Inter-Ethnic Marriages in Russia Most Common Where Both Partners Profess Same Religion, HSE Experts Say

 

Paul Goble

           Staunton, May 6 – Entering into a marriage with someone of a different nationality is still a brave undertaking, HSE scholars say; but the chances of such unions being contracted and remaining successful are greater when the couple shares a common religion, one of the key ways of overcoming differences in values, mentalities and traditions.

           This is just one of ten trends in marital behavior in the Russian Federation these researchers have identified (iq.hse.ru/news/621664851.html). The others include:

 

·       Orthodox countries like Russia see a decline in marriages in leap years because people believe that unions contracted then are unlikely, an old tradition that has not died out.

 

·       Ever fewer people are living alone either by choice or by accident, with men having more choices and women often left alone because of the premature deaths of their partners.

·      
Women in Russia think more often about divorce than do men, and such attitudes help to explain why many men and women prefer to live in unregistered partnerships.

 

·       Russian fathers are increasingly assuming more of the role of parenting than they did at the end of the Soviet period. They no longer feel that this is demeaning, and they don’t object either to their wives earning more than they do.

 

·       Older Russians moved out of parental apartments on marriage; younger ones are more likely to do so only when they become economically self-sufficient.

 

·       Ever fewer Russians feel they must get married if a woman becomes pregnant. And more generally, Russians increasingly accept as normal births outside of marriage.

 

·       Most Russians say they want two children, but a large number do not have any children while a smaller share have three or more.

 

·       Grandmothers still play a major role in child-rearing, but increasingly they do not want to give up their own careers and are forcing men in marriages to assume more parenting roles.

 

·       Both by choice and as a result of economic change including a shift away from agriculture and difficulties of finding housing sufficient to accommodate such large groups, the multi-generational families that characterized Russian life a century ago are rapidly becoming a thing of the past.