The writing of headlines is one of the greatest journalistic arts.
This is an interesting yet sad observation of how Russian official statistics (or propaganda, which is the same thing) works. For the International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples (9 August 2023), usually celebrated in Russia through numerous festivals and dance shows, the State Statistics Office published some numbers regarding the Indigenous Peoples in Buryatia Republic, which were publicized by several regional media as a part of the IP Day’s celebration.
Headlines included an optimistic statement: “The Buryat Statistic Office named the “Youngest” Peoples of Buryatia” (В Бурятстате назвали самые «молодые» народы Бурятии). They used several numbers to justify such an encouraging message: “While the average age in the Buryatia Republic is 36.8 years, the average age of the Soyots is 30.8 years, and that of the Evenks is 32.7 years.”
For any Homo Sapiens, that means that the life expectancy for Indigenous Peoples in Buryatia is several years lower than the average in the Republic, which is lower than Russia’s average.
But Russia’s official statistics put the smiling young indigenous faces in the publication and dish it up as an achievement, drawing a conclusion that Indigenous Peoples in Buryatia are the “youngest ones”.
As you might guess, Russia’s official data for the UN reports are based on the same approach.
Dmitry Berezhkov, iRussia editor
