head of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Russian Federation Yevgeny Primakov, on a personal instruction from Russian President Vladimir Putin, visited Baghdad and met with Saddam Hussein. At a meeting with the Iraqi leader, Primakov stated:

If you love your country and your people, if you want to protect your people from the inevitable victims, you must step down as President of Iraq.

As Primakov later said, he told Hussein that he could turn to the government of Iraq and offer to hold elections in the country. Saddam listened to him silently. In response to this proposal, the Iraqi leader said that during the first war in the Persian Gulf, he was also persuaded to leave power, but the war was inevitable. “After that, he patted me on the shoulder and left,” Primakov said.

Overthrow

On February 14, 2003, Saddam Hussein signed a decree banning the import and production of weapons of mass destruction. However, for the United States, this no longer meant anything. On March 18, US President George W. Bush delivered an address to the nation. In his address, the US President presented an ultimatum to Saddam Hussein and invited the Iraqi leader to voluntarily give up power and leave the country with his sons within 48 hours. The American president announced the inevitability of a military operation against Iraq in the event that the requirements of the ultimatum are not met. In turn, Saddam Hussein refused to accept the ultimatum and leave the country.

On March 20, US and British troops launched military operations against Iraq, bombing Baghdad on that day. A few hours later, following the end of the US military attack, Saddam Hussein appeared on television. He called on the people of the country to resist the aggression of the United States and announced the inevitable victory of Iraq over the Americans. However, in reality, everything was different. Within two weeks, coalition troops broke the resistance of the Iraqi army and approached Baghdad. Throughout this time, coalition troops repeatedly reported the death of the Iraqi president, hitting targets in the capital, where, according to operational data, the Iraqi leader was, but each time Saddam denied this, appearing on television with another appeal to the nation. On April 4, Iraqi television aired footage showing Saddam Hussein visiting bombed sites in western Baghdad, as well as residential areas of the capital. He was in military uniform, confident, smiling, talking to the Iraqis around him, shaking hands with them. They enthusiastically greeted him, waving their machine guns. Hussein picked up and kissed the children.

On April 7, Saddam Hussein, who changed his location every three hours, began to realize that he had little chance of winning; the American army reached Baghdad, but hope did not leave him until the last, and he announced his intention to "meet with the leadership of the Baath Party in order to mobilize party resources." The capital was divided first into four, then into five defense sectors, at the head of each of which the Iraqi president put a member of the Baath and ordered to fight to the last drop of blood. According to Tariq Aziz, Saddam Hussein "was already a man with a broken will." On that day, a B-1B bomber dropped four bombs, each weighing more than 900 kg, on the site where Hussein was supposed to be. In the evening, Iraqi television showed Saddam Hussein as the country's president for the last time, and at 10:30 am the next day, the broadcast of Iraqi television stopped. On April 9, coalition troops entered Baghdad. On April 14, US troops captured the last stronghold of the centralized resistance of the Iraqi army - the city of Tikrit. According to some reports, there were 2,500 Iraqi army soldiers there. After the fall of Baghdad, Hussein, according to some reports, was already considered dead. However, on April 18, Abu Dhabi TV, the state-owned television channel in Abu Dhabi, showed a videotape of Saddam Hussein speaking to the people in Baghdad on the very day that American troops entered the city, and the Iraqis, with the support of the Marines, tore down the statue of Saddam. Judging by the film, this was the last appearance of Saddam Hussein on the streets of Baghdad, during which the inhabitants of the city enthusiastically greeted him.

A few years later, on September 9, 2006, a published report by the US Senate Intelligence Committee indicated that Saddam Hussein had no ties to al-Qaeda. This conclusion nullifies George W. Bush's claims about the Saddam regime's long-standing ties to terrorist organizations. Citing information from the FBI, the report said that Hussein turned down Osama bin Laden's request for help in 1995. The same report also analyzed, based on captured documents, how Saddam Hussein prepared his armed forces, assessed the international situation and commanded troops immediately before and during the outbreak of the 2003 war.

As it turned out, Saddam overestimated the power of the Iraqi army, inadequately analyzed the situation in the world and did not expect the invasion to begin, assuming that the matter would be limited to bombing (as in 1998). Even later, the authors of the March 2008 report “Saddam and Terrorism,” commissioned by the Pentagon, concluded that the Iraqi regime still had no ties to al-Qaeda, but maintained contacts with terrorist groups in the Middle East. , whose targets were the enemies of Iraq: political emigrants, Kurds, Shiites, etc. The report notes that before the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack, Al-Qaeda structures did not operate in Iraq, with the exception of a small Ansar al-Islam group. On the contrary, it was the American invasion that led to the activation of the militants of this terrorist organization in the region.

