The article considers the issues of privileged social groups of ancient nomads studies in the Soviet and Russian historiography in the 1960s — early 1990s. Special attention is given to the theories of nomadism worked out by S. A. Pletneva, A. M. Khazanov, G. E. Markov, N. E. Masanov, N. N. Kradin in which the issues of social and political organization of the nomads were considered. Despite the predominance of Marxist methodology in historical research, scholars were able to practice other approaches (the concept of leadership and early states, world-system analysis, civilization approach, etc.). The study of the cemeteries in the Sayans and Altai Mountains and Kazakhstan enlarged the source basis on the elite of the nomads. During the period under study in the Soviet history the theory of early class society (the theory of the early state) was most popular. The term «elite» has been used by scholars only since early 1990s, replacing more traditional terms «tsar», «leader», «aristocracy», «nobility».