Population resettlement is a complex socio-economic process that reflects many aspects of society, and is the most important spatial form of interaction between society and nature. From these positions, the article considers various aspects of the territorial distribution of the population and the formation of a modern ethnic map in the Kabardino-Balkarian Republic (KBR) in connection with its administrative and territorial structure. The most important components of the population settlement process are three groups of factors: socio-economic, environmental (natural) and demographic. An excursion into the history of the formation of the administrative-territorial structure of the KBR shows that it was based primarily on ethnopolitical rather than economic and not environmental considerations. The externally imposed scheme of such territory structure did not contain constructive beginning that guaranteed the sustainable development of the Kabardino-Balkarian community. On the contrary, its isolationism has stimulated and continues to fuel the process of political disintegration and national separatism. On the basis of an integrated (historical, ecological, geographical and economic) approach, the archaism of the current administrative-territorial division of the KBR according to the national principle into mountainous "Balkarian", foothill "Kabardian" and flat "Russian" areas is demonstrated. The discrepancy of such an organization of economic life of the modern ethnic map of the Republic is the result of population redistribution within it, as well as environmental standards of preservation of the unique nature in the region. In the light of economic and environmental problems, it seems counterproductive to preserve the modern administrative and territorial structure of the KBR on the ethno-political principle, leading to artificial high-altitude fragmentation of the unified ecosystem of the region. The further improvement of the administrative and territorial zoning of the KBR should be based on the principles of sustainable development with the primacy of economic and environmental priorities. It is settlement that plays a regulating and unifying role in the territorial structure of the productive forces.
