Abstract:  
The subject area and the key goal of this research is associated with analyzing the problems of social perception of ethnic images in the context of establishing national identity of the population in the Russian bordering regions. The article describes the approaches towards analysis of the category of “image” within the humanitarian knowledge, as well as substantiated the difficulties in the use of classical theories of perception, formulated within the frameworks of general psychology studying the social images in sociological science. Examination of the images of “the other” that reflect the existing attitudes regarding the ethnic groups, required referring to the theories, which allow depicting the formation and content of the present in individual and public consciousness mental representations of social phenomena and objects.  The authors provide the results of psychosemantic experiment carried out in the two Russian regions, which is oriented towards studying the representations of image of “the other” in the consciousness of Russian population. The scientific novelty consists in determination of the characteristics that are of top priority in assessing the ethnic groups, but notable for bigger variability and differences in socio-demographic categories of the population. Besides the mainstream characteristics that define the perception of ethnic groups, the author revealed the secondary criteria that activate only the certain circumstances. The main conclusion consists in the fact that the identified differences are explained not just by the specificity of ethnic composition of the regions and activity of separate ethnic groups, but also justify the nature of interethnic relations, and reveal the potential sources of conflicts or prospects of ethnocultural cooperation.