The article considers the issue of coverage of private property among nomads based on the analysis of the works of the Russian researchers and officials of the prerevolutionary period. The author notes that the property issue has not been specifically studied in the works of the Russian scientists, but it has been covered superficially. During this period, the study of Kazakhstan was spontaneous, only the issues of strategic interest to the Russian Empire were written. Since the second half of the 19th c., the research has begun to address issues related to the land of the Russian suburbs, as their coverage is important for political purposes. As a result, the works and expeditions, related to the study of the outskirts of the Russian Empire, began to appear, the purpose of which was to find the surplus of lands in Kazakhstan for the Russian peasants and this was especially evident in the late 19th-early 20th cc.
The prerevolutionary researchers considered the issue of ownership of livestock only with changes in the economy of nomads-Kazakhs. Most researchers of the prerevolutionary period held to the opinion that the Kazakhs had, undoubtedly, private ownership of cattle. For the prerevolutionary scholars, the land ownership was uncertain and caused difficulties in solving of the ownership issue.