Saddam Hussein biography. On the way to power

Saddam Hussein Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti (April 28, 1937, Al-Auja, Salah al-Din - December 30, 2006, Qazimiya district, Baghdad) - Iraqi statesman and political figure, President of Iraq (1979–2003), Prime Minister Minister of Iraq (1979–1991 and 1994–2003), General Secretary of the Iraqi branch of the Ba'ath Party, Chairman of the Revolutionary Command Council, Marshal (1979).

He established a cult of personality in the country and sought to become the unofficial leader of the eastern part of the Arab world and the master of the Persian Gulf. Thanks to the huge income from oil exports, he carried out large-scale reforms, making the standard of living in Iraq one of the highest in the Middle East. In 1980, he launched a devastating war with Iran that lasted until 1988.

“Arab socialism is harder and more complex than ordinary capitalism and communism: we have a socialist and a private sector. Our choice is more difficult because the easy solution is not always the right one.”
(from a conversation about the ideology of the Baath Party)
Hussein Saddam

During the war, Saddam Hussein carried out Operation Anfal against the Kurds, during which his army used chemical weapons. Overthrown in April 2003 by an invasion by a multinational coalition led by the United States and Britain and subsequently executed by sentence Supreme Court Iraq by hanging.

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

Saddam Hussein was born 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.

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."

“You Americans, you treat the Third World like an Iraqi peasant treats his fiancee: three days Honeymoon, and then - a march in the field.
(at a meeting with representatives of the State Department in 1985)
Hussein Saddam

At this time, Saddam's paternal uncle Ibrahim al-Hassan, as usual, 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 squalor 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 adults.

“My life was full of dangers in which I had to lose a lot of blood ... But since this did not happen, I asked someone to write the words of Allah with my blood.”
(of the Quran written in his blood)
Hussein 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 with a 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.

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.

They married in Cairo, where Hussein studied and lived after the failed assassination attempt on Qasem (see below). 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.

"This (Ayatollah Khomeini) Mummy"
Hussein Saddam

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.

“Iraq has no weapons of mass destruction, none. Such weapons are not pills that can be hidden. It is easy to understand whether it exists in Iraq or not.”
(in an interview with former British House of Commons MP Tony Benn)
Hussein Saddam

After all, Hussein 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.

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 fickle, 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 deposed president received political refuge in the 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.

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, 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.

"If you want to control the world, you have to control oil, and for that, one of the main conditions is to break Iraq."
Hussein Saddam

The Iraqi leader, according to Forbes magazine for 2003, shared third place with Hans-Adam II, Prince of Liechtenstein. 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 dollars. After the overthrow of Saddam, Minister of Commerce in Iraq's transitional government, Ali Alawi, named another figure - $40 billion, adding that for many years Hussein received 5% of the income from the country's oil exports. 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.

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.

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.

Hussein was not included in 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 in high school Qasr an-Nil, 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 nightly entertainment, 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, Hussein made a vivid speech in which he sharply criticized the activities of Ali Salih al-Saadi, Secretary General 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.

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.

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

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 ignoramuses, 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 on the party and state lines, was responsible for internal security in the country, in other words, oversaw the party and state intelligence 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, Hussein graduated from Baghdad's Muntasiriya University with a law degree and took up the positions of vice chairman of the Revolutionary Command Council and deputy general secretary of the Ba'ath leadership. In 1971-1978, with a break, he studied at the military academy in Baghdad.

On August 8, 1971, 22 members of the Ba'ath Party and former ministers death sentence was read. 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.

Electric shock was applied to various parts 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.”

According to Yevgeny Primakov, both the USSR and the USA staked on Saddam as a promising leader.
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 concentrated almost unlimited power in the next two years, increasingly pushing the nominal head of the party and state, Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr, into the background.

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.

Trying to cope with the shortcomings of the socialist economy, Hussein 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 underway, the network has increased significantly highways. 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.

As a result of the economic boom, a significant number of migrants from Arab and other Asian countries came to Iraq in search of jobs. Qualified foreign specialists were invited to manage some high-tech processes in the construction and manufacturing industries.

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

With the help of the secret service, Hussein 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, 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 Hussein 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 the 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.

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.

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

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.

After a series of clashes on the border on September 22, 1980, the Iraqi army invaded the territory of a neighboring country. The offensive was initially successful, but as a result of the mobilization of Iranian society to fight the aggressor, by the end of autumn it was stopped. In 1982, Iraqi troops were driven out of Iranian territory, and hostilities were already transferred to Iraqi territory. The war entered a protracted stage, accompanied by the use of chemical weapons by Iraq and Iran, rocket attacks on cities and attacks on tankers of third countries 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 great victory". Festivities began in the country, during which the president was called the savior of the nation.

The war also thwarted Saddam's attempt to gain nuclear weapon: On June 7, 1981, an Israeli air raid destroyed a nuclear reactor purchased by Saddam in France.

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.

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 Barzani's son Massoud, regrouped their combat units and established control over for the most part 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.

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.

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 thereby blocking the recovery of the Iraqi economy.

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. 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.

