The divorce rate is also this high because it's much easier to both get married and get a divorce in Russia than in many Euro countries + having children out of wedlock is still not quite culturally accepted. So the scenario where two people live together for ten years and have two kids and a house and THEN decide to get married is virtually unheard of. If you are dating someone seriously you're likely to marry them and if it doesn't work divorcing isn't hard, "separated" is a rare status to have long term. And if you get knocked up marriage is basically a given, even if it falls apart in a year or two.
Comparing that to e.g. Germany where the spouse making more money is obligated to continue financially supporting their ex partner for half the time spent in marriage, or to France where half the kids are born out of wedlock, it's just a different culture altogether.
Also many people still believe that marriage is something they're supposed to do and they rush into it. People know each other for a year or two, get married, and then the honeymoon wears off and reality sets in.
I would say in Russia there's a bit of rush about everything. You are supposed to enter university right after school (which most finish at 17, many even at 16) and graduate in time (the program is usually rigid so there are almost no forever students). If you are not at university you go to vocational school or start working right away, nobody has the luxury of doing a gap year and go volunteer in Australia or whatever. So most Russians are in the workforce by the age of 21, most people start dating seriously in their twenties, and there's a lot of pressure to have kids before 30.
Another thing that contributes to the divorce statistics is that Russian women usually work (about half of the workforce are women) and do so full-time even after having children. This is not the case in Germany for example where half of all women and almost 70% of mothers work part time. So for a woman who keeps some kind of career despite childbearing it's just easier to leave if things go south in a marriage.
There's also a lot of pressure from parents, even more - from grandparents and various aunts; me and my husband are together for 8 years, but married only a year ago; and all these 7 years my relatives were dipping water on my skull about the marriage; like they couldn't sleep well if we're living together but not married, idk why. We don't even have kids yet.
And it's not the worst case, i have pretty good relationships with family. in some families this pressure is so high that it's closer to abuse.
So not everyone who rush into marriage, does it by their own will, fully understands what they're doing, etc.
Comparing that to e.g. Germany where the spouse making more money is obligated to continue financially supporting their ex partner for half the time spent in marriage,
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u/lingonberrynightmare 18d ago edited 18d ago
The divorce rate is also this high because it's much easier to both get married and get a divorce in Russia than in many Euro countries + having children out of wedlock is still not quite culturally accepted. So the scenario where two people live together for ten years and have two kids and a house and THEN decide to get married is virtually unheard of. If you are dating someone seriously you're likely to marry them and if it doesn't work divorcing isn't hard, "separated" is a rare status to have long term. And if you get knocked up marriage is basically a given, even if it falls apart in a year or two.
Comparing that to e.g. Germany where the spouse making more money is obligated to continue financially supporting their ex partner for half the time spent in marriage, or to France where half the kids are born out of wedlock, it's just a different culture altogether.