ETHNIC IDENTITY OF INDIGENOUS YOUTH IN RUSSIA AS A THREAT TO THE INTEGRITY OF THE STATE

Relevance of the study is caused by the multicultural and polyethnic composition of the population of the Russian Federation and the presence of autonomous territories with their own official languages. The existence of autonomous territories within a nation-state poses a threat to its territorial integrity. Such nation-states often disintegrate, recent examples of this are USSR, Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia. Autonomous regions in China, Spain, Great Britain attempt to become independent nation-states. Russian Federation inherited from RSFSR its administrative division. Russia has 21 autonomous republics, in 12 of them their titular ethnic groups outnumber ethnic Russians. Autonomous republics have their own official languages, state symbols and cultural policies. In the last 10 years however federal government’s policies aim at consolidating Russian society, cutting regional elites’ power, merging autonomous okrugs with ethnic Russian majority oblasts and abolishment of the mandatory titular languages classes in schools. This strengthens national unity, but on the other hand this threatens cultures of small indigenous peoples and can promote separatist sentiments in autonomous republics. All these circumstances make the study relevant. The aim of the study is to assess the threat to territorial integrity of Russian Federation due to the influence of the ethnic identity of the indigenous peoples of Russia on separatist sentiments among young people. Methods. The abstract-logical approach based on a systematic analysis of existing empirical data was used and an online survey was conducted using Google Forms service among representatives of indigenous youth aged 18–35. Results. The majority of respondents identify themselves as both members of their ethnic groups and members of the national group «Rossiyane» (citizens of Russia). 54,2 % of respondents agree that the presence of autonomous territories within the Russian Federation could possibly constitute a threat to the territorial integrity of the State, and 41,7 % of respondents disagree with the above statement. More than half (55,1 %) of respondents have a positive attitude towards economic and political autonomy of their regions. Two thirds (65 %) of respondents think that their regions could in the future become independent states.