SOCIO-ECONOMIC DIRECTIONS OF HARMONIZATION OF THE INTERETHNIC RELATIONS IN THE EDUCATIONAL ENVIRONMENT

The relevance of the study is caused by the fact that the xenophobia and extremism in the youth environment contribute to the aggravation of interethnic relations, the emergence of conflicts and contradictions on the ethnic and religious basis, and this issue became globalized and affecting all industrialized countries. The Russian Federation is one of the most multi-confessional and multi-ethnic states within the European environment. The high level of regional economic differentiation, high level of social and material inequality, and the differences in living standards in different regions of Russia are the main prerequisites to the internal migration of population, social tensions, and tensions in the interethnic relations in the Russian Federation. The aim of the research is the consideration of socio-economic directions of harmonization of interethnic relations within the educational environment. In this regard, the author carried out the sociological study in several higher educational institutions of the Russian Federation to assess the potential conflicts among the students, during which more than a thousand young people were interviewed. The author concentrates on the issues of relevance of national identity within the educational environment according to the gender and national differences, the satisfaction of youth with the level of justice in society and the federal government policy in the context of national identity. The study of factors and features of extremism and xenophobia formation among young people through the sociological analysis of their attitudes is valuable in the practice of forecasting the development and regulation of the inter-ethnic relations. The results of the study confirm that there is an ethnic and cultural distance, where the ethnic and religious intolerance are the dominant form. The author concludes that to harmonize the interethnic relations within the educational environment and to promote the dialogue between the representatives of different ethnic communities, it is necessary to improve the socio-economic situation of the regions, to resolve rapidly the potential conflicts, and to keep the interethnic concord.