This book was written over a period of more than six years. Several months after we finished our work, N.1. Fel'dman (the senior author of the book) died. All additions and corrections entered after his death were made by his coauthor. The assistance of many of our colleagues was invaluable during the writing of the book. They examined parts of the manuscript and suggested many improvements, made useful comments and corrected many errors. I much have pleasure in acknowledging our great indebtedness to them. Special thanks are due to A. B. Shidlovskii, V. G. Chirskii, A.1. Galochkin and O. N....

This textbook, written by a dedicated and successful pedagogue who developed the present undergraduate algebra course at Moscow State University, differs in several respects from other algebra textbooks available in English. The book reflects the Soviet approach to teaching mathematics with its emphasis on applications and problem-solving -- note that the mathematics department in Moscow is called the I echanics-Mathematics" Faculty. In the first place, Kostrikin's textbook motivates many of the algebraic concepts by practical examples, for instance, the heated plate problem used to introduce...