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Роль революции 1958 г. и конфликта с ОАР в судьбе политических партий Ирака
The purpose of the article is to examine how the 1958 revolution and the subsequent internal political debate over the immediate unification of Iraq and the United Arab Republic (UAR) influenced the fate of Iraqi political parties. In conducting their research, the authors rely on English and Russian-language literature. The article provides a brief history of the formation of Iraqi political parties from the 1920s until the 1958 revolution, outlines their agendas, lists key party figures, and describes the policy of the monarchical regime toward political parties. Special attention is paid to the creation and objectives of the United National Front, formed on the eve of the revolution. Established in 1957 as an alliance of Iraqi opposition parties – both legal (the National Democratic Party (NDP) and Istiqlal) and underground (the Iraqi Communist Party (ICP) and the Ba'ath Party) – the Front also saw its efforts unofficially supported by the Kurdish Democratic Party (KDP), though the latter did not formally join. In the 1950s, the idea of Arab unity was extremely strong in Iraq. After the proclamation of the Iraqi Republic, political forces split into two camps: those in favor of immediate unification with the UAR and those implicitly opposed. This issue became the main cause of the rift between the country’s two leaders – Abd as-Salam Arif and Abd al-Karim Qasim. Arif rallied pan-Arabists advo-cating union with the UAR, while Qasim consolidated forces unwilling to merge immediately. A pivotal event that shaped relations between political forces was the Mosul uprising of March 1959, which marked a formal victory for Qasim and the Communists over Arif and the pan-Arab forces. However, it also marked the beginning of deteriorating relations between Qasim and the ICP. The division over the UAR issue directly affected the Front, which managed to maintain cohesion until late 1958 but effectively ceased operations by the second half of 1959. In January 1960, the authorities began officially registering political parties for the first time since the revolution. Each faction of the Front faced this milestone differently, ultimately leading to their complete divergence. The ICP was denied registration, lead-ing to the communists' complete loss of political standing. The NDP successfully completed the registration process but subsequently faced an internal crisis that significantly diminished its political activity. While the KDP failed to obtain registration, it continued its efforts to advocate for the rights of Iraqi Kurds. "Istiqlal" terminated its active operations in the second half of 1958, making any possibility of its official registration out of the question. Following the unsuccessful assassination attempt on Qasim in autumn 1959, the Ba'ath Party completely abandoned any attempts to resume legal political activities under the existing regime. Consequently, by the beginning of 1960, all participant parties of the Front had irrevocably gone their separate ways.