Real research is hard

The aim of this trip is to conduct a survey among 300 residents of Buryatia and Kalmykia. Sounds easy, right? Not so much. As a surveyor in Russia, there are a number of contingencies that have to be dealt with. These range from the inability to get into apartment buildings to dogs, drunks, and other forms of wild beast. Actually, it’s not that bad. I’ve primarily focused on finding respondents at workplaces or in public spaces in the evenings. This leads to an over-educated sample, but also helps in ensuring that the respondents will understand and answer the questions appropriately. In some ways, this process reminds me of the work Paul and I did on the Tony Sanchez for Texas Governor Campaign (2002; we lost); others have compared me to a missionary.

This past week, I traveled east to the small village of Kuiren, located in Tunkinskiy rayon (the Russian equivalent of a county, although the rayons in Buryatia are quite a bit larger). The physical geography of the district is defined by a wide river valley, which runs east-west between two mountain chains. The trip to Kuiren demanded an eight-hour trek in an infamous marshrutka. To describe: imagine if the entire Holland clan (spouses included; you’re not getting out of this one) revived the Econoline, piled in, and drove from DC to, say, Lake George on blue highways. Even then, we would need one or two people to fill out the van (there were fourteen of us) and about a decade of disregard to the roads. As we approached Kuiren, we experienced another novel site: camels in the road (though they were domesticated). At some point, there were also cattle and horses in our path to round out the menagerie.

Once in Kuiren, I was ably assisted by Ira and Sasha, two students who attend university in Ulan-Ude and Irkutsk, respectively. Having local help is invaluable; people are much more willing to fill out a survey for someone they know (or is with someone they know, at the least). As interesting were the conditions at the hotel. There was no indoor plumbing (though there were faucets), just outhouses; this is common practice in Siberia, as even in Ulan-Ude a number of resident live in such derevniye doma. The hotel doubled as the local taxi stand; the first night, I was lulled to sleep by the screeching of the proprietress as she arranged taxis in a combination of Buryat and Russian. Magical.

Some photos:


Kuiren










The view south over the village







North towards the Tunka Mountains








Ira sends me off at the bus station