  One of the most fundamental results in combinatorial optimization is the
polynomial-time 3/2-approximation algorithm for the metric traveling salesman
problem. It was presented by Christofides in 1976 and is well known as "the
Christofides algorithm". Recently, some authors started calling it
"Christofides-Serdyukov algorithm", pointing out that it was published
independently in the USSR in 1978. We provide some historic background on
Serdyukov's findings and a translation of his article from Russian into
English.
