This volume contains 18 papers at the Algebraic Geometry Conference, Yaroslavl', August 10-14, 1992. These conferences in algebraic geometry have a great tradition in Russia and are helt since 1979 in Yaroslavl' every second year. The present conference, the eighth one, was the first in which several foreign mathematicians participated. From the Russian side, there was a large group of specialists in algebraic geometry and related fields (invariant theory, topology of manifolds, theory of categories, mathematical physics etc.). Lectures on modern directions in algebraic geometry, such as the...