The 16th Hilbert problem, a story of mystery, mistakes and solution

Hilbert's problem of the topology of algebraic curves and surfaces (the 16th problem from the famous list presented at the second International Congress of Mathematicians in 1900) was difficult to formulate. The way it was formulated made it difficult to anticipate that it has been solved. I believe it has, and this happened more than thirty years ago, although the World Mathematical Community missed to acknowledge this.