However, there is no evidence that Kuwait was pumping oil from Iraqi territory. The Kuwaiti side was in no hurry to allocate to Iraq the compensation it required ($2.4 billion), preferring to start negotiations with the aim of softening the 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. Focusing on Indian Ocean and the Persian Gulf, a powerful military group, the United States and its allies conducted Operation Desert Storm, defeating Iraqi troops and liberating Kuwait (January 17 - February 28, 1991).

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 forced 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, Sulaymaniyah ), where, under the cover of international troops, a Kurdish government was created (the so-called "Free Kurdistan"). 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.

Representatives sent to Iraq international organizations to control 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
Saddam Hussein gradually established his cult of personality. It is most evident in the following examples:
* At the airport of Baghdad, named after Saddam Hussein, portraits of the country's president were hung out, and the inscription was painted on the concrete columns of the city's railway station: "Allah and the president are with us, down with America."
* 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 painting or an eight-pointed star with the words "Built in the era of Saddam Hussein" was placed.
* 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 the most different types 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.
* 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 wrist watch- 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. Newspaper articles 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 (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 Al-Salhiya street). 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.

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.

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 National holiday: On August 26, 1985, the birthday of Saddam Hussein began to be officially celebrated throughout the country as a holiday President's Day. A military parade, a demonstration of workers were indispensable attributes of this day.

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 "crushing the Kurdish uprising." However, the medals do not only praise Hussein's military prowess. 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.

On February 12, 2000, President 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 Hussein wrote for last years his reign, several poetic works, 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.

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.

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.

The UN sanctions imposed after the 1991 war caused enormous economic damage to Iraq. Destruction and famine reigned in the country: residents experienced insufficient electricity and drinking water, in many areas, sewerage systems were destroyed (30% of rural residents lost modern sewerage) and water treatment plants (half of the rural population did not have clean drinking water).

raged intestinal diseases, including cholera. 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 conditions of the UN, including the appropriation of 1/3 of Iraq's income from permitted oil exports to pay compensation to the victims of the Persian Gulf War, as well as the allocation of up to $150 million to allowances for Kurdish refugees. In 1998, program coordinator Denis Halliday left his post, stating that sanctions had failed as a concept and only hit innocent people. His successor, Hans von Sponeck, left in 2000, saying that 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 left 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.

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 as 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 the university. At the beginning of 1998, up to 80% of the population could read and write.

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.

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, which had only one candidate, had to answer "yes" or "no" to a simple question: "Do you agree that Saddam Hussein retain the presidency?" votes. 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.
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.

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.

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.

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. 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 leadership decided to act on their own, despite the opposition of Germany, France and Russia.

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.

But the Kuwaiti authorities did not accept Hussein's apology. However, a number 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 the personal instructions of Russian President Vladimir Putin visited Baghdad and met with Saddam Hussein.

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 war was inevitable. “After that, he patted me on the shoulder and left,” Primakov said.

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. IN otherwise, the US President announced the inevitability of a military operation against Iraq. In turn, Saddam Hussein refused to accept the ultimatum and leave the country.

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 and 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.

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 place 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, the state-owned Abu Dhabi television channel Abu Dhabi TV showed a videotape in which Saddam Hussein speaks to the people in Baghdad on the very day when American troops and Iraqis entered the city with the support of the Marines Demolished a statue of Saddam. Judging by the tape, this was the last appearance of Saddam Hussein on the streets of Baghdad, during which the inhabitants of the city enthusiastically greeted him.

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.

Even later, in March 2008, in the published report “Saddam and Terrorism”, commissioned by the Pentagon, the authors came to the conclusion that the Iraqi regime still had no ties with 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 prior to the September 11, 2001, al-Qaeda structures were not active 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 al-Qaeda militants in the region.

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

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, 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.

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.

On November 5, 2006, the Iraqi Supreme Criminal Tribunal convicted Saddam of killing 148 Shiites and sentenced him to death by hanging. Saddam's half-brother Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikriti, former Iraqi Chief Justice Awwad Hamid al-Bandar, and former Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan were also convicted and later hanged in this episode. In parallel, proceedings began on the episode of the genocide of the Kurds (operation Anfal), but in view of the already existing death sentence, it was not brought to an end.

The Shiite masses categorically demanded that Saddam be hanged in public, in the square, and broadcast live on television. The government agreed to a compromise solution: it was decided to arrange the execution in the presence of a representative delegation and completely film it on video.

Saddam Hussein was executed on December 30 from 2:30 to 3:00 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 it had already begun according to the Sunni calendar. Haderniyya.

In the evening, the ex-president's body was handed over to representatives of the Abu Nasir tribe, to which he belonged. Closer to the night, the remains of Saddam Hussein were delivered by an American helicopter to Tikrit. By that time, representatives of his clan had already gathered in the main mosque of Auji, waiting for the body of the ex-president.

Saddam was buried at dawn the next day in his native village near Tikrit, next (three kilometers) to his sons and grandson who died in 2003. Hussein himself named two places where he would like to be buried, either in the city of Ramadi or in his native village.

Saddam's opponents greeted his execution with joy, and supporters staged an explosion in the Shiite quarter of Baghdad, which killed 30 people and injured about 40 people. The Iraqi Ba'athists have announced Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri as the successor to Saddam Hussein as president of Iraq.

