This book came into existence for two reasons. The first reason is Franjo Tudjman's book Wilderness of Historical Reality itself. The book is subtitled "A Treatise on the History and Philosophy of Evil Brutality," and so as a philosopher I was interested in its contents. The second reason is the real flood of writings and articles in the international media attacking Tudjman, provoked by his book. In reading these writings I came to the conclusion that, even if people are against Wilderness, that does not mean that they offer any kind of path out of the wilderness.

It is striking that the contents of the texts attacking Tudjman are almost identical to the contents of anti-Croatian texts published before the appearance of Wilderness. Hence the logical question follows: why is Wilderness under attack? I will attempt to answer this question here.

In this book I have limited myself primarily to English- language articles, along with a few examples in Russian and French. Hundreds of other unmentioned names that stand behind each individual name mentioned in this book, represent similar political opinions about Tudjman and about Croatia.

It would be a mistake for any of the authors I mention to take this text as a personal attack. I am interested only in opinions as such, not in the people who hold the opinions. Therefore, I would like to state that I respect the dignity of every person mentioned in this book, in particular His Holiness, Patriarch Pavle of the Serbian Orthodox Church. My book is an attempt to approach the question of evil (from which the latest Serbian-Croatian war springs) through dialogue. There is one truth, but one side in a conflict cannot claim to possess the whole truth.

I have no intention of returning to this topic (aside from polemics about this book). I have rather chosen the field of my scholarly activity: study of the medieval thought of the Slavic peoples (mainly the Russians, Ukrainians, Serbs, Bulgarians and Croats).

This study was finished at the end of March, 1992, before open Serbian aggression began in my native republic, Bosnia-Hercegovina. The international reactions to these events also form a topic worthy of study.

I dedicate this book to the refugees from the war in Bosnia-Hercegovina (especially my sister Mara, her three children, ages 7, 3 and 1, and my mother) and to all the brave defenders (especially my father and brother) whose stories, drowned out by propaganda, were not told in the international news media.

Anto Knezevic