Between 1944 and 1991, the Soviets Named 431,000 Women Hero Mothers; Between 2008 and Now, the Putin Regime has Awarded Only 118

Paul Goble
    Staunton, Feb. 14 – There are few clearer indications of the change in demographic behavior between Soviet times and now than in the number of women awarded the status of  Hero Mothers for raising ten children. In Soviet times, between 1944 when the order was created, 431,000 were; in Putin’s time, between 2008 and 2025, there have been only 118.
    That works out to about 900 a year in the USSR and about seven in Russia today, according to statistics gathered by demographers at the Russian University of Finance (profile.ru/society/nagradnoj-short-list-pochemu-v-sssr-byli-tysyachi-materej-geroin-a-v-rossii-edinicy-1661908/).
    Most of the decline reflects the independence of the former non-Russian republics and hence the loss of populations that had higher birthrates than the ethnic Russians did even then and the rapid urbanization of the population whose city residents did not want to have as many children as their rural ancestors.
    But Marina Izmaylova and Natalya Sedova say that another reason is that the Russian government is far stricter because the amount of money given to each is greater. Not only must the woman have given birth to at least ten children and they must all be living at the time of the award, but the family must meet a variety of other standards.
    The demographers say that the marriage must be officially registered, no family member can have problems with the law, all parents are active in public life, all children have the same father, none have serious diseases, and all are doing well in schools or universities. Soviet officials were far less demanding in deciding who would be made a member of this order.
    The two demographers say that these strictures can be discriminatory especially those which exclude people who have problems not of their own making and thus indicate that they would favor a more relaxed approach and higher numbers of hero mothers. But the large sums Moscow and the regions are prepared to pay women who get that status would make that very expensive, even for a government as nominally pro-family as Vladimir Putin’s.