Ethnic identity in conditions of cultural diversity (based on the analysis 2017 in the Republic of Kalmykia)

The several results of the author's questionnaire survey conducted in the Republic of Kalmykia in 2015 (N = 302) are considered. The results obtained allow to analyze the cultural orientation of one or another ethnic community, the desire of its members to become traditional or modern. The attitude of the rural population to inter-ethnic marriages is compared with the same attitude of the urban population. It is emphasized that the villagers, first of all the title ethnos, realizing the undesirability of mixed marriages, despite this, positively perceive the similar form of the family of their close relatives. The author concludes that openness, focus on inter-ethnic contacts at different levels contribute to the transfer of cultural values from one people to another, from one socio-cultural layer to others. This transfer leads to the development of the educational potential of the population, harmonization of interethnic relations.