Viktor Kalashnikov wondered: where is the legend about the oldest Russian gods and spirits of nature? And I found the answer: they are in fairy tales, which we sometimes take lightly, considering them fun for young children. It is only necessary to cut off everything superfluous, to remove age-old layers, to separate what existed in a distant era from the subsequent influence of Christianity and secular culture. This is what the author did, and as a result, a book was born, the heroes of which - brownies and goblin, water and banniki, kikimors, mavki, pharaohs, poleviki, midday and other evil spirits - turn out to be not just folklore characters and objects of folk beliefs.