Yu. GUZHVENKO Barnaul State Pedagogical University STABILITY OR HIDDEN CONFLICT? Studies of interethnic relations in the post-Soviet space are becoming particularly important in connection with the changing status positions of titular and non-titular ethnic groups in the former Soviet republics, with the construction of new state identities. The ethnic problem was actualized, first of all, in states with a multi-ethnic composition of the population and with a complex ethno-social structure. One of these states is the Republic of Kazakhstan, where representatives of 131 ethnic groups live and there are two predominant ethnic groups-Kazakhs and Russians. The study of interethnic relations within Kazakhstan is complicated by the closeness of materials, the veiled nature of many phenomena in the field of interethnic interaction, since it is most politicized in the republic. This is especially true for East Kazakhstan. The last work devoted to the interethnic situation in East Kazakhstan before the collapse of the USSR is a study by K. P. Kalinovskaya 1. In the first half of the 1990s, this problem was not given due attention, despite the aggravation of interethnic contradictions in Kazakhstan. Since the late 1990s, issues of interethnic relations in the region have been monitored more regularly and studied by the Center for Social Monitoring and Forecasting of Semipalatinsk State University. Shakarima under the direction of A. P. Konovalov 2. Ust-Kamenogorsk also conducts studies that record the ethnic and religious situation in the city, but they are intended for internal use by akimats (departments) of the city and region and are practically inaccessible. Our research is based on the materials of fieldwork conducted in October-November 2006, including by the author, in the cities of Semipalatinsk and Ust-Kamenogorsk. The main sources are interviews with officials, cultural and educational figures, ordinary residents, documents of the State Archive and Statistics Depar ... Читать далее