All You Wanted to Know about the Field, but were Afraid to Ask

This article is a review of the book Leaving so as to Stay: a Sociologist in the Field (a collection of articles edited by V. Voronkova and E. Chikadze. SPb.: Aleteia, 2009. 148 pages), which is fairly uncommon for sociological discourse due to its expressiveness, self-reflection and emotional tone. In this collection, on the basis of examples from the authors' personal experience, a question, significant to every sociologist, is raised. The question is: How does one meet the requirements of research work if objectivity is hard to attain - as a result of a powerful emotional reaction arising at the moment of interaction between the sociologist as a person and the surveyed people in a situation of inclusive observation.