The book examines legends about the creation of earth and man, the emergence of good and evil, and the emergence of shamanism; shows how myth becomes history, and history becomes myth. At the same time, the author tries to talk not only and not so much about the myths themselves, but about the type of social consciousness that generated them, about the patterns and paradoxes of mythological thinking. Turning to these stories allows us to answer the question of why a myth can be not only a fact of public consciousness, but also the driving force of popular movements. The book is intended for ethnographers, historians, etc. wide range of readers.