The paper is a brief review of the current data on the structure and function of the Golgi apparatus since its discovery till the recent investigations, including the works published in 1997. Apart from reviewing the electron microscopy level of the structure of the Golgi apparatus, the data are considered on its molecular and supramolecular organization. The paper analyses critically the proposed mechanisms of the intracellular transport of proteins and their processing and modifications in the Golgi apparatus both in terms of the vesicular theory and in a model based on the gradual maturation of the cis-cistern and its transformation to the trans-cistern (i.e. its propagation from one pole to the other, a so-called "progression"). Experimental data are described, which disagree with the current models of the intracellular transport. Based on the literature and authors' own data, a modified model of the intracellular transport is proposed. This model eliminates, to a degree, the contradictions present in the models discussed above.