The Bosnian war is often explained in terms of ancient hatred or inability of post-communist society to go through a peaceful transition. Both arguments tend to omit a decade immediately prior to the war, which inevitably led to a bloody collapse of the society. The author covers this period, which was characterized by strong communist rule, beginning in 1972 and ending in the 1980s as a consequence of a series of political and economic scandals. It was the "Agrokomerc Scandal" (uncovered in 1987) that brought down the political and economic elite of communist Bosnia. This changed the political scene completely, the economy deteriorated, and society that had been suppressed during communist rule, emerged. New, inexperienced and weak leadership - under conditions of unprecedented economic crisis - led to the liberalized Bosnia of 1989. A wave of nationalism from Serbia, and later from Croatia, found fertile ground, although it was mainly resisted by the single-party system: however, it was democracy that allowed nationalism to gain a foothold in Bosnia.