The article considers the state of interethnic relations in the North Caucasus in the assessments and ideas of young people. The empirical basis of the study was the results of a sociological survey of student youth in 2022. The state of interethnic relations in the North Caucasus is assessed by the majority of respondents as tenuous stability. The main causes of interethnic conflicts, according to respondents, are hostility and prejudice towards other peoples, rejection of the culture and values of other peoples. An insignificant level of social distance and interethnic conflict between the main ethno-confessional communities was revealed. Socio-economic crisis 2020-2021 did not have a negative impact on the nature of interethnic relations among the youth. Factors of tension in interethnic relations that became traditional for the region in the 1990s and 2000s - ethno-territorial and ethno-status conflicts, actualization and radicalization of tragic and ambiguous plots of history, ethnic separatism, radicalization and politicization of Islam have lost their sharpness, and in many respects have passed into a latent form. The results obtained confirm the decline for young people of the role of traditional factors of ethnicity politicization (territorial disputes, questions of the political or socio-economic status of ethnic groups, ethno-nationalism). The “resonance” of socio-economic problems, the dysfunction of public authorities and the growing value and worldview gap between young people and older generations can lead to an increase in conflict in interethnic relations. In this case, ethnic and confessional identities can again become mobilizing factors that legitimize protest and violence in the eyes of young people.

The article considers the state of interethnic relations in the North Caucasus in the assessments and ideas of young people. The empirical basis of the study was the results of a sociological survey of student youth in 2022. The state of interethnic relations in the North Caucasus is assessed by the majority of respondents as tenuous stability. The main causes of interethnic conflicts, according to respondents, are hostility and prejudice towards other peoples, rejection of the culture and values of other peoples. An insignificant level of social distance and interethnic conflict between the main ethno-confessional communities was revealed. Socio-economic crisis 2020-2021 did not have a negative impact on the nature of interethnic relations among the youth. Factors of tension in interethnic relations that became traditional for the region in the 1990s and 2000s - ethno-territorial and ethno-status conflicts, actualization and radicalization of tragic and ambiguous plots of history, ethnic separatism, radicalization and politicization of Islam have lost their sharpness, and in many respects have passed into a latent form. The results obtained confirm the decline for young people of the role of traditional factors of ethnicity politicization (territorial disputes, questions of the political or socio-economic status of ethnic groups, ethno-nationalism). The “resonance” of socio-economic problems, the dysfunction of public authorities and the growing value and worldview gap between young people and older generations can lead to an increase in conflict in interethnic relations. In this case, ethnic and confessional identities can again become mobilizing factors that legitimize protest and violence in the eyes of young people.