The relevance of the proposed topic is determined by the fact that the influence of geographical location and natural and climatic conditions on the economic activity of people remains one of the most important factors in the development of the economy and the territorial division of labor. This was especially significant for pre-industrial traditional communities, in whose economic life cattle breeding played the main role. An equally important role in the civilizational development of society is played by the city as an artificial phenomenon in the formation of the living space of a certain part of the population. In this article, the author aims to consider the role of the city in the economic life of the nomads of the Eurasian steppe zone in the 16th–19th centuries. On the example of Bashkirs, Nogais, Kazakhs and Kalmyks. Proceeding from the law of unity and struggle of opposites as a dialectical method of cognition, an attempt was made, on the basis of a number of documentary sources and literature, to show the contradiction and relationship between sedentary (city) and nomadism (nomadic community) of pre-industrial society. As a result of the study of the problem, it was revealed that the connection of nomads with the city was a necessary condition for the preservation of their community. It is shown that the routes of seasonal movements of the steppes passed near the cities. The city was a place of barter, mutually beneficial for both city dwellers and nomads. In the XVI–XIX centuries. the city became one of the instruments of sedentarization and integration of nomadic peoples into the Russian state

The relevance of the proposed topic is determined by the fact that the influence of geographical location and natural and climatic conditions on the economic activity of people remains one of the most important factors in the development of the economy and the territorial division of labor. This was especially significant for pre-industrial traditional communities, in whose economic life cattle breeding played the main role. An equally important role in the civilizational development of society is played by the city as an artificial phenomenon in the formation of the living space of a certain part of the population. In this article, the author aims to consider the role of the city in the economic life of the nomads of the Eurasian steppe zone in the 16th–19th centuries. On the example of Bashkirs, Nogais, Kazakhs and Kalmyks. Proceeding from the law of unity and struggle of opposites as a dialectical method of cognition, an attempt was made, on the basis of a number of documentary sources and literature, to show the contradiction and relationship between sedentary (city) and nomadism (nomadic community) of pre-industrial society. As a result of the study of the problem, it was revealed that the connection of nomads with the city was a necessary condition for the preservation of their community. It is shown that the routes of seasonal movements of the steppes passed near the cities. The city was a place of barter, mutually beneficial for both city dwellers and nomads. In the XVI–XIX centuries. the city became one of the instruments of sedentarization and integration of nomadic peoples into the Russian state