The article deals with the peculiarities of sociological views on the nature and role of elite strata in society of one of the outstanding Russian thinkers N. I. Kareev. His work and methodological positions defended by him cause ambiguous assessments among researchers of different scientific schools and directions. In his works he touched upon quite important and relevant problems of methodological foundations and principles of development, as well as the role of sociology, its interaction with other humanitarian and social sciences, first of all, history, scientifi c foundations of the theory of progress, the essence of social and historical process, social activity and the role of personality in these processes. The elite problematics was one of the important directions in his research. Declaring the principles of scientific analysis peculiar to positivism, but at the same time not refusing to use some other approaches, including some ideas of the subjective school in sociology, he presents his vision of the nature of the elite. Also, like one of the founders of the theory of elites V. Pareto, he identifi es and characterizes two basic elite strata – the ruling elite and the stratum deprived of power, but having important social indicators, comprising heterogeneous groups of outstanding political fi gures, heroes, and major political personalities. This paper also draws attention to the analysis of the basic characteristics of the elite and the conditions of its reproduction. It is noted that developing the humanistic, value (meritocratic) approach, N. I. Kareev pays attention to such an important factor in the reproduction of elites as education.