PERTANIKA JOURNAL OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES

In today's Russia, questions about national identity, nation-building, and nationwide integration are among the most discussed issues at the highest possible political levels. The issues become more acute in borderland regions, where more trans-border movement creates an environment for double or multiple cultural identities and diffuse representations about "ownness" and "otherness". Sociological surveys conducted in four regions of Russia (the Altai region, the Amur region, the Republic of Karelia, and the Jewish Autonomous Region, n=400) explored national identification, structuring ethnic diversity in Russia, and giving grounds for generalizations and stereotypes from the data collected with repertory grids and using hierarchical cluster analysis, PCA, Proctrustes analysis, and psychosemantic space building. Main results included elaboration of the original research tool, tested in the Russian borderland, description of Russians as they are perceived by borderland inhabitants, their relations with meta-ethnic groups associated with the Russian nation, and latent factors, influencing the assessment of people of different nationalities.