Significant changes in the settlement pattern of the Russian ethnos occurred in the period between the population censuses of the Russian Federation in 1959 and 2010. In more than half of the regions (contemporary federal subjects), the share of Russians in the population changed by more than 5%: in 20 regions,decreased; in 23 regions, increased. The cause of such changes is first of all assimilation processes proceeding at different rates in the case of ethnic contacts between Russians and representatives of other ethnoses of the Russian Federation. Changes in the localization level of the most numerous ethnic groups during the last 50 years confirm the thesis on different directions and rates of ethnic processes. The level of passionarity and cultural and historical differences determine the character of the ethnic interaction between the Russians and other ethnic groups populating Russia. From Gumilev’s theory of ethnogenesis, we can draw a conclusion of a dependence between changes in the settlement of th