Published online by Cambridge University Press: 17 April 2009
We survey the present trends in theory of universal arrows to forgetful functors from various categories of topological algebra and functional analysis to categories of topology and topological algebra. Among them are free topological groups, free locally convex spaces, free Banach-Lie algebras, and more. An accent is put on the relationship of those constructions with other areas of mathematics and their possible applications. A number of open problems is discussed; some of them belong to universal arrow theory, and other may become amenable to the methods of this theory.