The author is trying to find out how great was the influence of cities in Ulus Juchi and what were the reasons for the emergence of the cities in the steppe. In addition, the article deals with the discussion problem of correlating archaeological remains of the Golden Horde settlements with the types of settlements - cities, towns and villages. He thoroughly analyzes the conceptual approaches in science to the periodization of the urbanization of the Golden Horde, and also criticizes the existing principles of interpretation of archeological monuments. The author offers a number of criteria for the legitimacy of relating the archaeological monument to the city of the Golden Horde era. These are the following parameters: the exceptionally large size of the monument, the presence of a rich finds on the surfase of the ground, including the remains of a tabelware and a container utensils, including glazed ceramics, the availability of a rich numismatic material, the presence of remains of buildings built of burned bricks, the presence of a powerful cultural layer, the presence of a large number of handicraft items among the finds, the availability of evidence of transit trade (items of imports and trade equipment), the possibility of relating the monument to the Golden Horde city that mentioned in written sources, the presence of local coinage. In addition, one must take into account whether the given settlement was considered a city in the Middle Ages.
