Putin’s War, Nominally Fought to Defend Traditional Values like Marriage, Sparking Even More Divorces in Russia

Paul Goble

            Staunton, June 5 – Last year for the first time ever, there were more divorces than marriages in the Russian Federation (windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2024/08/for-first-time-ever-number-of-divorces.html). Part of the reason for that is that 68 percent of such unioins in which one partner is serving in the Russian invasion force in Ukraine now end with divorce.

            Among the reasons the war has pushed numbers up is that many married just in advance of deployments, couples disagreed over whether to leave Russia to avoid serving there, and the feeling on the part of one of the partners had betrayed the other while the latter was absent (takiedela.ru/2024/09/budushhie-byvshie/).

            This trend seems set to continue; and Russian officials are alarmed because fewer marriages almost certainly mean fewer children, something that will push the Russian birthrate, already below replacement levels, down further, and add to the Kremlin’s problems in staffing its industry and fielding its army.

            One trend within this general one, the NeMoskva portal says, that the share of marriages ending in divorce is “approximately the same in both progressive capital cities and patriarchal provinces,” even though in the latter such increases are more radical than in cities where divorce has long been more common (nemoskva.net/2025/06/05/neboevye-poteri-nesmirenie/).