Despite Putin’s Promotion of Traditional Families, Few Russians Now Can Say Who is Head of Family, VTsIOM Director Suggests

Paul Goble

            Staunton, April 23 – In yet another indication that the Putin regime’s neo-traditionalism is running up against fundamental changes in Russian life, Valery Fedorov, head of the VTsIOM polling agency, says that “the role of head of the family has disappeared for the majority of Russians.”

             He told the all-Russian conference on The Demographic Transition in Russia that “today, when we ask people, ‘Who is the head of your family?’ it turns out that they do not have a head of the family. That role has disappeared,” one of “the radical changes” which has occurred in Russian family life (vz.ru/news/2026/4/23/1413173.html).

            Another major change has been a revision of accepted roles of men and women and the increasing problem of a shortage of men, something that reflects among other things losses from problems with the health of the male portion of the population and losses in the war in Ukraine. These changes will affect the country for “many decades ahead.”

            But perhaps the most important change is the declining importance of family as a Russian value. It now ranks second to health; and that declining importance in the significance and importance of family life is preventing Russia from solving  existing demographic problems, Fedorov continues.

            Two other problems affecting Russian family life and undermining any possibility that the patriarchal values the Kremlin is promoting can be achieved are the increasing share of Russians who are growing up in single-parent families and the rising tide of violence within families.

            At present, 40 percent of Russian children now grow up in single-parent families, most of this trend being the result of divorce, death and desertion; but now Russian officials and experts are worried about an additional factor: the decision of women to raise children on their own rather than establishing families (nakanune.ru/articles/124609/).

            The other major problem attracting attention is a rising tide of home violence which is now at a higher level than even during the covid pandemic which forced people to remain together a higher percentage of the time and led to an earlier spike in violence within families (nemoskva.net/2026/04/24/novosti-nemoskvy-za-noch-24-aprelya-2/).