Among the finest achievements in modern mathematics are two of L.S. Pontryagin''s most notable contributions: Pontryagin duality and his general theory of characters of a locally compact commutative group. This book, the first in a four-volume set, contains the most important papers of this eminent mathematician, those which have influenced many generations of mathematicians worldwide. They chronicle the development of his work in many areas, from his early efforts in homology groups, duality theorems, and dimension theory to his later achievements in homotopic topology and optimal control theory.  On 3 September 1983 Lev Semenovich Pontryagin was seventy-five. To mark this important event in the life of this outstanding contemporary mathematician we are beginning the publication of his scientific works in four volumes, according to a decision taken by the Mathematics Division of the USSR Academy of Sciences. The first volume contains the most important mathematical papers of L. S. Pontryagin and also includes a bibliography of his basic scientific works, the second is his well-known monograph Topological Groups, the third comprises two monographs, Foundations of Algebraic Topology and Smooth Manifolds and Their Applications in Homotopy Theory, and the fourth is a revised edition of The Mathematical Theory of Optimal Processes by L. S. Pontryagin, V. G. Boltyanskii, R. V. Gamkrelidze, and E. F. Mishchenko.
