Interethnic and interreligious unity among Crimea college students

The Crimea and Sevastopol are considered to be multinational regions, and within them – especially in the Crimea region – such an issue as interethnic and interreligious accord has been relevant at various points in history. With new subjects having joined the Russian Federation, this issue has not become any less relevant. On the contrary, due to new challenges of the modern world, such as extremism and terrorism, this issue has acquired new aspects. On the one hand, there exists the internal matter of the Crimean Tatars in the Crimea and Sevastopol, which needs to be examined within the context of starting an interethnic and inter-confessional dialog, while on the other hand the presence of external challenges prompts to consider developing interethnic and inter-confessional accord among the youth, primarily among college students, them being the most well-organized youth group. In light of this fact, the study conducted in 2017-2019 with financial support from the Russian Foundation for Basic Research within the framework of research project number 17-06-00440/19 and titled “Interethnic and interreligious unity among Crimea and Sevastopol college students: monitoring and analyzing the development level” allows to determine mechanisms for achieving such unity. According to the authors of this work, interethnic unity includes ethnic attitudes, willingness to partake in interethnic contact, which, among other things, develops national and territorial identity. The value component was examined during the course of empirical analysis: traditional values are in fact present in students’ consciousness; professional growth and self-fulfillment were identified as being important, while values attributed to general religious and ethnic interests were deemed insignificant. Also observed were deviations in the process of identity development among young Ukrainians. Observed within this youth group was a low degree of satisfaction with social provisions, the importance of such values as freedom, independence and religious unity; they feel that they belong to their own Ukrainian culture, which differs from Russian culture; for the most part Ukrainians assume that the Russian government cannot effectively protect their sovereignty. The results of this study allowed for determining the structural elements of interethnic and inter-confessional unity within various ethnic youth groups, with regards to components of young people’s national, territorial and cultural identity. The process of developing interethnic and inter-confessional unity within various ethnic groups of Crimea’s youth should be based on principles of regional patriotism, on creating common cultural codes, developing a positive image of Russia, enhancing young people’s economic and social standing, creating opportunity for professional growth together with social lifts, consolidating young people based on generational interests aimed at self-expression and self-fulfillment.