Soviet Nationality Policy and its Influence on the Ethnopolitical Situation in the Views of the North Caucasian youth

Relevance. The article reviews topical issues of the significance of the historical memory of the Soviet national heritage for the modern youth of the North Caucasus, its role in harmonizing interethnic relations and strengthening interethnic unity. The authors analyze the ideas of young people about the Soviet nationality policy, its advantages and disadvantages.
The purpose is to determine the nature and direction of the influence of the Soviet nationality policy on the ethnopolitical situation in the perceptions of young people in the North Caucasus.
Objectives are to determine the ideas of young people about the achievements and shortcomings of Soviet nationality policy in the North Caucasus, the nature of the impact of the collapse of the USSR on interethnic relations, the role and significance of the ethnoterritorial and ethnocultural factor in ethnopolitical processes in the region, identifying common and differences in the ideas about the Soviet national policy of Russian youth. and Caucasian peoples.
Methodology. During the research, conceptual and theoretical approaches to the problem of politicizing ethnicity and ethnizing politics, the role of memory of the historical formation of national-state identity in the past were used. The empirical basis is sociological research consisting of ideas and views of young people in the North Caucasus in the field of Soviet historical heritage.
Results. The ideas of young people in the North Caucasus about the Soviet stage of national policy are fragmented and vague. Less than half of the respondents remember the achievements and shortcomings of Soviet ethnic policy, while the majority of the Caucasian peoples retain the memory of deportation. The ethnopolitical situation in the youth environment of the region as a whole is characterized by interethnic harmony and the absence of hostility in interethnic relations, however, a certain potential for conflict remains.
Conclusin. The historical memory of the Soviet national policy is one of the factors in the formation of the identity of modern youth, while the insufficient formation of its cognitive foundations can become a factor in manipulating the consciousness of young people and the basis for distortions and falsifications of the history of the Soviet period. It is necessary to form the ideas of young people about the historical continuity of national policy, an explanation of the foundations of the national state structure, the value-content filling of the ideas of young people about the Soviet historical heritage.

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