The latest issue of the "Cave" (issue 41) was formed on the basis of the materials of the scientific and practical conference "Underground spaces: methods of study, monitoring, protection and use", which was held in conjunction with the II Congress of the Russian Union of Speleologists and the Meeting of the Association of Speleologists of the Urals. These events were held on December 12-16, 2018 in Kungur on the basis of the Kungur laboratory-hospital of the Mining Institute of the Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences PFIC and were dedicated to the 70th anniversary of its activities.

Currently, the hospital's research work is related to the study of the engineering and geological conditions of urbanized territories, the construction of geotechnical, geological, hydrogeological, geoecological maps of the city of Kungur, the creation of a map of karst rocks of the Perm Territory, work is underway to monitor the state of the Kungur Ice Cave and study its geological features.

Among the interesting events of 2018, it should be noted the international symposium "KARST 2018" Expect the Unexpected "in Trebinje (Bosnia and Herzegovina), dedicated to the 80th anniversary of the famous karstologist, Professor Petar Milanovich. The symposium was organized by the University of Belgrade, the Faculty of Mining and Geology, the Center for Hydrogeology of Karst, Belgrade, and the Dabar Hydroelectric Power Station (Trebinje). The symposium was attended by over 150 karst experts from 23 countries.

In 2018, the editorial board of the collection expanded, which at that moment already included David J. Lowe, an employee of the British Geological Survey, editor of the journal Cave and Karst science (Great Britain) and A. Kranjc from the Karst Institute (Postojna, Slovenia) . The new members were G.V. Samokhin (Taurida National University named after V.I. Vernadsky) and A.L. Shelepin (Moscow Technological University).

Gennady Viktorovich is the chairman of the Council of the Russian Union of Speleologists, the organizer and leader of the Crimean Speleological Club at Taurida National University named after V. I. Vernadsky, scientific secretary of the Crimean department of the Russian Geographical Society, president of the Ukrainian Speleological Association from 2007 to 2010, member of the editorial board of the International Speleological Journal "Svet" (Kiev).

Alexei Leonidovich - Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, Professor of Moscow Technological University, Co-Chair of the Speleology and Karst Studies Commission of the Moscow City Branch of the Russian Geographical Society.

Of the pleasant events of the past year, it is worth noting the creation of the information-search system "Caves" (https://speleoatlas.ru) - this is the most comprehensive database of caves in Russia and neighboring countries explored over the past century. This project, created under the leadership of A. L. Shelepin (project manager) and G.V. Samokhin (deputy project manager) under the auspices of the Russian Geographical Society, is designed to introduce everyone to the wonderful world in the bowels of the Earth.

The page of the collection "Caves" (nsi.psu.ru/cave) continues to work on the website of the Institute of Natural Sciences of Perm University, where full-text versions of all issues are available. The section of specialized scientific publications "The Speleology and Karst Library" is constantly updated with new full-text materials.

The popularity of the collection is determined by the relevance of published materials and the richness of information. We appeal to readers to actively cooperate with the editors and send a variety of materials about the caves.

Nikolay Maksimovich, the Editor-in-Chief e-mail: nmax@psu.ru