To appreciate the weight of Bespuća , one must understand the position of the author at the time of writing. Franjo Tuđman was a paradoxical figure: a highly decorated Partisan general from World War II who eventually became a vocal critic of the communist regime he helped build. By the 1980s, he had been imprisoned for his nationalist views and had established himself as a dissident historian.
Written just as the Iron Curtain was rusting, the book served as a revisionist challenge to the official Yugoslav narrative, particularly regarding the Second World War and the staggering number of victims at the Jasenovac concentration camp.
The most explosive and enduringly controversial part of “Bespuća” is the chapter titled “O historijatu umnožaba ratnih zločina i stvaranja 'jasenovačkog' mita i 'bleiburškog' mita” (On the Multiplication of War Crimes and the Creation of the ‘Jasenovac’ Myth and the ‘Bleiburg’ Myth). In this section, Tuđman directly challenges established historical narratives about key WWII-era atrocities, focusing on the death toll of the Jasenovac concentration camp and the post-war "Way of the Cross" and repatriations known as the Bleiburg tragedy. franjo tudman bespuca povijesne zbiljnosti pdf
Understanding Bespuća is essential for any scholar wanting to understand the rhetoric of the Croatian War of Independence (1991-1995). It provided the intellectual ammunition for Franjo Tuđman’s HDZ party to argue that Croatia was a victim of both the Serb-dominated Yugoslavia and historical misrepresentation.
Do you have a critical perspective on Tuđman’s work? Have you read the book? Let’s discuss in the comments below. To appreciate the weight of Bespuća , one
Rare in print; primarily accessed via academic archives and scanned digital documents.
Key themes discussed in Bespuća include: Written just as the Iron Curtain was rusting,
Bespuća povijesne zbiljnosti is not an easy book to read, nor is it an easy book to judge. It stands at the crossroads of history, ideology, and the birth of a nation.
Written in 1988, just years before the breakup of Yugoslavia, Bespuća povijesne zbiljnosti (Horrors of War/Wastelands of Historical Reality) is arguably the most controversial and significant political book in modern Croatian history. It is a dense, complex, and often polarizing work that serves as both a historical treatise and a political manifesto.
Knjiga se rijetko ponovno tiska u svom izvornom obliku iz 1989. godine. Antikvarni primjerci su skupi i teško ih je pronaći.