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The book contains a nice presentation of the theory of three-dimensional topology, playing an important role in contemporary mathematics and in mathematical physics. The following is a list of titles of the chapters. Chapter 1: Preliminary information (includes a review of general topology, fundamental groups and coverings, manifolds, algorithms, etc.). Chapter 2: Surfaces (including the classification of surfaces, Dehn lemma and the loop theorem). Chapter 3: The homeotopy group of a surface (that is, the mapping class group; includes braid groups, the finite generation of the homeotopy group by Dehn twists and the homeotopy group of a handlebody). Chapter 4: The presentation of three-dimensional manifolds by the identification of faces of polyhedra (includes three-manifolds with cone singularities, lens spaces, manifolds of genus 1). Chapter 5: Heegaard splittings and Heegaard diagrams (includes the stable equivalence of Heegaard splittings, the wave transformation of Heegaard diagrams, Heegaard diagrams of genus 2, and a section on the enumeration of three-manifolds). Chapter 6: Algorithmic recognition of the sphere (formulation of the classification problem for three-manifolds and an algorithm for the recognition of the three-dimensional sphere in the class of manifolds of genus 2). Chapter 7: Connected sums (includes irreducible and prime manifolds, normal surfaces, existence and uniqueness of decomposition into prime summands). Chapter 8: Knots and links (distributive groupoids, the Conway approach, the invariant \(w\), the linking coefficients). Chapter 9: Surgery along links (framed links, cobordism, the Kirby calculus, presentation of homology sphere, Heegaard diagrams of homology spheres). Chapter 10: Seifert manifolds (Euler number, fiberwise classification, fundamental group, incompressibility of the boundary, irreducibility, annuli, topological classification, small Seifert manifolds). Chapter 11: The class \(\mathcal H\) (that is, three-manifolds obtained by gluing several copies of \(D^2 \times S^1\) and \(N^2\times S^1\) along their boundaries, where \(D^2\) is the two-disk and where \(N^2\) is \(D^2\) with two holes; classification of manifolds in this class; the class \(\mathcal H\) and iterated torus links). Chapter 12: The Haken method (normal surfaces as solutions of systems of equations, geometric summation, the Haken algorithm, stability and an algorithm for the recognition of the trivial knot). Chapter 13: Comments and figures (a lot of beautiful figures pictured by Fomenko). This book can be recommended for every mathematician or physicist interested in three-dimensional topology (from graduate student to researcher). The first Russian edition has already been published in 1991 (see Zbl 0748.57005) and translated into English in 1997 (see Zbl 0885.57009).