  The formulation of QCD which contains no divergences and no renormalization
procedure is presented. It contains both perturbative and non-perturbative
phenomena. It is shown that, due to its asymptotically free nature, the theory
is not defined uniquely. The chiral symmetry breaking and the nature of the
octet of pseudo-scalar particles as quasi-Goldstone states are analysed in the
theory with massless and massive quarks. The U(1) problem is discussed.
  =======================================================================
  Note: The original version of the paper completed by the author in April 1997
was submitted to the hep-ph archive (hep-ph/9708424) a few days after Prof.
V.N. Gribov passed away on August 13, 1997.
  This is the first of the two papers concluding his 20 year long study of the
problem of quark confinement in QCD. In an attempt to understand the paper by a
group of his colleagues, started in November 1997 in Orsay, this annotated
version appeared. A number of misprints were eliminated, most of the equations
were checked, and some corrected. Comments have been added in order to make the
text easier to read. These comments are displayed in square brackets. Many
theorists participated in the process; the comments were assembled and the
final version prepared by Yu. Dokshitzer, C. Ewerz, A. Kaidalov, A. Mueller, J.
Nyiri and A. Vainshtein. The second paper ``The theory of quark confinement''
will soon be published.
