The Thirteenth International Congress of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics was held in Moscow from Monday, 21 August, to Saturday, 26 August 1972. About 2500 participants from 37 countries all over the world attended the congress that was convened by the Congress Committee of the International Union of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics. The local or ganization lay in the hands of the Organizing Committee, established by the USSR National Committee on Theoretical and Applied Mechanics. The USSR Academy of Sciences rendered partial financial help to the organization of th8 congress. The Organizing Committee was assisted by the Institute of Problems of Mechanics of the USSR Academy of Sciences, by the Research Institute for Mechanics of Moscow University, and by the Computing Center and the Institute of Applied Mathematics of the USSR Academy of Sciences. The Bureau of IUTAM had allocated a considerable sum for partial financial support of young scientists attending the congress. The Thirteenth Congress was officially opened on Monday morning at the Kremlin Palace of Congresses by Academician N. 1. Muskhelishvili, President of the Congress, and Professor W. T. Koiter, President of IUTAM. Greeting addresses were offered by: Mr. K. N. Rudnev, Minister, member of the Council of Ministers of the USSR, Academician M. V. Keldysh, President of the USSR Academy of Sciences, Mr. L. N.

Inhalt
General Lectures.- Control theory for random systems.- The numerical analysis of structures.- Aquatic animal locomotion.- Perspective in phenomenological approach to the problem of fracture.- Ship hydrodynamics.- Sectional Lectures.- Some phenomena accompanying high-speed collision of solids.- The microrheology of human erythrocyte suspensions.- Gas dynamics from the point of view of kinetic theory.- Creep buckling of plates and shells.- On the dynamics of a system of rigid bodies.- Foundations of shell theory.- Drag reduction by polymer addition.- Experimental fluid mechanics: the impact of modern instrumentation.- The mechanics of the surf zone.- Inverse methods in two-dimensional elasticity.- Electrohydrodynamics.- A review of optimal structural design.- Flow in porous media.- Turbulent shear layer predicition on the basis of the transport equations for the Reynolds stresses.- High speed water motion.- On two ways of constructing the theory of elastic shells.- The problem of non-uniqueness and stability in the non-linear mechanics of continuous media.