Is the modern South of Russia polyethnic?

The activation (and actualization) of transformational processes in Russian society against the background of significantly increased global turbulence initiates priority attention to spatial development, which, in turn, requires a more detailed and correct assessment of the ethnodemographic specifics of the territory. The article focuses on the modern features of the ethnic structure of the South of Russia (Southern and North Caucasian Federal Districts), which is ethnogeographically the most “mosaic” macroregion of the Russian Federation, based on a multi-scale analysis of data from the All-Russian Population Census in 2020. It is shown that the idea of the South of Russia as a multiethnic territory rooted in scientific discourse is generally justified (for Russians in the census population – 60.4% with an average for Russia – 71.7), but should be adjusted for regional and municipal taxonomic levels. Thus, out of 15 federal subjects localized in the South of Russia, in 7 the proportion of the numerically predominant ethnic group exceeds 75%, which illustrates their predominant mono-ethnicity (these regions occupy 61% of the territory of Southern Russia, concentrating 67% of its population and 73% of the GRP). The situation is similar in 239 (out of 341) municipalities (urban districts, municipal districts and municipal districts), including such important urban centers as Krasnodar, Rostov-on-Don, Volgograd, Stavropol, Sevastopol. The territorial, residential and economic structure of the South of Russia is shifted, as a result, in favor of regions and municipalities with a clear “ethnic coloring” (including “Russian” in 5 subjects of the Russian Federation and half of municipalities), which allows us to consider the South Russian macroregion as an asymmetric combination of mono- and multiethnic territories.