The article aims to provide a historical overview of language planning and policy in Russia and to establish and analyse the overarching approaches in status, acquisition, and corpus planning. The provided examples and analysis of various stages reinforce the argument that the development of language policy and planning was consistent with the endeavours of political elites to centralise power and adjust the agency use of languages for their political ends. Our data showed that the State has played the key role in the development of the rhetoric either in order to frame language selection or to generate the perception of high or low prestige languages. We argue that the Russian language has always been central for ruling elites. They have supported the development of Russian throughout history while limiting the use and functioning of other national, regional, or minority languages through promoting bilingualism or other approaches generating mass loyalty. Recent changes which diminish the role of minority languages may lead to further deterioration of their status, acquisition, and corpus planning.