Instantons versus supersymmetry

The present review is a revised version of lectures given at the Bakuriani (Georgia) Workshop on High Energy Physics (January 1985). A discussion is given of the recently discovered phenomenon of instanton-generated dynamical symmetry breaking in supersymmetric gauge theories with matter. For a definite choice of the matter multiplets, the gauge invariance is necessarily spontaneously broken, the gauge bosons acquire mass, the variation of the coupling constant ceases, and a weak-coupling regime sets in. This sometimes also involves spontaneous breakdown of the supersymmetry. A description is given of the fundamental aspects as well as the specific dynamical scenarios realized in the most typical models.