During the past seven years the National Academy of Sciences of the US and the Academy of Sciences of the USSR have jointly sponsored five symposia on current topics in the theory of condensed matter. These symposia have made possible a significant transfer of scientific information in both directions and have led to the establishment of many useful personal contacts between the scientists of the two countries. In this article we wish to describe briefly the history and organization of the symposia, and discuss in some detail the most recent symposium in the series, which was held in Moscow during the week of 14 October 1974.