A brief survey is given of the various physical, astronomical and radioastronomical data pertaining to cosmic ray nuclei with energies above 1 Gev. A theory is then outlined, the details of which are due to Ginzburg and Syrovatskii, in which it is suggested that these cosmic rays are produced in supernovae and that their properties—such as chemical composition, energy spectrum and spatial distribution—are determined partly by their acceleration in and ejection from the sources and partly by various physical processes occurring during the passage of the cosmic rays from their sources to the earth.