Surge in Young Couples Marrying in South Russia Shows Trend Toward Family Values

The trend in Russia is towards more family values, more children, more Christian values.

This is a partial translation / adaptation from a major Russian newspaper, Rossiiskaya Gazeta. Rostov-on-Don is a major Russian city, population 1.2 million. The article has interesting informtation about state assistance young couples receive to encourage them to form families.


Here's yet another small indicator of how Russian society is slowly returning to conservative values. In the Russian city of Rostov-on-Don, in the Registration Office on its 100th anniversary, almost 27 thousand new families registered in the Rostov Region. This is almost three thousand more families than last year.

These figures were reported at a reception in honor of the employees of the Rostov on Don registration office, in the Rostov regional government.

Annually districts and urban offices of the Registration Office register about 170 thousand acts of civil status.

Behind these numbers are important events in the lives of every person and family. These registrations include 50 thousand births, 30 thousand marriages, 5 to 6 thousand paternity establishments, two thousand cases of name changes, and 400 adoptions.

“The importance of this service is difficult to overestimate. For a whole century the Registration Office has worked together with the residents of the Don River's land and shared all their sorrows and joys, family troubles and solemn events.”

said Vasily Rudoi, the deputy governor of the Rostov Region. Today more than 14 million families' events are recorded in the archives.

After evaluating the employees’ work, the deputy governor presented the best of them with awards from the regional government, and commendations from the governor of the Rostov Region.

By the way, in Rostov-on-Don, young families receive various assistance from both federal and regional funds. This includes social payments to families and professionals living in rural areas, assisting with the construction or purchasing of houses. For the fifth year, the region is providing these families with maternity capital. And housing is provided for families in which triplets are born. As a result, the number of families deciding to have their second and third children are growing every year: in 2017, second and third children were born to 23 thousand families.

The Russian Church maintains that marriages should ideally take place within the Church. Still, it is understood that secular marriages have their proper place. The morality and stability of society improves when people marry, instead of simply living together.

Even in a secular marriage, at least the couples are legally admitting responsibility for each other, thus providing more possibility for healthy, reliable family structures.

Sure, secular marriages are not perfect, and they are no substitute for a church wedding, but they are a step in the right direction.


Source: Rossiiskaya Gazeta.   Translator: Katie Gleason

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