This study, which was a paper delivered at the plenary session of the Vlth meeting of historians of Yugoslavia, wholly devoted to the question of the relationship between the city and the countryside, presents, first of all general methodological questions connected with the sources for the above-mentioned problem and connected with their analysis. In the second part of the study the author treats central problems arising out of the relationship between the countryside and the city in the history of the regions of Yugoslav nations since the period of antiquity. These problems are arranged into three cycles (the problems of history of colonization, economy and politics).