The article shows Sorokin’s position on an acute problem of Russia – the nationalities question. Beginning with his views on Komi people (his mother was a Komi peasant) and its position in prerevolutionary Russia the author describes Sorokin’s relation towards desintegration of the multinational state and separatist movements during the Russian revolution in 1917. There could be three ways of Russian state development among which the federation was the only realistic. At the end of the article the definition of nation is analysed.