The collection contains studies on the history of the formation of the state territory of the Old Russian principalities formed in the X-XII centuries. Carefully analyzing written sources and attracting new archaeological material, the authors trace in detail the formation and change of the borders of the principalities, the formation of administrative centers, the development of cities, and clarify certain points in the political history of the "lands." Historical and geographical essays are devoted to the Kyiv, Chernihiv, Pereyaslavsky, Smolensk, Polotsk principalities, Novgorod land, as well as the Polovtsian steppe.