The book by the outstanding American historian and philosopher Geoffrey Barton Russell presents the history of the personification of evil, which the author himself calls the Devil, although at different times and among different peoples his name, gender and number have changed. The devil is just the name of evil. The author does not undertake to judge the “objective reality” of the Devil, what the Devil “really” is. His goal is to trace the formation of traditional ideas about the Devil and thus get closer to understanding the essence of evil. It is for this purpose that the American scientist traces the history of Hindu, Buddhist, Egyptian and Zoroastrian ideas about the evil principle and shows their influence on the formation of the ancient and Judeo-Christian concept of the Devil.