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\section{Foreword}

These notes form a brief overview of  basic topics in a usual
introductory course of algebraic topology. They were 
prepared for my series of lectures at the Okayama University in 2002
and rewritten in 2013.
They cannot substitute standard textbooks. The technical proofs
of several important theorems are omitted and many other theorems
are not proved in full generality. However, in all such cases
I have tried to give  references to well known textbooks the list of
which you can find at the end.

I would like to express my acknowledgements to my former student
Richard Lastovecki whose comments helped me to correct and
improve the text.

The notes are available online in electronic form at
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\url{http://is.muni.cz/el/1431/jaro2013/M8130/um/39015882/}
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