ИЗВЕСТИЯ СОИГСИ

Keywords: North Caucasian civilization, Caucasian civilization, civilizational space of the North Caucasus, ethno-cultural identity, cultural symbiosis, military culture, mythic and epic heritage, mythic and religious heritage, polyethnicity

On the background of the ideological struggle, that became nowadays more intensive on the south frontiers of Russian Federation, the primary role in the ethnocultural identity process of population of North Caucasus is played by mythology, religion, epic, all spiritual tradition in general, in which the historical memory of the people is stored. The article describes the social and spiritual bases of the civilizational space of the North Caucasus and the necessity of their analysis in the context of the entire history of the Caucasian civilization.