A scientific session of the Division of General Physics and Astronomy of the Russian Academy of Sciences was held at the P N Lebedev Physical Institute RAS on 2 October 1996. It marked an occasion of the 80th anniversary of the Academician V L Ginzburg’s birth. Nine reports were presented at this session: (1) Opening address of L V Keldysh as the Academician-Secretary of the Division of General Physics and Astronomy of the Russian Academy of Sciences; (2) A F Andreev (P L Kapitza Institute of Physical Problems RAS, Moscow) ’’Bose condensation and spontaneous distortion of the time homogeneity’’ ; (3) E L Feinberg (P N Lebedev Physical Institute RAS, Moscow) ’’Special theory of relativity: how good-faith delusions come about’’; (4) R M Arutyunyan, V L Ginzburg, G F Zharkov (P N Lebedev Physical Institute RAS, Moscow) ’’On the ’giant’ thermoelectric effect in a hollow superconducting cylinder’’; (5) A V Gurevich, K P Zybin, V A Sirota (P N Lebedev Physical Institute RAS, Moscow) ’’Cold dark matter and microlensing’’ ; (6) V V Zheleznyakov (Institute of Applied Physics RAS, Nizhnii Novgorod) ’’Astrophysical plasma in extreme conditions’’; (7) B M Bolotovskii, A V Serov (P N Lebedev Physical Institute RAS, Moscow) ’’On the transient radiation interference with the proper field of an emitting charge’’; (8) E G Maksimov (P N Lebedev Physical Institute RAS, Moscow) ’’Extreme evidences of lacking the strong change-correlation effects in HTSC systems’’; (9) M A Vasil’ev (P N Lebedev Physical Institute RAS, Moscow) ’’Gauge theories of highest spins’’. An abridged version of papers No 3, 4, and 6 is given below.