The ancient Romans used the word “terror” to mean fear. Terrorism has been the scourge of humanity for several millennia. But it acquired its greatest scope in the 20th and early 21st centuries. There are currently about 500 terrorist groups and organizations in the world, existing in 70 countries. Every year, more than 5 thousand people die at the hands of terrorists. 90% of terrorist attacks are bomb explosions, shelling and armed attacks, 10% are kidnappings, hostage-taking, aircraft hijackings, etc. Terrorism has different guises. Among the heroes of this book are not only strong guys in camouflage, black masks with machine guns, but also “shadow men”, puppeteers who rain death on the heads of innocent people, including children, as well as lone killers, famous for isolated crimes against famous people. It is enough to name such names as Andrei Zhelyabov, Leonid Krasin, Gavrilo Princip, the Ovechkins, Seko Asahara, Arbi Barayev, Osama bin Laden. But no matter what they are guided by, we should not forget the words of Giuseppe Mazzini, one of the ideologists of terrorism, who is forced to admit that “terror built into a system is a sign of weakness and an expression of fear.”