The parade of sovereignties of the autonomous republics in 1990-1991 led to the disintegration of Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia, and Moldova, and brought the Russian Federation to the brink of collapse. The main centers of separatism in the Russian Federation were Chechnya and Dagestan, but separatist sentiments and movements were widespread in Ingushetia, Tuva, Tatarstan, Bashkortostan, Yakutia, and Buryatia. In the 1990s, from 31 to 75 points of ethno-territorial tensions in Russia were recorded. Researchers express different views on the reasons for the development of nationalism in the autonomous republics. According to one of them, under the influence of Moscow’s national policy, ambitious national elites were formed in the republics who became the driving force of the development of separatism. In this article, this viewpoint is tested against data of the all-Union population censuses of 1926, 1939, 1959, 1970, 1979, and 1989. An analysis of the ethnic composition of governing bodies from 1917 to 1989 allows us to propose the following periodization of the process of indigenization (korenizatsiya) of government in the autonomies: (1) 1917-1939 – intensive increase in the ethno-political status of the titular peoples and national minorities in general and negative discrimination against Russians, (2) 1940-1956 – democratic lignment of ethnic statuses, (3) 1956-1989 – moderate increase in the ethno-political status of titular peoples and non-Russian ethnic groups in general, and negative discrimination against Russians. Increased representation and role of non-Russian ethnic groups and the decline in the representation and role of Russians in the administration of autonomies were the prevalent trends in the Soviet period. The study of the question why the creation of elites in the autonomies did not bring about a collapse of the Russian Federation suggests the following reasons: moderate pace of indigenization in autonomies compared to the union republics, lack of their constitutional right to secede, and insufficient external (from abroad) assistance to the separatists.