Tribal "grads" as type of the initial urbanization of Ancient Russia

The paper is devoted to the study of the role and importance of the original Slavic and Finno-Ugric tribal centers for the period of formation of the Old Russian nation and the Old Russian state (VIII-XI centuries). The main attention is paid to the functions of these new formations and ways of their inclusion in a single Old Russian state. The problem of tribal centers is considered on the basis of modern achievements of Russian science.