the article discusses the issue of development of civic identity and civic community in controversial, ambiguous conditions of transformation and modernization relevant for modern Russia. One of the important ways of identity formation is activities of national-cultural associations in the national regions of the Russian Federation. The issue is analyzed on the example of the Republic of Bashkortostan as a multinational (multi-ethnic) region that has accumulated positive experience. The main public institutions implementing republican government policies in interethnic relations are the Executive Committee of the World Kurultai Bashkirs and the Assembly of Peoples of the Republic of Bashkortostan combining activities of national associations. In 2015, the federal national-cultural autonomy of the Bashkir was created to strengthen civil society. At the same time, there are significant problems: contradictions in ideological positions and demands of associations of the most numerous peoples of the republic-the Bashkir and the Tatar; relative formality of concepts and activities of the Assembly and the Kurultai Executive Committee and weak feedback. The socioeconomic instability has been caused by long transformation and modernization of Russia. Opinion polls show the increase in civic identity in the region. But this indicator may be situational. In the context of Russia's traditional multinationality (multiethnicity), national-cultural associations remain an important agent in the formation of civic harmony and civic identity.