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.

Having occupied neighboring Kuwait, Hussein thereby became one of the worst enemies in the face 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, inflicted crushing blows on the Kurdish resistance in 1987–1988, got rid of real and potential enemies with the help of dexterity and intrigue, etc.

Awards and titles
* Order of Merit, 1st Class (Wisam al-Jadara)
* Order of the Republic
* Order of Perfection
* Order of the Two Rivers, I degree (Al-Rafidan, military) (July 1, 1973)
* Order of the Two Rivers (Al-Rafidan, civil) (February 7, 1974)
* Master of Military Science (February 1, 1976)
* Marshal (since 1979)
* Order of the Revolution, 1st class (July 30, 1983)
* Honorary Doctor of Laws (Baghdad University, 1984)
* Order of the People (April 28, 1988)
*Medal of Merit for Oil Refining
* Medal for the suppression of the Kurdish uprising
*Baath Party Medal
* Order of Stara Planina

Other facts
* Saddam Hussein became the first head of state to be executed in the 21st century.
* Over the years of his reign, Saddam executed 17 of his own ministers and two sons-in-law.
* According to Human Rights Watch, some 290,000 people went missing during Saddam Hussein's rule.
* 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."
* After 1990, Saddam never left Iraq.
* 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", in 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), "Live from Baghdad" (2002)) is played by American actor Jerry Haleva, who has resemblance to the late Iraqi leader.

Personal life

Childhood, adolescence, youth

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, as usual, 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 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 with a 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.

Family

Hussein's first wife was his cousin Sajida (the eldest daughter of Khairallah Tulfah's uncle), 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 Hussein studied and lived after the failed assassination attempt on Qasem (see below). 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, Hussein 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. Hussein's personal physician describes how Hussein expressed his position on the future fate of his sons-in-law as follows:

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 fickle, 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 on 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 started in 1997 and finished in 2000 to donate blood to write a copy of the Koran.

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 dollars. After the overthrow of Saddam, Minister of Commerce in the transitional government of Iraq, Ali Alawi, gave another figure - $40 billion, adding that for many years Hussein received 5% of the income from the country's oil exports. 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. Hussein was not included in 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.

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:

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 Pan-Arab Congress of the Baath Party in Damascus, Hussein made 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.

Party leader

Second person in state

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

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".

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.

Arab journalist Said Aburish writes in his book Saddam Hussein: The Politics of Revenge that Stalin was his ideal. According to Aburish:

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:

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 concentrated almost unlimited power in the next two years, 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:

Modernization of the country

Huge revenues from oil exports made it possible to carry out 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, Hussein 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, 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:

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. Having eliminated in 1976 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 Hussein, was intended to create an "ideological army" aimed at protecting the power of the party. With the help of the secret service, Hussein 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 Hussein 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 the 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 deputies 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 ).

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 was initially successful, but as a result of the mobilization of Iranian society to fight the aggressor, by the end of autumn it was stopped. 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, Hussein 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 rebel groups "Peshmerga", 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 Saddam's 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). A total of 272 victims of chemical weapons settlements. 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 thereby 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 accumulated during the war in short time, relying on the help of the Arab countries that 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 allocate to Iraq the compensation it required ($2.4 billion), preferring to start negotiations with the aim of softening the 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 impose "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, Sulaymaniyah), where a Kurdish government (the so-called "Free Kurdistan") was established 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

Saddam Hussein gradually established his cult of personality. It is most evident in the following examples:

At the airport in Baghdad, named after Saddam Hussein, portraits of the country's president were hung out, and on the concrete columns of the city's railway station, the inscription was made with paint: "Allah and the president are with us, down with America."
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 painting or an eight-pointed star with the words "Built in the era of Saddam Hussein" was placed.
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 watches - 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"). 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.

After becoming president of Iraq, Hussein 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.

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.

Medals belonging to Saddam Hussein glorified both him and his merits. In particular, some of them praise the President of Iraq for conducting the "mother of all battles" in Kuwait or for "crushing 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.

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. On the first court session Hussein wrote a short poem:

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 conditions of the UN, including the appropriation of 1/3 of Iraq's income from permitted oil exports to pay compensation to the victims of the Persian 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, left 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.

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.

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 Shiite Muslims) were sentenced to death and executed (Saddam Hussein was convicted and executed for this episode).
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 who tried to carry out all this were executed.
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 assassinate 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 tire burst at high speed, and it turned 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 festive ceremony on the occasion of the Iraqi Army Day. 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, but 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:

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:

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 widespread 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 regime sanctions. 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.

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:

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. Otherwise, the American president announced the inevitability of a military operation against Iraq. 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, things were different. Within a few weeks, coalition forces 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 and 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, 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 place 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 sources, 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 Iraqis, supported by marines, tore down Saddam's statue. Judging by the tape, 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 would indicate that Saddam Hussein had no ties to al-Qaeda. This conclusion nullifies George W. Bush's claims about the Saddam regime's longstanding 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, in March 2008, in the published report “Saddam and Terrorism”, commissioned by the Pentagon, the authors came to the conclusion that the Iraqi regime still had no ties with 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". On the contrary, it was the American invasion that led to the activation of al-Qaeda militants 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 "Red Sunrise" 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 December 13, 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. 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 Shiite village of 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.

