Kalashnikov Aleksandr Petrovich,

Associate Professor of Department for Social and Humanitarian and Natural Science Disciplines of Kostanay branch of Chelyabinsk State University.168 A ul. Borodina, Kostanay 110000, the Republic of Kazakhstan. E-mail: nurtazenov@mail.ru

342(574) + 347(574)

The article dwells upon the history of the Assembly of People of Kazakhstan which combined more than 600 ethnic and cultural associations and became the guarantee of the unity and concord of Kazakhstan population. The Assembly facilitated the creation and consolidation of Kazakh model of multinational and multiconfession society. For 20 years of its activity the Assembly has been transformed from the advisory body under the president of the Republic of Kazakhstan to the constitutional body which has its own legal framework and its social and political status. Therefore, the activity of the Assembly of People of Kazakhstan has been recognized worldwide. The authors give certain examples to describe the activity of national cultural centers which are in charge of implementing the state national policy of Kazakhstan, as well as their contribution to the social and economic development of the region.

Assembly, state, state language, civil society, diaspora, interethnic concord, national cultural center, national policy, customs,

parliament, tolerance