The review describes modern achievements of the physics of plasma--wall interactions in tokamaks. The main methods allowing a reduction of the energy of the particles incident on the first wall and, thus, important for the prevention of wall erosion, are described in an easily understandable form. The conditions required for the formation of strong near-wall material recycling are briefly considered. The heat and mass transport processes in the peripheral region of the plasma as well as electric arc discharges on walls of tokamaks are discussed.