Preparing for the LHC Experiments

The 'Large Hadron Collider', LHC, is in preparation at CERN. Proton-proton collisions at energies of up to 14 TeV will probe the laws of the fundamental interactions at effective energies of 1 TeV or higher. At these energies, today's 'Standard Model' predicts the observation of new fundamental processes. Furthermore, this description may have to be expanded to a more global theory. The discovery potential of the LHC, and the strategies chosen by the experimental team is described. The need for international collaboration is discussed with a number of examples. The important contributions of Russian groups to the LHC experiments are explained.