P.S. To make it clear, I’m just as curious about modern-day ethnic activism in Russia as I used to be. I intend to keep in touch with all my exiled secessionist friends and continue reporting on what they’re up to as a journo and political analyst. Just not sure I should also do this academically.

Fellas, is it too late to change the region of study at my age and stage? Just say screw it and start learning Mongolian? Isn’t this impolite towards my supervisor considering she helped me choose the Astrakhan topic and was enthusiastic about it? I doubt there’s a definitive answer. 6/6

Lately I’ve been reading a lot on the 20th century history of Mongolia which I find very fascinating as the most post-Soviet country out of those which weren’t actually part of the USSR. Its nationalities policy in and after the socialist era is very interesting and little-known. 5/6

There are ways to make it work. Interviews over Zoom; remaining family members scanning archival stuff for me. It’s a hassle but it’s doable. I’m just afraid it won’t feel the same. I miss proper fieldwork and I want to be in touch with the reality on the ground. 4/6

My original PhD proposal was to write a more general overview of grassroots activism of and state policy on all of Astrakan’s ethnic minorities in the 1990s. I obviously love the topic but being banned from Russia, I can’t go back for oral history interviews and archives. 3/6

My BA thesis was on the rapid shift in the ethnic identity of the Karagash, a Nogai-speaking community of Astrakhan, caused by the dissolution of the USSR and a local ecological disaster. The MA one was on the sociolinguistics of Kazakh as an unwritten minority language in Astrakhan. 2/6