Family policy in contemporary Russia

Maria Avdeeva, Moscow State University
Valeriy Elizarov, Moscow State University

The support of the families with children is the most important part of the family policy, especially in countries with fertility below the replacement level. Such countries are on their road to the depopulation. Russia has joined to the low fertility countries in the 1960-s. Since that time a solution for this problem is looked for, to stop the transition from the “two children” family model to “not less that one child, but no more that two” model. In USSR family support system was launched in 1981; after the break of the Soviet Union during the transition family support boiled down to the compensation payments to reduce children poverty. A change in Russian family policy took place in 2006 when the most modern measures were designed. This study examines Russian family policy from the early 1990s up to the recent innovations. This project is an analysis of the different family policy measures in contemporary Russia in the demographic and economic context and their potential efficiency. Authors explore regional differences in family support (measures and budget expenses) and demographic results in these regions. The data set of the research is the waves of Russian GGS and the recent survey “Family and Fertility” conducted in Russia in 2009. Careful consideration of different experiences in family policy (successful or not) is very important for modern Russian family support system. The research contains comparison with European counties.