1: Invited Reviews 1.- Introductory Remarks.- Backgrounds and the Big Bang: Some Extracts from Their History.- Measurement and Implications of the Cosmic Microwave Background Spectrum.- Of Cosmic Background Anisotropies.- Status of the Relict-2 Mission and Our Future Plans.- Fluctuations in the Microwave Sky.- Radio Galaxies and Quasars as Cosmological Probes.- High Redshift Radio Galaxies.- Cold Material in Distant Radio Galaxies.- A Search for Gravitational...