Defendant

Saddam Hussein's government finally fell on April 17, 2003, when the remnants of the Medina Division near Baghdad capitulated. The Americans and their coalition allies took control of the entire country by May 1, 2003, gradually finding the whereabouts of all of Iraq's former leaders. Eventually, Saddam himself was discovered. According to the official version, a certain person (a relative or close assistant) gave out information about his whereabouts, indicating three places where Saddam was hiding. In the operation dubbed the "Red Sunrise" operation to capture the Iraqi president, the Americans involved 600 soldiers - special forces, engineering troops and support forces of the 4th Infantry Division of the US Army.

Saddam Hussein was arrested on December 13, 2003 in the basement of a village house near the village of Ad-Daur, underground, at a depth of about 2 m, 15 km from Tikrit. With him, they found 750 thousand dollars, two Kalashnikov assault rifles and a pistol; Two other people were arrested along with him. Answering a question from journalists about the state of the ousted Iraqi leader, Ricardo Sanchez, the commander of the US military forces in Iraq, said: "He gave the impression of a tired man, completely resigned to his fate." According to the general, Saddam was pulled out of the basement at 21:15 local time. Soon, footage was broadcast to the whole world of an American doctor examining a tired, disheveled, overgrown and dirty old man who was once the all-powerful president of Iraq. Despite this, the story of Hussein's arrest is controversial. There is a version that Saddam was arrested not on the 13th, but on December 12, and during the arrest he fired a pistol from the second floor of a private house in Tikrit, killing an American infantryman in the process. According to official US data, two US servicemen were killed in Iraq on December 12 - one in Baghdad, the other in Ramadi.

Contrary to the hopes of the Americans, their actions were perceived in Iraq by no means unambiguously. They found full support among the Kurds, very moderate support from the Shiites, and complete rejection from the Sunnis, who saw that they were losing their traditionally dominant position in Iraq. The result was a massive Sunni armed movement under the slogan of "restoring the independence of Iraq", directed against both Americans and Shiites.

On October 19, 2005, the trial of the former Iraqi president began. Especially for him, the death penalty was restored in Iraq, which was abolished for some time by the occupying forces.

Saddam Hussein was charged with the following crimes:
Kurdish genocide in 1987-88 (Operation Anfal).
The use of mortars during the shelling of Kirkuk.
The suppression of the Shiite uprising in 1991.
Massacre in the Shia village of al-Dujail in 1982.
Forced deportation of several thousand Fayli Kurds (Shia Kurds) to Iran.
The use of chemical weapons against the Kurds in Halabja in 1988.
Execution of 8,000 members of the Kurdish Barzan tribe in 1983.
Invasion of Kuwait in 1990.
Executions of prominent religious figures.
Executions of prominent political figures.
Crimes against religious movements.
Crimes against political parties.
Crimes against secular social movements.

Post-1991 work on the construction of dams, canals and dams in southern Iraq, which led to the drying up of the Mesopotamian marshes and turning this area into a salt desert.

The first episode from which the process began was the murder of the inhabitants of the Shiite village of al-Dujail in 1982. According to the prosecution, 148 people (including women, children and the elderly) were killed here because an attempt was made on the life of Saddam Hussein in the area of ​​this village. Saddam admitted that he ordered the trial of 148 Shiites and also ordered the destruction of their homes and gardens, but denied involvement in their murder.

The court was held in the former presidential palace, which is part of the "green zone" - a specially fortified area of ​​​​the capital, where the Iraqi authorities are located and American troops are quartered. Saddam Hussein called himself the president of Iraq, did not admit his guilt in anything and refused to recognize the legitimacy of the court.

Many human rights organizations and world-famous lawyers also doubted the legitimacy of Saddam's sentence. In their opinion, the trial, organized at a time when the presence of foreign troops remained on the territory of Iraq, cannot be called independent. The court was also charged with partiality and violation of the rights of the accused.

