Marriage in Russia: a reconstruction

The micro census 1994 of the Russian Federation collected detailed marital histories for al respondents. This information made it possible to construct multistate marital tables for both male and female cohorts born since 1910 for the first time. Continuity and change in marital patterns over a most turbulent of Russian history could be analyzed. Divorce rose monotonically from a quite low level for the cohort of 1910 to the high incidence that is characteristic for modern Russia. The typical Eastern European marriage pattern of early and almost universal marriage was remarkably stable. The major crisis, the Second World War, led to a postponement of marriage, but even in the female cohorts confronted with an extreme unbalanced marriage market the proportion never married was remarkably low.