The article analyzes the transformation of the bodies of self-government, which existed in the Tatar Mahalla during Soviet times. This work is based on the case study of religious communities of the Ulyanovsk region and uses the documents of the Council for Religious Aff airs of the Ulyanovsk region as source materials. The article analyzes the dynamics of age and social composition of self-administration, in particular, an executive body, a revision commission and ‘the twenty’ — an institution of staff rotation. Mutawalliats, as well as all religious communities, suff ered harsh devastation, while Muslim clergy and the members of the «twenties» were subjected to mass repressions during the period of staunch Soviet atheism. We can distinguish several interrelated processes in the 1950–1980’s: aging of the members of administrative bodies and reduction of the average number of «twenties». Their social structure was determined by countryside residency. By the 1970’s, administrative bodies had been dominated by the elderly. The analysis of empirical data revealed several patterns of personnel rotation in the bodies of self-government in the Tatar Mahalla of the Ulyanovsk region.