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. He spent most of his time 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 a cell. In particular, he said:

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:

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 doubles and confirmed one of the versions of the Iraqi 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-painted 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:

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

execution

On December 26, 2006, the Iraqi Court of Appeal upheld the verdict and decided to execute it within 30 days, and on December 29 published the execution order. These days, hundreds of Iraqis, relatives of Saddam's victims, have asked the authorities to appoint them as executioners. The Shiite masses categorically demanded that Saddam be hanged in public, in the square, and broadcast live on television. The government agreed to a compromise solution: it was decided to arrange the execution in the presence of a representative delegation and completely film it on video.

According to Al-Arabia news agency, Saddam Hussein was hanged at the headquarters of the Iraqi military intelligence, located in the Shiite quarter of Baghdad al-Khaderniyya. A limited number of people were present at the scaffold: members of the American military command (according to other sources, there were no Americans at the place of execution), Iraqi officials, several judges and representatives of the Islamic clergy, as well as a doctor and a videographer (as planned, the last minutes of Saddam's life were filmed on video).

In addition to the official recording, unofficial footage made by mobile phone. Before going to the scaffold, Saddam read the confession of faith (shahada) and said: “God is great. The Islamic community (ummah) will win and Palestine is an Arab territory.” His last request was to hand over the Koran, which he held in his hands. Those present showered Saddam with insults and shouted: “Muktada! Muqtada!”, recalling the leader of the radical Shiites, Muqtada al-Sadr. When a rope was thrown around Saddam's neck, one of the guards said, recalling the Shiites he had executed: "So it was with those who pray to Muhammad and the family of Muhammad." Saddam ironically retorted: "Is that bravery, in your opinion?". The people around answered: “Down with the dictatorship!”, “Go to hell!”, “Long live Muhammad Baker al-Sadr!” (uncle of Muqtada, executed by Saddam).

Later, information appeared that Muqtada al-Sadr was one of Saddam's executioners; official sources deny this. One of the judges called those around to order. Saddam said "May the Americans and Persians be damned!", read the shahada again, and when he began to read it again, the platform of the scaffold lowered. A few minutes later, the doctor declared death, the body was removed and placed in a coffin. Saddam Hussein's grave guard later claimed that six stab wounds were made on the president's body after the execution: four on the front of the body and two on the back, but this has not been officially confirmed. In the evening, the ex-president's body was handed over to representatives of the Abu Nasir tribe, to which he belonged. Closer to the night, the remains of Saddam Hussein were delivered by an American helicopter to Tikrit. By that time, representatives of his clan had already gathered in the main mosque of Auji, waiting for the body of the ex-president. Saddam was buried at dawn the next day in his native village near Tikrit, next (three kilometers) to his sons and grandson who died in 2003. Hussein himself named two places where he would like to be buried - either in the city of Ramadi, or in his native village.

In late March 2012, there were reports that the Iraqi authorities intended to rebury Saddam Hussein's remains elsewhere in order to put an end to the mass pilgrimage to his grave.

Community reaction to sentencing and execution

"This is the least that Saddam deserved," - said, commenting on the verdict, Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Maliki. The Prime Minister himself delivered a message of congratulations to the Iraqi people on Saddam's execution, saying: “Justice has been done in the name of the people of Iraq. The criminal Saddam has been executed and will never be able to return the times of dictatorship to our country again.<…>This is a lesson for all despots and dictators who commit crimes against their people.”
Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Barham Saleh (one of the leaders of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan) said: "Justice has been done against Saddam, which he denied the Iraqi people for more than 35 years."
"The execution of Saddam Hussein should not obscure Anfal and Halabja," Iraqi Kurdistan President Masoud Barzani said. The Kurdish leadership considered the execution hasty, since, according to the Kurds, first the court had to sort out all the crimes of Saddam.
President of the Kurdish Institute (Paris) Kandel Nezan defined the reaction to the execution of various groups of Iraqi society as follows: “The Shiite majority is convinced that justice has been served and the tyrant has paid for his crimes. They feel that they have been avenged, freed from a long nightmare, freed from the haunting ghost of the infamous dictator. Hanging, committed on the eve of the great Muslim holiday of sacrifice, is regarded by them as a gift from heaven, and not as a violation of the rule of truce during the "sacred" period of forgiveness and mercy. Iraqi Sunnis, not all of whom are unconditional supporters of Saddam Hussein, see this hasty execution as an act of sectarian revenge on Shiites who want to demonstrate that they are now the new masters of the country. Kurds<…>also, of course, do not mourn the fate of the tyrant, but among them the feeling that they have been denied justice [since Saddam was not convicted for Anfal] prevails.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin said about the hanging of Saddam Hussein: “Terrible. barbaric execution."
A spokesman for the Russian Foreign Ministry said: “The hasty brutal execution will further deepen the split in Iraqi society. Instead of the national reconciliation and accord that they need so much, the people of Iraq are at risk of getting another round of fratricidal conflict, new numerous victims.”
"The death sentence for Saddam is quite an adequate measure," said Sergey Mironov, speaker of the Federation Council of the Russian Federation.
The Council of Muftis of Russia considers the execution of Saddam Hussein unacceptable. Council Chairman Ravil Gainutdin said: "The execution of such an inhumane sentence will cast aside all the aspirations of the Iraqi people for the transformation of the country."
Communist Party leader Gennady Zyuganov said that Saddam's execution was a massacre perpetrated by the US government. According to him, this will increase anti-American sentiment in the world: “I deeply regret that the 21st century begins with this kind of unprecedented executions, wars and reprisals against entire states.”
LDPR leader Vladimir Zhirinovsky, speaking at a protest rally in front of the Iraqi embassy, called on Muslims around the world to unite in the fight against the United States.
Yevgeny Primakov, a well-known Arabist who was personally acquainted with Saddam, expressed the opinion in one of his interviews that the hasty execution was an attempt by the CIA to cover its tracks in its policy in the Persian Gulf.
Belarusian Foreign Ministry spokesman Andrei Popov believes that the execution could lead to violence in Iraq and neighboring regions: “The logic of the initiators of the execution of the former Iraqi leader is difficult to understand. This move risks becoming the starting point for an expanding wave of violence in Iraq and reverberates in neighboring states in the region.” Doubts were expressed about the fairness and legitimacy of the trial of Saddam Hussein: "The moral side of all this is obvious, and the legal integrity of the trial of the former president continues to raise serious doubts."

