The book is based on the course on general relativity given regularly at the Physics Department of Novosibirsk University. The course, lasting for one semester, consists of 32 hours of lectures and 32 hours of tutorials, plus ho- work of 10 – 12 problems. The exam is passed by 30 – 35 students. The results of the homework and exam give good reasons to believe that at least 20 – 25 of these students really digest the subject. The course requires of students the knowledge of analytical mechanics and classical electrodynamics, including special relativity. Only chapters 7 and 10 of the book are in this respect exceptions: the acquaintance with the notion of spin is useful for studying chapter 7, the fundamentals of thermodynamics and quantum mechanics are necessary for the last chapter. But these parts of thebookcanbeskippedwithoutanylossforunderstandingallotherchapters. The book (as well as the course itself) is in?uenced essentially by the monographbyL.D.LandauandE.M.Lifshitz,TheClassicalTheoryofFields, (Butterworth – Heinemann, 1975). However, I strived to make the exposition as close as possible to a common university course of physics, to make it accessible not only for theorists.