In custody

Saddam Hussein was held on a par with other prisoners of war. He ate normally, slept and prayed. Saddam spent three years in American captivity, in solitary confinement measuring 2 by 2.5 meters. He did not have access to the media, but read books, studied the Qur'an daily and wrote poetry. Most of the time he spent in the cell, occasionally he was taken out for a walk in the prison yard. The former leader did not complain about his fate, but he wanted to be treated like a human being. From the situation he had only a bed and a table with books, including the Koran. On the wall of the cell, Saddam, with the permission of the guards, hung portraits of his dead sons Uday and Kusey, and next to them the prison administration hung a portrait of President Bush. One of the guards guarding him, US Army Corporal Jonathan Reese, spoke about Saddam's life in the cell. In particular, he said:

We took him for a walk. Outdoors, Saddam smoked cigars sent to him by his family. Then he took a shower and had breakfast. He was given the same food as us. Rice, chicken, fish, but not pork. Most of all, Saddam likes chips. He can eat as much as he wants.

Sergeant Robert Ellis, who was assigned to Saddam for a year and a half to monitor his health, also spoke about the life of the Iraqi leader behind bars:

He read, wrote something, but he was allowed to do this only 45 minutes a day. He was allowed to walk in the backyard, he even had a small garden there, however, only weeds grew there. But Saddam still watered them regularly.

The sergeant also said that Hussein often thought about his daughter and almost never about his murdered sons, complaining only once that he really misses them.

In January 2008, on the air of the American television channel CBS, FBI agent George Piro, who was assigned to interrogate the deposed president, spoke about the content and interrogations of Saddam in prison. To anger the ousted president and make him more outspoken, Piro showed him videos of Iraqis toppling statues of Hussein. This brought great suffering to the prisoner, he tried not to look at the screen and became very angry. At such moments, according to Piro, Saddam's face turned red, his voice changed, and his eyes shone with hatred. The FBI agent stated that Saddam never had a doppelgänger and confirmed one version of Iraq's invasion of Kuwait. According to this version, Hussein defended the honor of Iraqi women whom the Emir of Kuwait threatened to turn into prostitutes.

Two months later, Major General of the US Marine Corps Doug Stone, who oversees the maintenance of detainees in the US military contingent in Iraq, showed Saddam Hussein's camera and excerpts from his recordings to the CNN film crew. The cell that held the former Iraqi president was small, windowless, with beige walls and gray floors. From the situation in the cell there are only concrete bunk beds and a combined bathroom made of stainless steel in the corner. Speaking about the last hours of the Iraqi leader, the general noted that Hussein did not show his excitement when it was announced to him that he would be executed today. Saddam asked me to tell his daughter that he was going to meet God with a clear conscience, like a soldier sacrificing himself for Iraq and his people. In his last notes, Hussein writes that he feels a responsibility to history to ensure that "people see the facts as they are, and not as they were made by people who want to distort them."

The former Iraqi leader in his poems demonstrates the philosophical component of his personality. Hussein, hearing the sounds of shootings and explosions in the city reaching the prison, wrote:

Nights are darker after sunset, but smoke and fumes filled the city. You suffocate under his sky. Days became nights. There are no stars. There is no moon. Only moans everywhere.

In another piece of poetry, Saddam calls on his citizens to change:

Favorite people. Get rid of hatred, throw off the clothes of malice and throw it into the ocean of hatred. God will save you and you will start a new life with a clean slate with a pure heart.

execution

Saddam Hussein was executed on December 30, 2006 from 02:30 to 03:00 UTC (6 am Moscow time and Baghdad). The execution took place early in the morning a few minutes before the start of Eid al-Adha (Day of Sacrifice). The time was chosen so that the moment of execution did not formally coincide with a holiday according to the Shiite calendar, although according to the Sunni it had already begun.

Saddam as a person

Saddam Hussein is one of the most controversial figures of the 20th century. In Iraq, he was hated, feared and idolized. In the 1970s, there was no more popular personality in Iraq than he. Saddam owed his popularity to a sharp rise in the standard of living of the Iraqis, which was based on the nationalization of Iraqi oil wealth, huge oil revenues, which the Iraqi government invested in the development of the economy and social sphere. On the other hand, when he became the president of the country, he plunged his country into a war with Iran, which destroyed the Iraqi economy. By occupying neighboring Kuwait, Hussein thereby became one of the worst enemies in the eyes of both the West and the United States. The sanctions imposed on Iraq, as well as the deteriorating living standards of Iraqis, have changed the way many people think about the president. His reign was marked by the suppression of any dissent, repressions against his enemies. He brutally suppressed the uprisings of the Shiites and Kurds in 1991, dealt crushing blows to the Kurdish resistance in 1987-1988, got rid of real and potential enemies with the help of dexterity and intrigue, etc. Saddam Hussein once said the following about himself:

I don't care what they say about me now. I care about what people will say about me four or five hundred centuries after my death.

