In 1991 the traditional Seminar on stability problems for stochastic models was held
in the town of Suzdal, Russia, from 27 January to 2 February. It was altogether the
14th Seminar on this topic and the fourth Seminar with international participation. The
previous international Seminars on stability problems for stochastic models were held in
1982 in Moscow, in 1985 in Varna (Bulgaria) and in 1987 in Sukhumi. The Suzdal Seminar
was organized by Steklov Mathematical Institute, the Institute for System Studies and
Vladimir Polytechnical Institute. The latter was the host organization.
The Seminar was sponsored by Posad Center in Vladimir (headed by A. A. Mel'nikov),
which granted the main part of the required means, the Center of the Soviet-American
joint venture Dialogue at Moscow State University (headed by V. F. Matveyev), which
provided financing and camera-ready preparation of the present collection of papers, and
COTT cooperative organization (headed by A. A. Eremeyev). We express our gratitude to
all of them.
The Seminar took place in the comfortable Suzdal Tourist Center which turned out to
be very convenient for scientific conferences. This Center is situated in a picturesque place
within the town limits. The unusual weather, with temperatures rising to 25-35 C below
zero on sunny days, was a peculiar addition to the exotic architecture of the ancient Russian
towns Suzdal and Vladimir.
108 specialists in the field of probability theory, mathematical statistics and their
applications took part in the seminar, including 19 foreign guests from 13 countries of Euroupe,
Asia and both Americas. 89 Soviet participants represented scientific centers from 25 cities
of 9 republics.
During 5 working days (one day was set aside to the excursions and the individual
programs of the participants, more than 50 reports were delivered devoted mostly to the
traditional themes of the Seminar. Some of the presented papers are included in this
collection. The rest of them will be published in Russian in the annual series "Stability
Problems for Stochastic Models Proceedings of the Seminar", issued by the Institute
for Systems Studies. These will later be translated into English in the "Journal of Soviet
Mathematics" issued by Plenum Publishers. The abstracts of communications have already
been published in the "Probability Theory and its Applications", Vol. 36, No. 4, 1991.