Russian Marriage - New Family Traditions

The legal marrying age in Russia is 18 years of age for both men and women. In some cases, it is possible for a couple to marry if a girl is younger (i.e. pregnancy, etc). Marriage can involve civil and church ceremony. Civil registration of the couple getting married takes place in a city registry institution. There births, deaths, marriages, and divorces are registered. This ceremony is required to make a marriage official. A couple normally has to place a notice several weeks in advance (maximum waiting time is two months); if you have circumstances, which require for you to perform the ceremony urgently, you have to present documents, supporting this (i.e. medical conclusion about pregnancy, ticket - if you are leaving in several days, etc). If one of the future spouses has been married before, you will need to present a document about being legally divorced. Before you will be able to fill out the questionnaire and determine the date for the ceremony, you will need to make a payment for the registry services, and arrive to set the appointment with the payment and all necessary documents.

The ceremony can be handled any way you wish: it can be elaborate, with all guests and family joining you, it can be private, having only the bride, the groom, and the witnesses present. In some cases, the registry officials can even perform the ceremony at the place of your choice (for example, at the same place you plan to have the banquet) for an extra fee.

Spouses can change their last names after the wedding. Russian girl normally takes her husband's last name, but it is possible for a husband take a wife's last name, have a combined last name, or wife can also keep her maiden name. After the registration of the marriage ceremony, Russian people usually have a stamp placed in their domestic passport; their foreign travel passport will not contain any personal information like this. This stamp will have the date, registry number, and the name of a spouse. In fact, this can be used as an additional measure for you to check if the woman you are dating is married, should you have any doubts. But be careful not to confuse the marriage stamp with a registration stamp; in order to avoid any mistakes, have someone who knows Russian well help you read this information.

While marriage contracts have not become common yet, in some cases, they can be used. Otherwise, property acquired by the couple during their marriage is considered joint. Also, Russian people wear rings on their right hand, instead of left, as common in the US and Europe.

Church weddings have become more popular in the recent years. Many couples perform them, even after having been married for several years. Such ceremonies can not be a replacement for a civil registration - they do not carry legal weight, but instead have a more spiritual meaning. They are usually performed on a different day than the civil marriage ceremony, and are much less extensive in celebration afterwards. This kind of celebration will be much more solemn in comparison with the civil registration. Russian Orthodox churches are usually very rich in d?cor and have a very formal atmosphere.

Family planning efforts are not very widespread in Russia or CIS countries that are close to it. Use of condoms or other forms of contraceptives is not very common. Slack use of condoms has lead to fairly high rates of STDs. In the recent years there have been some social campaigns trying to promote their use. One of the reasons for lesser use of such items is that they can be pretty expensive: contraceptive pills can cost up to $10 per month, with some people having a salary of $50-100, such spending is not a priority.

Abortion is still at high rates in Russia and Ukraine, for example, and can be considered one of the main measures of birth control. Abortion can be legally performed at woman's request within 12 weeks of pregnancy, at later terms if there are conditions which put the woman's health in danger or make it socially hard for her to bear and give birth to a child (i.e. a spouse being in jail, not earning a minimum income, etc). Recently, there has been an increase in implementing various social family planning programs, but in most cases government does not have enough money in the budget to continue funding or promote them, and therefore such programs have very limited effect on the state of things in Russia, Ukraine, and some other countries.