The phase transitions and superconductivity are the two summits of physics which were conquered in the second part of the twentieth century. They are connected by the mountain-range, which is called superconducting fluctuations. My lecture will be devoted to discussion of the latter.

I will start from recalling of some facts of the history of superconductivity and then concentrate on the novel superconductors, where fluctuations play an important role. I will discuss their wave nature close to critical temperature remaining in the framework of Ginzburg-Landau ideas, using only the Heisenberg principle, and handwaving to obtain the necessary evaluations. Then, moving along the line, separating superconducting and normal phase in the phase diagram “temperature-magnetic field”, I will approach the point of quantum phase transition at zero temperature and will show how the waves break in vortices and the Abrikosov’s lattice is formed.

Finally I will show several impressive manifestations of superconducting fluctuations in physical properties of superconductors and will explain how they can be used in order to investigate the modern superconducting systems.