The Syrian communist leader who remained the leader of the Communist party of Syria from 1932 to 1958. He was jailed in 1931 and 1932 by the French. He ousted Fuad ash Shamali from leadership of the Syrian Communist party in 1932. In 1935 he led the Syrian delegation of the Communist International to Moscow. In 1954 he was elected in the Syrian parliament, the first communist, in the Arab world to do so. In 1958 Syria united with Egypt whose President Gamel Abdul Nasser did not want communism uprising. So Baqdash fled to Russia and stayed there from 1958 to 1966. In 1966, he returned to Syria and again resumed the leadership of the Communist party in Syria.