Archaeological findings of the last decades (from 1970s till recently) are used to examine ethnic and cultural interaction between the settled and the nomadic population, on the one hand, and different groups of nomads between themselves, on the other hand, in Volga Bulgaria and the Bulgarian Ulus of the Golden Horde. The study showed that the Turk- and Ugrian-speaking nomads were an important ethnic component of these state formations. At the same time, presence of nomads in the region and their influence on the culture of the settled Bulgarian population was different at different stages in history of the Volga Bulgaria. In pre-Mongol time, the nomads would use peripheries of the Bulgarian state, while the settled Bulgarians and their nomadic neighbors would build their relations as “us – them”. During the Golden Horde time, the nomads started exploring central areas (the Turkic groups) and eastern territories (the Ugrian groups), and thus the nomadic element, either autonomous or integrated, became a permanent element in the Bulgarian Ulus in the 13^th – 14^th centuries.