US President George W. Bush hailed Saddam's execution as a manifestation of justice and the will of the Iraqi people to build their lives within the rule of law: “Saddam Hussein was executed today, after a fair trial, such as he denied the victims of his brutal regime. During the years of Saddam Hussein's tyranny, such fair trials were unthinkable. It is proof of the determination of the Iraqi people to move forward after decades of oppression that Saddam Hussein, despite his heinous crimes against his own people, was given the opportunity to do so."
Later, on January 17, 2007, George W. Bush, in an interview with the PBS television company, expressed his disappointment with the way the Iraqi authorities carried out the execution of Saddam Hussein. He said that the execution made him feel like a "revenge killing". According to the President of the United States, the actions of the Iraqi authorities in this situation damaged their image: "In the minds of the people, this increased doubts that the al-Maliki government is a serious government."

Representatives of Islamist terrorist groups strongly condemned the execution of Saddam. Hamas called it a "settlement of political scores", the Taliban called it a "provocation" and "a challenge to Muslims around the world."
In Libya, three days of mourning have been declared in connection with the death of the former Iraqi leader.
"The execution of Saddam, as well as his overthrow, is a victory for the Iraqi people," Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Hamid Reza Asefi said.
In Kuwait, the execution of Saddam Hussein was commented by the Minister of Social Affairs and Labor Al-Sabah al-Khaled: “The execution was carried out by the judiciary and the relevant Iraqi institutions after the official conviction and sentencing for the crimes committed by Hussein against humanity. The execution of the overthrown president according to all laws is an internal affair of Iraq.<…>God's punishment always comes on time. Saddam paid for the crimes committed against his people. Kuwait also suffered a lot from the policies of Saddam Hussein and his dictatorship, we have nothing to regret.”

Officially, the Israeli Foreign Ministry refused to comment on the execution of Saddam. Unofficially, Defense Minister Ephraim Sne said in an interview: “Justice has been done. We must not forget that this story was related to Israel. Saddam Hussein fired 39 rockets into Israel, paid $20,000 to the families of each suicide bomber at the height of the intifada, and sought to obtain nuclear weapons to use against us.”

The verdict is a fair punishment for Saddam Hussein and his associates for the crimes they committed, British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett said.
The European Union - in particular, the EU presidency of Finland, as well as France and Italy - opposed the execution due to the fundamental rejection of the death penalty as such. "I do not want to downplay the crimes with which he has stained himself and of which he was justly accused by independent Iraqi authorities, but in any case, Italy is against the death penalty," Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi said.
Vatican: Saddam Hussein's execution is tragic news; there is a danger that it will exacerbate the climate of hatred and sow new violence. Such an event causes sadness, even when it comes to a person who himself is guilty of serious crimes, ”Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi said. Earlier, the Holy See called on the Iraqi court not to pass the death sentence on Saddam and condemned this sentence.

Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega called the execution of Saddam Hussein a crime: "Once again, the norms international law were trampled on in Iraq - a country where people are tortured, where there is no justice, where an undisguised genocide is being carried out under pretexts, the falsity and contrivedness of which are known to the whole world ... about the fact that the policy of those who decide the fate of Iraq today is based on hatred and cruelty ... Condemning this new crime committed in a brotherly country, the Nicaraguans join the demand of the peoples of the planet for the immediate withdrawal of the occupying troops from the territory of Iraq, for the restoration of sovereignty and independence there and the world."

In India, a protest against the execution, organized by Muslims and Indian communists, took place, during which an effigy of the American president was burned. Indian Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee expressed his regret: “We have already expressed the hope that the death penalty will not be carried out. We are saddened that it took place."