Gerald Post, a former CIA officer, psychologist and teacher at the George Washington University, gives this assessment of Saddam Hussein's personality:

This person is certainly not paranoid, not crazy, but a super-dangerous person. This is a pronounced narcissist, completely devoid of a sense of compassion for others. In everyone he meets, he sees a potential enemy.

The psychologist notes that from the age of nine, Saddam was brought up by his uncle, who instilled in him the idea of ​​becoming a follower of Saladin and Nebuchadnezzar, the powerful and cruel rulers of the East.

Analyst Dmitry Sergeev came to the following conclusion:

It is enough to look at the logic of Saddam Hussein's actions over the past decades to conclude: he will never attack America, even if he really had these 16,000 missiles. The Iraqi president is neither a suicide bomber nor a passionary, he dodges with all his might to save himself from an American strike. And in 1991, he already capitulated to the anti-Iraq coalition, having fulfilled all its conditions. So all the talk about Hussein's unpredictability and aggressiveness is outright propaganda.

Five years after the fall of Saddam Hussein, the violence in the country will not subside, and many people will begin to remember his times. So, one woman says:

“Let us eat only cakes, but then we can sleep peacefully and not be afraid for our children. »
One of the Shiites, Saad Mukhlif, who suffered during the events in Al-Dujail, said:

“If someone, like Saddam, came back, I would not only support him, I would invite him to dinner. Although my uncle was killed in 1982, life was a million times better then than it is now. »

Another Iraqi, Lifty Saber, acting coordinator of the Iraqi government for interaction with the forces of the international coalition, whom Saddam Hussein sentenced to death and who under Hussein spent 8 years on death row, said:

“It would be better for Saddam to stay in power… Nobody trusts anyone. It all comes down to this. The whole system created is aimed at ensuring that no one does anything ... Saddam would have found a way to overcome these sentiments ... If he made a decision, it was carried out. People knew what to do. No matter where they were, they knew Saddam would have his orders carried out. Now the country is in chaos and no one is doing anything because everyone refuses to take responsibility... I never thought I would say these words, given that he sentenced me to death, but I would like to see Saddam, still at the head of the state. Only he knew how to make this godforsaken country work.”

In late 2002, before US forces had invaded Iraq, American journalist Thomas Friedman wrote:

When I think about George W. Bush's plans to overthrow Saddam Hussein and build democracy in Iraq, one question haunts me: is Iraq the way it is today because of Saddam, or is Saddam forced to be like this because of Iraq?

Awards and titles

Other facts

Saddam Hussein came up with the idea for his sixtieth birthday to write a copy of the Koran with his own blood, which became known as the "Bloody Koran".

Saddam Hussein became the first head of state to be executed in the 21st century.
During the years of his reign, Saddam executed 17 of his own ministers and two sons-in-law.
Some 290,000 people went missing during Saddam Hussein's rule, according to Human Rights Watch.

It is believed that in the image of Saddam Hussein there are features of Stalin. Even before Operation Desert Storm, publications appeared in the Western media claiming that Saddam was Stalin's grandson, and in 2002 George W. Bush called Hussein "Stalin's disciple."

Saddam never left Iraq after 1990.
Saddam Hussein entered the Guinness Book of Records as the president with the most palaces and relatives in power.
During the August coup in Moscow, Saddam Hussein supported the actions of the State Emergency Committee.
Saddam Hussein, according to the American magazine "Parade", for 2003 ranked third in the ten worst dictators of our time.

The role of Saddam Hussein in several films ("Hot Heads" (1991), "Hot Heads! Part 2" (1993), "The Big Lebowski" (1998), "Live from Baghdad" (2002)) is performed by American actor Jerry Haleva ( Jerry Haleva) bearing a resemblance to the late Iraqi leader.

In October 2011, a bronze buttock, a fragment of a monument to the former president, was put up for auction.

Hussein is a character from the animated series South Park. Part of his photograph is used as a face, and his face jumps during a speech, like Canadians.