This article deals with the most acute form of self-determination - secession - on the basis of domestic and foreign doctrine of international law. Secession has not been a recent phenomenon for decades, as is often erroneously stated in literature. The whole history of modern civilization is a continuous process of formation, development and complete or partial disintegration of States, subject to certain objective regularities. Secession has steadily increased throughout the second half of the 19th century and throughout the 20th century, but most State constitutions avoid the question of under what conditions and in what order the processes can be carried out. The purpose of the article is to attempt to assemble a typology of factors influencing the choice of secession form of self-determination. In the author’s work, such constituents of secession as irredentism and enosis, as well as the influence of separatist factors on centrifugal tendencies in the state, are examined in detail. In this connection, the author concludes that the concepts of secession and separatism are different in order and relate as intention, purpose (separatism) and one of its forms, without prejudice to other forms of territorial or national implementation Cultural autonomy, etc. The author’s conclusions concerning the impact of globalization and human rights on secession tendencies are interesting, resulting in a violation of the sovereignty of States and, consequently, its territorial integrity. The author has examined in detail the work of Russian and foreign scholars, as well as the most important sources of international law dealing with this problem.