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. Having occupied neighboring Kuwait, Hussein thereby became one of the worst enemies in the face 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 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:

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

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:

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:

One of the Shiites, Saad Mukhlif, who suffered during the events in Al-Dujail, said:

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:

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

Awards and titles

Order of Merit, 1st class (Wisam al-Jadara)
Order of the Republic
Order of Perfection
Order of Mesopotamia, 1st class (Al-Rafidan, military) (July 1, 1973)
Order of Mesopotamia (Al-Rafidan, civil) (February 7, 1974)
Master of Military Science (February 1, 1976)
Marshal (since July 17, 1979)
Order of the Revolution, 1st class (July 30, 1983)
Honorary Doctor of Laws (Baghdad University, 1984)
Order of the People (April 28, 1988)
Oil Refining Meritorious Service Medal
Medal for the suppression of the Kurdish uprising
Baath Party Medal
Order of Stara Planina

Other facts

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 Shots" (1991), "Hot Shots! Part 2" (1993), "Live from Baghdad" (2002)) is performed by American actor Jerry Haleva (English), who bears a resemblance to the deceased Iraqi leader.
In October 2011, a bronze buttock, a fragment of a monument to the former president, was put up for auction.

Rice comes to report to Bush.

- Well, what's new?

“Two pieces of news, Mr. President, one is good, the other is bad.

– Eh… What good?

The war in Iraq is over!

- Wow! And the bad one?

Iran won.

At the press conference:

- Mr. Bush, do you have evidence that Iraq has weapons of mass destruction?

- Yes, yes, we kept receipts confirming payment ...

The hasty and fussy pre-holiday (December 30, 2006) execution of Saddam Hussein, wholly orchestrated by the Americans, elevated him to the rank of a national hero, fighter and martyr for the Muslim faith. Hussein was hanged a few minutes before the muezzins called on the Muslims to morning prayer, which marks the end of the month of Ramadan and the beginning of the feast of breaking the fast. Thus, formally, the religious custom was observed and the execution allegedly did not overshadow the Muslim holiday.

Bush, not hiding his joy - but what about another victory for the American "crap mocracy" - called Saddam's execution "another step on Iraq's path to democracy." It is impossible to savor the violent death of a person so joyfully, especially if this person - defeated enemy!

By the way, according to the results of a recent sociological survey in America, 40% of Americans put US President Bush in first place in the list of "main villains." Here Bush is far ahead of "terrorist number one" Osama bin Laden and former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.

Brief biographical information

Saddam Hussein (real name Al-Tikriti) [in translated from Arabic name "" means "one who opposes" (one of the meanings), or “first striker”] - comes from a Sunni peasant family, was born on April 28 (and according to some sources, on April 27), 1937 in Tikrit, located 160 km north of Baghdad on the right bank of the Tigris. Saddam's father died when the boy was only 9 months old. According to local custom, Saddam's uncle al-Haj Ibrahim, an army officer who fought against British rule in Iraq, married his brother's widow and took the orphan into his already large, but very well-off family. According to the official biographers of Saddam Hussein, the Al-Tikriti clan goes back to the direct heirs of Imam Ali, the son-in-law of the Prophet Muhammad.

Saddam's height was 186 cm, shoe size - 45.

Saddam Hussein had 4 wives (the last of which, the daughter of the country's defense industry minister, he married in October 2002) and 3 daughters (, and). The sons of the ex-president - and - were killed in July 2004 in Mosul during a special operation of the anti-Iraqi coalition troops.

Saddam loved many of the realities of American life: Sinatra songs, the Godfather movie, cigars and Texas cowboy hats. But this did not save him from the "cowboy" Bush ...

Arrest and trial

Saddam's personality, his role in the history of the world and Iraq can be treated differently. But what no one can refuse him is dignity and courage. The dignified behavior of Saddam during his arrest on December 14, 2003 (when he was arrested, Saddam, although he was armed to the teeth, did not offer any resistance, while he simply said: “My name is Saddam Hussein!”), Trial and execution freely - or involuntarily! - instills respect for him.

The US military savored Saddam's capture with pride. The whole world was surrounded by footage in which a doctor in rubber gloves felt the head of an overgrown, aged deposed dictator and counted his teeth. Later, when the trial began, Saddam was transformed. During the sanitization, he was forcibly shaved off his beard, but in prison he let it go again. Instead of a famous man in a famous military uniform, in a famous beret and with a famous mustache, in the courtroom a majestic, imposing old man in a snow-white shirt with a turn-down collar suddenly appeared before the public, who proudly - without fear and reproach! - looked at his judges through the prison bars, and in response to their questions - poured abundant aphorisms and quotations from the Koran.

