Ethnic, Religious and Civil Identity of Chechen and Ingush People

The paper presents the results of the study on ethnic, civil and religious (confessional) identity of Chechen and Ingush people. The study revealed that Chechens and Ingush mostly identify themselves in terms of family/generation relationships as well as in terms of their belonging to a certain professional or educational group. Ethnic and religious (confessional) identities lie at the core of their identity structure. Furthermore, these two types of identity tend to merge in more than 60% of the Chechen subjects and 40 % of the Ingush subjects. Civil identity, at the same time, is weakly displayed in the structure of their identity. The structure of ethnic identity of Chechen and Ingush people has a distinct affective component in it, the central part of which is the pride for one 's ethnic identity. Ethnic affiliation is very strong in the Chechen and Ingush society, meaning that the sense of community with one 's own ethnic groups is quite intense in the individuals.