The booklet describes approaches used in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics to prevent blindness. It contrasts conditions prior to 1917 (300 eye doctors mainly located in large cities and 2,000 hospital beds for the 300,000 totally blind and 7,000,000 people with trachoma) with conditions in 1971 when in the Ukraine alone there were 3,000 eye doctors and 10,000 hospital beds. It discusses development of a health delivery plan in 1920 which involved mobile groups and a later stationary network of antitrachoma institutions headed by the Helmholtz Eye Diseases Research Institute. It notes functions of six scientific research ophthalmological institutes, 100 medical institutes for training medical workers, research laboratories, scientific societies, and institutions such as children's eye hospitals. Glaucoma, which causes blindness, and nearsightedness, which leads to eye disabilities are cited as problems, preventions noted are examinations of the over-40-year old population and attention to favorable conditions for visual work. Children are said to receive eye examinations in preschool and schools. Research on eye damage is seen to have resulted in safety and sanitary measures in factories and on farms with subsequent reduction of eye damage by a factor of six. Mentioned among achievements are a state standard on protective eyeglasses, methods of locating alien bodies in the eye, treatment of eye burns, and new methods of surgery such as ultra sound surgery. (Photographs are included that show techniques used in ophthalmology.) (MC)