On June 30, 2004, Saddam Hussein, along with 11 members of the Baathist regime (including former Prime Minister Aziz and Defense Minister Hashimi), was handed over to the Iraqi authorities, and already on July 1, the first court session was held in Baghdad in the case of the ex-president, who was charged with crimes against humanity and war crimes. Among the latter, in particular, are the destruction of about 5 thousand Kurds - representatives of the Barzani tribe in 1983, the use of chemical weapons against the inhabitants of Halabadzha in 1988 (which also led to the death of about 5 thousand people), the implementation of the military operation "Al- Anfal" in 1988 (destruction of approximately 80 Kurdish villages), unleashing a war with Iran in 1980 - 1988. and aggression against Kuwait in 1990. By the way, while Saddam was at war with Iran, America supported him. But when he attacked Kuwait, this "big brother" did not forgive him ...

The trial of Saddam, according to the most authoritative international human rights organizations, was held with numerous violations. The defense was not shown the documents that the prosecution cited as evidence, the defendant was repeatedly expelled from the courtroom for his especially witty remarks about his accusers and judges. Hussein's first team of lawyers was disbanded even before the start of the trial, the new lawyers first questioned the legitimacy of the court, and then they and defense witnesses began to be kidnapped and killed. Unidentified people attacked Saddam in the courtroom several times with their fists. In February, Saddam went on a hunger strike to protest his mistreatment.

execution

The trial of Hussein took place in Baghdad on the territory of the US military base "Camp Victory", located in the closed area of the international airport. On November 5, 2006, Hussein was sentenced to death by hanging on charges of the massacre of 148 Shiites, committed in 1982 in Al-Dujail (in addition, a few days later, another trial was initiated against the ex-president - in the case of Kurdish genocide in the late 1980s). The lawyers filed an appeal, which was subsequently rejected by the country's judiciary. On December 26, 2006, the Iraqi Court of Appeal upheld the verdict and decided to carry it out within 30 days, and on December 29 it published the official execution order.

Saddam Syndrome

Before Saddam's execution, his farewell letter was made public, in which he called on the people of Iraq and all people to "forget about hatred, because it leaves no opportunity to be fair, blinds and deprives the mind." The execution of Saddam (by the way, the Americans did not let him live 4 months before his 70th birthday) did not leave anyone indifferent. In the Muslim world, it caused not only riots and massacres, but also a wave of suicides - especially among teenagers! - as a sign of solidarity. This phenomenon has already been called "Saddam's syndrome".

The attacks that followed the execution of the former dictator made December 2006 the worst month for Americans in Iraq in two years. When the death toll in the terrorist attacks surpassed 80 US soldiers in the day after Hussein's execution, Bush responded by declaring that "there will be new challenges, and Americans continue to be required to make sacrifices for the progress of the young Iraqi democracy."

Year of departure of four dictators

Former President of Iraq Saddam Hussein(Saddam Hussein, full name Saddam Hussein Abd al-Majid at-Tikriti) was born on April 28, 1937 in the small village of Al-Auja, 13 kilometers from the city of Tikrit, into a peasant family. He was brought up in the house of his maternal uncle Khairullah Tulfakh, a former Iraqi army officer and a staunch nationalist. The uncle had a great influence on the formation of the nephew's worldview.

After graduating from Hark High School in Baghdad, Saddam joined the Arab Socialist Renaissance Party (Baath).

In October 1959, Hussein took part in an unsuccessful attempt by the Ba'athists to overthrow Iraqi Prime Minister Abdel Kerim Qasem, was wounded and sentenced to death. He fled abroad - to Syria, then to Egypt. In 1962-1963 he studied at the Faculty of Law of Cairo University, was actively involved in party activities.

In 1963, the Baathists came to power in Iraq. Saddam Hussein returned from exile, continued his education at a law college in Baghdad. In the same year, the Ba'athist government fell, Saddam was arrested, spent several years in prison, from which he managed to escape. By 1966, he had advanced to leadership roles in the party, heading the party's security service.

Saddam Hussein took part in the July 17, 1968 coup that brought the Ba'ath Party back to power, and became a member of the supreme authority, the Revolutionary Command Council, headed by Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr. As al-Bakr's deputy, Hussein oversaw the security forces and gradually concentrated real power in his hands.

On July 16, 1979, President al-Bakr resigned, his successor in this post was Saddam Hussein, who also headed the Iraqi branch of the Baath Party, became chairman of the Revolutionary Command Council, and supreme commander.

In 1979-1991, 1994-2003, Saddam Hussein also served as chairman of the government of Iraq.

In September 1980, Saddam Hussein ordered the invasion of Iran. The devastating war that followed ended in August 1988. An estimated 1.7 million people were killed during the conflict. In August 1990, Hussein attempted to annex Kuwait. The UN condemned the takeover, and in February 1991, the multinational military forced the Iraqi army out of the emirate.

In March 2003, US and British troops began hostilities in Iraq. The pretext for the invasion was the accusation of the Iraqi government of working on the creation and production of weapons of mass destruction and involvement in organizing and financing international terrorism.

On April 17, 2003, Saddam Hussein's government fell. The Iraqi leader himself was forced to hide. On December 13, 2003, Hussein was discovered near his hometown of Tikrit in an underground cave.

On June 30, 2004, Saddam Hussein, along with 11 members of the Baathist regime, was handed over to the Iraqi authorities.

