The nearby "Banner of Lenin Collective Farm" (kolkhoz) has long been the main employer in the village, but adjacent to the kolkhoz's vast wheat fields, a young upstart is building a profitable private farm for himself and his family by selling meat, wheat and freshly-baked bread.

The upstart, Buyanto Tsydypov, is one of eight brothers and two sisters who grew up in this small village. For years he worked at the kolkhoz as an agronomist, organizing the planting and harvesting and then returning home in the evenings to his house in the village.

"Two and a half years ago, I had nothing," says Buyanto of those days. "But when privatization of government lands began in the early 1990s, I had an opportunity to receive hundreds of hectares of land for free.

"Then in 1992, President Yeltsin signed a decree stating that start-up private farms could operate tax-free for a period of five years. So I decided to start my own farm. Now we have 667 hectares of land, 120 cows and 300 sheep, and four of my brothers and their families also work on the farm," he says.

"I am like the 'gentleman farmers' in English books."