FEATURES OF THE STATE NATIONAL POLICY AND INTERETHNIC INTERACTION IN THE REGIONS OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION (based on the materials of Bashkortostan, Tatarstan and Chuvashia). PART 1

Abstract

Studying various aspects of the national policy of the Russian Federation in modern conditions attracts the attention of many researchers. This is due, firstly, to the rapid development of ethnic processes in the countries of Western Europe, and secondly, to the uniqueness of our country as a multinational and multi-confessional state.
 
 The purpose of the research is to study the peculiarities of the state national policy in modern conditions on the example of three multinational republics of the Russian Federation.
 
 Materials and methods. The theoretical and methodological basis of the article was the fundamental principles for organizing research: scientific objectivity, historicism, consistency, comprehensiveness and complexity, recognizing legitimacy of pluralism in the research process, focusing on the study of events and phenomena of the past in all their complexity, inconsistency, mutual conditionality, in accordance with the specifics of the historical era, in connection with modernity. In addition to methodological approaches, the study of the topic of the article assumes mandatory knowledge of the literature and sources that make up the basic part of the study process.
 
 Results. The article characterizes the current state of interethnic relations in Russia on the example of three national republics: Bashkortostan, Tatarstan and Chuvashia, which are polyethnic and multi-confessional subjects of the Russian Federation. The choice of these regions of the Ural-Volga region is due to the fact that the titular ethnic groups here are related Turkic peoples: the Bashkirs, the Tatars and the Chuvash. When implementing the policy in the field of interethnic interaction in the country, the state authorities rely on such fundamental documents as the “Concept of the State National Policy of the Russian Federation” (1996), the Law of the Russian Federation “On National and Cultural Autonomy” (1996), the “Strategy of the State National Policy of the Russian Federation for the period up to 2025” (2012) and others.
 
 The article discusses the activities of regional authorities on forming mutual understanding and consent between ethnic groups living within individual republics. Each subject adopted special programs to implement the Strategy of the state national policy of the Russian Federation, taking into account its socio-economic and ethno-cultural development. Some attention is also paid to the activities carried out by national cultural autonomies in the national republics under consideration.
 
 Conclusions. In order to solve the research tasks set in the article, the authors analyzed the data of sociological surveys conducted to study ethno-cultural processes in the subjects of the Russian Federation, as well as examined the assessment of various aspects in interethnic relations by the population pf three republics; a special emphasis is placed on the views and assessment of young people regarding the relationship between representatives of different peoples, about the level of well-being in the confessional and interethnic spheres. The analysis of the state national policy of Russia at the present stage testifies to the great attention on the part of the governing bodies of the Russian Federation to interethnic problems in the multinational state: timely adoption of conceptual and regulatory legal acts; formation and control of authorities and public institutions responsible for issues of interethnic interaction, as well as organization of their activities; involvement of politicians and researchers in the study of state policy in order to improve it. However, despite concrete steps in the field of interethnic interaction both in the center and on the ground, often of a preventive nature, it is not always possible to overcome inconsistency of the national issue in full, especially for multi-ethnic subjects of the Russian Federation. To one degree or another, conflict situations manifest themselves in them, they are primarily associated with such a factor of modernity as the desire of peoples to preserve and fully develop national languages and culture. Migration flows and population changes are beginning to play an important role in the regions, which is proved by the population censuses of recent years, but the main thing is the state of interethnic coexistence in the country, for example, on the materials of the Republics of Bashkortostan, Tatarstan and Chuvashia.