General problems of human evolution and culture in the post-Soviet space are discussed extremely rarely. In the international scientific division of labor, post-Soviet researchers do not occupy the most prominent place, mainly acting as “suppliers of information raw materials” for their Western colleagues. A book by the famous researcher L.B. Vishnyatsky is called upon to once again draw attention to the issues of the early history of mankind, the solution of which largely determines how people understand their own past, and in general, their place in the world. The work is a course of lectures given at the Higher Anthropological School. The author introduces the reader to “prehistory” (the history of human society in the preliterate period), to the latest ideas about primitive humanity, and to the problems facing the scientific community. For most of the issues discussed, literature from 2001 is taken into account, which makes the publication especially relevant.