In the lecture I’ll try to give a panorama of autochthonous languages of Siberia and the Russian Far East touching upon their documentation, current functioning, language contacts in the area and the results of these contacts, language shift in some local groups of autochthonous populations. I’ll trace back the starting points and the development of language shift process in several ethno-local groups up to the beginning of the previous century and try to reveal general and local factors contributing to this process. Finally, I’ll discuss some issues concerning language preservation and/or revitalization in the area.