‘In Russia one has always guessed that a girl should give birth to a child before she is 25. Doctors considered a childbirth after 25 to be a late one’. No wonder that in such a situation an average age of contracting a marriage during all 70th and 80th varied around 22 years old, and in 1990 it was equal to 21,9 years old (according to the data of the Russian Institute of Demography). But with the fall of the Soviet Union and beginning of the new epoch people’s life plans also underwent changes. According to the data of a sociological polling held by a big recruiting portal in 2013 among economically active Russians older than 18, one third of citizens consider that upbringing children is incompatible with a successful carrier building. At the same time people younger than 24 consider that one should first make his career and only than pay attention at a family. ‘I am against an early family creation, – says a 25-year-old sales manager Ekaterina. – A man and a woman should find their calling, they both should be ready. And early marriages often split. Surely, trying to become a head of a bank before ones is 35 and beginning only then to think of children is also wrong. Before one is 27-28 one should self-develop and only than create a family.’ Such an idea becomes more and more popular among educated urban youth who travels the world much and actively. But still there is a majority of adherents of early marriages. ‘I am 27 and I have three children, – says housewife Anna. – Two daughters who are 7 years old and a son of 3,5 months. When I was 19, when my husband and I began living together, I had a feeling: I want to have a child! When I was 20 I gave birth to a child. I spend all my time with children and I am very happy that it is possible. Their childhood goes quickly and a job won’t go anywhere’.
Marriages in Russia are legally allowed beginning with an age of 18. But in some regions there are marriages which are legal at an age of 16 and even 14 when taking into consideration several circumstances. And though the number of marriages before full age is petty, an average age of contracting a marriage in Russia is still one of the earliest in the world – 22 years old for women and 24 – for men (according to the data of 2012). For comparison, according to the data of the Institute of Demography for 2010 in the USA this age is 26,1, in Japan – 28,8, in Germany – 30,2.