A cylindrical roller bearing includes a plurality of cylindrical rollers disposed between a circular outer race and a circular inner race without using a retainer. The inner and outer races are devoid of annular flanges extending radially from opposite axial ends of the races for controlling the position of the cylindrical rollers in an axial direction. A pair of thrust bearing plates are disposed on the opposite sides of the outer race for controlling the positions of the outer race and the cylindrical rollers in the axial direction. One or more of the cylindrical rollers are formed shorter than the other cylindrical rollers. With this arrangement, a skew of one or more of the cylindrical rollers, which may occur when the outer race is subjected to an axial load, is taken up by circumferential gaps formed between the shorter cylindrical roller and adjacent cylindrical rollers at opposite ends of the shorter cylindrical roller. Thus, rotation of the outer race is stable and abrasion between the end faces of the cylindrical rollers and the thrust bearing plates can be suppressed.