Civil and ethnic identities as markers of inter-ethnic relations in the Russian border regions

The article presents the results of the study of civil and ethnic identities and the sphere of interethnic relations in eight Russian regions located near the state borders: the Altai region, Amur region, Jewish Autonomous region, Trans-Baikal region, Kemerovo region, Omsk region, Orenburg region, and the Altai Republic. The authors conducted a survey to gather empirical data and identify the priority of civic identity for the residents of border regions of Russia, and the dominant grounds of civil and ethnic identities. The results of the survey show significant regional differences in the level of different identities manifestation: the highest degree of identification with the civil and ethnic communities is typical for the Kemerovo region, the lowest - for the Trans-Baikal region. The authors assess the characteristics of inter-ethnic relations, and make conclusions about their dynamics and the level of inter-ethnic tension in each region: the most problematic regions in this respect are the Trans-Baikal region and Omsk region. The study identified a number of facts, which require further scientific interpretation, for example, in some regions there are statistically significant proportions of the population with a very low level of national-state identification.