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Family Policy in Russia: Folkways Versus Stateways Revisited

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Handbook of Family Policies Across the Globe

Abstract

Family policy in Russia has a long history of juggling with ideas of family autonomy and state intervention. During the Soviet period, the policies were aimed at stimulating fertility and female employment by providing institutional childcare and job protection. By the time the reforms broke through in the 1990s, the country was facing several consequences of the earlier policy design. Double burden of work and care carried by women was accompanied by virtual “crowding out” of men from the family domain. The dramatic turmoil in economic, political, and social life brought a new light on the issue of decreasing fertility and rocketing poverty. In this chapter, we focus on the interplay between several family policy sectors related to these challenges, present the current regulations, highlight their effects, and discuss possible directions for future policy realization.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    The President Decree No 1351, 09 October 2007 “On establishing the concept for the demographic policy in the Russian Federation for the period before 2025”.

  2. 2.

    Federal Law No. 18-FZ “On introducing amendments into several legislative acts of the Russian Federation,” January 10, 2006.

  3. 3.

    Federal Law No. 343-FZ “On amendments to the law ‘On mandatory social insurance in case of temporary disability and motherhood,” December 08, 2010. Here and below, all amounts are provided for 2012.The currency exchange rate from the Central Bank of the Russian Federation is used for calculating equivalent sums: USD1  =  RUB32.0142 (08 September 2012).

  4. 4.

    The SIF is financed largely by employers’ contributions.

  5. 5.

    Unemployed parents have the right to choose between unemployment or Parental leave benefit; the former is for a shorter period but may be at a higher rate depending on various conditions.

  6. 6.

    Federal Law No. 81-FZ “On state allowances to citizens with children,” May 19, 1995 (last amended on March 07, 2011).

  7. 7.

    Federal law No. 3266-1 “On education,” 10.07.1992, art.5; Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation No. 666 “On establishing standard regulations for a preschool educational facility,” September 24, 2008.

  8. 8.

    Edict of the Chief Sanitary Inspector No. 91, July 22, 2010.

  9. 9.

    Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation No. 846 “On regulations for provision of financial support from the federal budget to budgets of the subjects of the Federation for paying compensations to parents for costs of daycare services at state and municipal educational institutions,” December 30, 2006.

  10. 10.

    Federal Law No. 81-FZ “On state allowances to citizens with children,” May 19, 1995 (last amended on March 07, 2011).

  11. 11.

    Federal Law No. 166-FZ “On state pension provisions” (last amended on December 21, 2006), Federal Law No. 181-FZ “On social protection on the disabled in the Russian Federation,” November 24, 1995, Edict of the President No. 551, March 17, 1994 (last amended on April 27, 2000).

  12. 12.

    Federal Law No. 134-FZ “On subsistence minimum in the Russian Federation” October 24, 1997, Federal Law No. 44-FZ “On accounting incomes and estimating the mean per capita income of a family and single individual as a condition for recognizing them as poor and providing state social assistance,” April 05, 2003.

  13. 13.

    Federal State Statistics Office “The size of subsistence minimum during the first quarter of 2012 as of July 2012,” available online at [http://www.gks.ru/gis/tables/UROV-6.htm], accessed August 02, 2012.

  14. 14.

    Federal Law No. 82-FZ “On minimum size of the wage,” June 02, 2000 (last amended on June 01, 2011).

  15. 15.

    Federal Law No. 195-FZ “On the foundations for social service provision in the Russian Federation,” December 10, 1995 (last amended on August 22, 2004).

  16. 16.

    See, for instance, the law “On introducing amendments to the law of St. Petersburg ‘On administrative offences,’” enacted in St. Petersburg, March 07, 2012. Similar initiatives are discussed by the national parliament despite local and international protests.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Social Work, Lund University, 23, 22100, Lund, Sweden

    Zhanna Kravchenko Ph.D.

  2. School of Sociology, Department of Social Work, St. Petersburg State University, 191124, St Petersburg, ul. Smol’nogo, 1/3, USA

    Irina Grigoryeva Ph.D.

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  1. Zhanna Kravchenko Ph.D.
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Correspondence to Zhanna Kravchenko Ph.D. .

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  1. Family Studies, City University of New Y, Queens College, Kissena Blvd. 65-30, Flushing, 11367-1597, New York, USA

    Mihaela Robila

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Kravchenko, Z., Grigoryeva, I. (2014). Family Policy in Russia: Folkways Versus Stateways Revisited. In: Robila, M. (eds) Handbook of Family Policies Across the Globe. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-6771-7_15

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