The article is devoted to the analysis of ethno-cultural vocabulary in the autobiographical prose of the contemporary Kazakhstani writer and film director Ermek Tursunov, based on his work “Melochi Zhizni” (Trifles of Life). The relevance of the study is driven by the need to examine the mechanisms of preserving the national code and transmitting cultural identity within the modern Russian-language literature of Kazakhstan. The author focuses on ethno-cultural vocabulary–realia that reflects the specifics of the daily life, mentality, and history of the Kazakh people. In the course of the analysis, the identified ethno-lexemes are classified into four key groups: socio-political, geographical, ethnographic realia, terms of culture and art. The application of a quantitative method allowed for the determination of the text's frequency dominance, which reflects the author's conceptual priorities. The results of the analysis demonstrate a high concentration of geographical and everyday realia, with the lexemes “baran” (sheep) and “aul” (village) being the most frequent. This indicates that E. Tursunov’s artistic world is deeply rooted in the traditional nomadic space, where everyday “trifles of life” become key elements in reconstructing the national picture of the world. The article is of interest to philologists, linguo-culturologists, and researchers of modern Kazakhstani literature.