The role of anode processes in the formation of self-organized glow discharge (GD) structure is analyzed in the case of spherical diode, the latter, as well as a short plane diode, being characterized by the absence of a positive column. The results of numerical calculations are compared with the experimental GD current-voltage characteristics and the electric field strength distributions measured by the probe method. It is shown that the boundary conditions at the anode should be formulated with regard for a possibility of a potential drop at the anode. In this case, the calculated diode potential decreases significantly and corresponds to experimentally observed results. K e y w o r d s: glow discharge, spherical diode, short diode, electric field, anode processes, fluid model, current-voltage characteristics.