Every reader interested in understanding the important problems in physics and astrophysics and their historic development over the past 60 years will enjoy this book immensely. The philosophy, history and the individual views of famous scientists of the 20th century known personally to the author, make this book fascinating for non-physicists, too. The book consists of three parts on (I) major problems of physics and astrophysics, (II) the philosophy and history of science and (III) memorial essays on famous physicists. The author is an internationally renowned scientist, who summarises here his life-long experience.

The English version of the book does not di?er essentially from the Rus- 1 sian version . Along with a few notes and new references I included Part II to Article 3 and added some new materials to the 'Nobel' autobiography. Furthermore, Article 7 (M. Cardona and W. Marx "Vitaly L. Ginzburg - a bibliometricstudy"), whichwaspublishedinJournalofSuperconductivityand NovelMagnetism, v.19, No.3-5, July 2006 is included as an appendix. My special thanks are due to Prof. Manuel Cardona and Prof. Werner Marx who kindly allowed publishing their paper as an appendix to this book (with some new minor author's amendments). Also, I am grateful to M.S. Aksent'eva, E.A. Frimer, G.M. Krasnikova and S.G.RudnevfortheirassistanceinthepreparationoftheEnglishmanuscript. Moscow, September 2008 V.L.Ginzburg 1 V.L.Ginzburg, Osverkhprovodimostiiosverkhtekuchesti.Avtobiogra?a (Moskva: Izdatel'styvo Fiziko-matematicheskoi literatury, 2006) Preface to the Russian Edition The Nobel Prize in Physics, 2003 was awarded to A.A. Abrikosov, A.J. L- gett and myself 'for pioneering contribution to the theory of superconductors and super?uids'. It does not mean that the contribution was made in joint works with these authors. Speci?cally, I do not have any joint publications with A.A. Abrikosov and A.J. Leggett.

Every reader interested in understanding the important problems in physics and astrophysics and their historic development over the past 60 years will enjoy this book immensely. The philosophy, history and the individual views of famous scientists of the 20th century known personally to the author, make this book fascinating for non-physicists, too.

The English version of the book does not di?er essentially from the Rus- 1 sian version . Along with a few notes and new references I included Part II to Article 3 and added some new materials to the 'Nobel' autobiography. Furthermore, Article 7 (M. Cardona and W. Marx "Vitaly L. Ginzburg - a bibliometricstudy"), whichwaspublishedinJournalofSuperconductivityand NovelMagnetism, v.19, No.3-5, July 2006 is included as an appendix. My special thanks are due to Prof. Manuel Cardona and Prof. Werner Marx who kindly allowed publishing their paper as an appendix to this book (with some new minor author's amendments). Also, I am grateful to M.S. Aksent'eva, E.A. Frimer, G.M. Krasnikova and S.G.RudnevfortheirassistanceinthepreparationoftheEnglishmanuscript. Moscow, September 2008 V.L.Ginzburg 1 V.L.Ginzburg, Osverkhprovodimostiiosverkhtekuchesti.Avtobiogra?a (Moskva: Izdatel'styvo Fiziko-matematicheskoi literatury, 2006) Preface to the Russian Edition The Nobel Prize in Physics, 2003 was awarded to A.A. Abrikosov, A.J. L- gett and myself 'for pioneering contribution to the theory of superconductors and super?uids'. It does not mean that the contribution was made in joint works with these authors. Speci?cally, I do not have any joint publications with A.A. Abrikosov and A.J. Leggett.