s of the brief communications have been published in the form of a special issue of the Journal of Steroid Biochemistry (Volume 9, No. 9, September, 1978). The scientific program of the Congress was opened by the plenary lecture of Prof. E. Diczfalusy (Sweden): "Gregory Pincus and steroid contraceptives: a new step in the history of mankind." His lecture was devoted to the history of the creation and further improvement of oral contraceptives. This problem is of prime importance in a number of developing countries of Asia and Africa and it is therefore not surprising that the discussion of questions connected with the possible regulation of the size of the family with the aid of steroid hormones was given no little value at the Congress. Among other plenary lectures, the attention of chemists was attracted by that of R. Breslow (U.S.A.) on "The use of a matrix in the synthesis of steroids." Four lectures were heard at a symposium on "Advances in the chemistry of steroids." Of these the most interesting was that of U. Eder (West Berlin) on "The total synthesis of natural and unnatural steroid hormones," in which methods for the synthesis of estrone, 8~-H derivatives of estrone, and 7~and 78-methyl estrones and of a 19-dinorsteroid and of some racemic C-norhomosteroids with the aid of a single "building block~" including steroid rings Translated from Khimiya Prirodnykh Soedinenii, No. 2, pp. 245-246, March-April, 1979. 216 0009-3130/79/1502-0216507.50 © 1979 Plenum Publishing Corporation C and D were discussed, and a lecture by G. H. Phillips (United Kingdom) on the synthesis of some water-soluble steroids and the dependence of the anesthetic properties of the compounds obtained on their structure. Members of the Soviet delegation gave several lectures. In the "Steroid-protein interaction" section, a communication of "The influence of structural and steric changes in the molecule of estradiol on the migration of the estrogen-receptor complex from the cytoplasm into the cell nucleus of the rabbit uterus" was given by G. A. Chernyaev (a member of the tourist group) in the name of a group of authors including T. I. Barkov, S. N. Ananchenko, and I. B. Sorokin. In the "Metabolism" section, K. A. Koshhenko delivered a lecture on the subject: "Features of the transformation of steroid compounds by microorganisms when deposited on polyacrylamide gel." Two other lectures were delivered in the chemical section: by I. S. Levina (tourist group) on the pentaranes -a new class of active gestagens -(coauthors A. V. Kamernitskii and G. E. Kulikova) and by the author of the present note on the determination of the structures of new phytoecdysones (coauthors M. B. Gorovits and B. Z. Usmanov). Friendly relationships exist between the Soviet and the Indian scientists working in the field of bioorganic chemistry: combined symposia on the chemistry of natural compounds are held regularly, every two years, alternately in the Soviet Union and in India. The last, fifth, Indo-Soviet symposium was held in May, 1978, in Erevan. The Soviet delegation met some of the participants of the symposia again in India. Congresses of this type permit investigators with different points of view to approach and evaluate more profoundly the modern problems and tasks facing a concrete area of understanding and to determine the level of scientific work existing at a given moment, and the contacts of specialists with different interests promote the mutual enrichment on thoughts and ideas.