[en] The paper discusses the basic principles of plasma production and heating by using long-wave laser radiation. Also, some possible schemes of thermonuclear reactor are considered. With the aid of long-wave lasers, a hot plasma can be obtained practically in any magnetic configuration irrespective of the method of inducing the field itself; therefore, these lasers can find wide application in all kinds of experiments. Using this method it is possible to heat a plasma even under conditions when other methods is very difficult or impossible to use (for instance, in the case of a plasma surrounded with a cold gas). The calculations presented are of a purely qualitative nature