ETHNOCULTURAL IDENTITY OF CHUVASHIA STUDENTS: ACCORDING TO SOCIOLOGICAL SURVEYS

Abstract

The relevance of the study is determined by the importance of understanding modern ethno-cultural processes within the meaning of published data of 2020 All-Russian Population Census.
 
 The purpose of the article is to analyze the features of ethno–cultural self-determination of the student youth of Chuvashia, including when choosing ethnicity and native languages.
 
 Materials and methods. The analysis of ethno-cultural identity was based on the opportunity for each individual to choose belonging to one or another culture or to several at the same time. This approach in the Russian science was put forward by V.A. Tishkov and supported by many domestic researchers. At the same time, some of them do not consider the principle of multiculturalism to be real. The material was obtained during a survey involving over 500 students studying at three Cheboksary universities. The processing was carried out using the SPSS Statistics program. Unconditional and conditional distributions were calculated, which made it possible to identify noticeable interdependencies between the components of the ethno-cultural image.
 
 Study results. The ethnic composition of the students who participated in the survey was not limited to individual nationalities. Almost a fifth of respondents declared themselves as belonging to two ethnic cultures, in the conditions of Chuvashia it was about simultaneously classifying themselves as the Russians and the Chuvash. A complex linguistic identity was even more pronounced, when over a third of the respondents replied that not one, but two languages, namely Russian and Chuvash, are native to them. The survey materials once again confirmed that the situation with the use of the Chuvash language, including by the Chuvash, is quite complicated, especially for non-domestic communication.
 
 Conclusions. The data of the next survey of Chuvashia students once again confirmed that for many of them the choice of a complex ethnic and linguistic identity is becoming common. Preserving the Chuvash language to a greater extent should be carried out through family traditions supported by public and state structures.