Saddam Hussein was charged with the attack on Kuwait (1990), the suppression of the Kurdish and Shiite uprisings (1991), the genocide of the Kurdish population (1987-1988), the gas attack on the city of Halabja (1988), the murders of religious leaders (1974), the murders of 8 thousand Kurds of the Barzan tribe (1983), murders of political opponents and oppositionists.

The process began with an examination of the circumstances of the extermination of the population of the Shiite village of Al-Dujail in 1982. According to the prosecution, 148 people (including women, children and the elderly) were killed because an attempt was made on Hussein near the village.

On November 5, 2006, Saddam Hussein was found guilty of killing 148 Shiites and sentenced to death by hanging.

Proceedings on other charges in view of the already existing death sentence were not completed.

On December 3, 2006, Saddam Hussein filed an appeal against the decision of the court that sentenced him to death.

On December 26, the Iraqi Court of Appeal upheld the guilty verdict and upheld the death sentence against the ex-president of Iraq.

The former Iraqi president is buried in his native village of Auja near Tikrit.

Saddam Hussein had four wives (the last of whom, the daughter of the country's defense industry minister, he married in October 2002) and three daughters.

The ex-president's sons, Qusay and Udey, were killed in July 2004 in Mosul during a special operation by the anti-Iraqi coalition forces.

Saddam Hussein Abd al-Majid at-Tikriti (April 28, 1937, Al-Auja, Salah al-Din - December 30, 2006, Qazimiya district, Baghdad) - Iraqi statesman and political figure, President of Iraq (1979-2003), Prime Minister Minister of Iraq (1979-1991 and 1994-2003), General Secretary of the Iraqi branch of the Ba'ath Party, Chairman of the Revolutionary Command Council, Marshal (1979).

During the war, Saddam Hussein carried out Operation Anfal against the Kurds, during which his army used chemical weapons. He was overthrown in April 2003 by an invasion by a multinational coalition led by the United States and Britain and subsequently executed by hanging by the Iraqi Supreme Court.

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

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.

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 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 fickle, 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.

His personal fortune was estimated at 1 billion 300 million 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 income from the country's oil exports. 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.

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

After two unsuccessful attempts to seize power in Baghdad, Saddam was arrested, shackled and imprisoned in solitary confinement. He spent some time in prison.

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

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.

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.”

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

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.

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."

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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 Council of Arab Cooperation, 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.

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).

In the fall of 1991, Iraqi troops left three northern provinces (Erbil, Dahuk, Sulaymaniyah), where a Kurdish government (the so-called "Free Kurdistan") was established 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 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.

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
Saddam Hussein gradually established his cult of personality. It is most evident in the following examples:
* At the airport of Baghdad, named after Saddam Hussein, portraits of the country's president were hung out, and the inscription was painted on the concrete columns of the city's railway station: "Allah and the president are with us, down with America."
* 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 painting or an eight-pointed star with the words "Built in the era of Saddam Hussein" was placed.
* 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.
* 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 (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 Al-Salhiya street). 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.

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.

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.

However, the medals praise not only the military prowess of Hussein. Some are given for 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.

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.

The UN sanctions imposed after the 1991 war caused enormous economic damage to Iraq. Devastation and famine reigned in the country: residents experienced a shortage 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 raged, including cholera. 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.

His successor, Hans von Sponeck, left 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.

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.

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.
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.

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. 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.

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. Otherwise, the American president announced the inevitability of a military operation against Iraq. In turn, Saddam Hussein refused to accept the ultimatum and leave the country.

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 Iraqis, supported by marines, tore down Saddam's statue. Judging by the tape, this was the last appearance of Saddam Hussein on the streets of Baghdad, during which the inhabitants of the city enthusiastically greeted him.

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 "Red Sunrise" to capture the Iraqi president, the Americans deployed 600 soldiers - special forces, engineering troops and support forces of the 4th Infantry Division of the US Army.

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 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.

According to Al-Arabia news agency, Saddam Hussein was hanged at the headquarters of the Iraqi military intelligence, located in the Shiite quarter of Baghdad al-Khaderniyya.

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.

Having occupied neighboring Kuwait, Hussein thereby became one of the worst enemies in the face 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 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.

— Awards and titles
* Order of Merit, 1st Class (Wisam al-Jadara)
* Order of the Republic
* Order of Perfection
* Order of the Two Rivers, I degree (Al-Rafidan, military) (July 1, 1973)
* Order of the Two Rivers (Al-Rafidan, civil) (February 7, 1974)
* Master of Military Science (February 1, 1976)
* Marshal (since 1979)
* Order of the Revolution, 1st class (July 30, 1983)
* Honorary Doctor of Laws (Baghdad University, 1984)
* Order of the People (April 28, 1988)
*Medal of Merit for Oil Refining
* Medal for the suppression of the Kurdish uprising
*Baath Party Medal
* Order of Stara Planina

— Other facts
* Saddam Hussein became the first head of state to be executed in the 21st century.
* Over the years of his reign, Saddam executed 17 of his own ministers and two sons-in-law.
* According to Human Rights Watch, some 290,000 people went missing during Saddam Hussein's rule.
* 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."
* After 1990, Saddam never left Iraq.
* 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", in 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), "Live from Baghdad"