Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug (Canton): Ethno- Projections and Ethnicity of the Region within the Framework of the Russian Model of Federalism

The article concerns the analysis of the author’s field research in the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug (YNAO) in 2021-2022. Based on the results of a mass survey of the population, recorded interviews and a focus group, various aspects of the ethnicity of the region and the role of the ethnic factor in the cultural and political space of the region are considered. The available information allows us to conclude that today one of the most visible and successful models of regional identity based on the culture of the peoples of the North has been formed in Yamal. However, the changed demographic appearance of the Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Okrug, the problems of preserving the culture of the peoples of the North, internal contradictions in the social movement may in the future raise the question of the appropriateness of the chosen model. But its revision is impossible, since orientation to the culture of the peoples of the North is the foundation for the existence of autonomy.