According to the data of the United Nations demographic yearbook， since 2000， Russia's divorce rate has been maintained at more than 4.5%， and that of some years even reached 5.3%. Moreover， according to the calculating method of local media， in recent dozen years， the divorce rates in Russia are all over 50%， which even up to 80% in 2008. However， over the same period， in Britain， France， Germany， Japan， Australia， Canada， China and other world’s major countries， the divorce rates are between 2% and 2.3%， and only that of the United States is a little bit higher which is about 3.6%.

根據(jù)聯(lián)合國人口統(tǒng)計(jì)年鑒的數(shù)據(jù)顯示，自2000年以來，俄羅斯離婚率一直維持在4.5%以上，有的年份甚至達(dá)到5.3%。另據(jù)當(dāng)?shù)孛襟w的計(jì)算方法，近十幾年來，俄羅斯的離婚率均超過50%，2008年甚至高達(dá)80%。而同一個(gè)時(shí)期，英國、法國、德國、日本、澳大利亞、加拿大、中國等世界主要國家的離婚率在2%至2.3%之間，只有美國稍高一些，約為3.6%。

Why does the divorce rate in Russia keep high?

俄羅斯為何離婚率居高

Why does Russia have such a high divorce rate? According to some opinion polls and experts studies， in the 1990s， the leading causes of divorce of the Russians are alcohol or drug addiction， having no kids， long-term and long-distance relationship， etc. However， in the recent 10 years， having a new sweetheart and incompatibility have become the leading causes of divorce. In 2013， the All Russian Public Opinion Research Centre took a large scale opinion poll on Russians’ reasons for divorce. It found that the most frequently mentioned grounds for divorce are “unfaith and betrayal” as well as “failing in compromise， concession and understanding mutually， selfishness and quarrel”.

The large scale opinion poll shows that apart from “unfaith and betrayal” and “personality conflict”， other common reasons of divorce include “poverty， unemployment and being incapable of supporting the family” and “alcohol and drug abuse” which also reflects the profound social problems of Russia.

Russia’s newspaper New Messages once published a survey report claimed that Russians often divorce for the reason of poverty， lack of social and medical security， acute housing shortage and so on. Huge living pressures cause alienation of mutual affection， on the other hand， many people regard reorganizing family as a way to change their living conditions， which is more common in small-medium cities.

In addition， the crapulent husband and ingrained male chauvinism are also the main reasons for Russia's high divorce rate. On one hand， Russian women's level of education has improved， so it is hard for them to tolerate their husbands’ drinking and other bad habits. On the other hand， some of the Russian men still hope to have absolute authority in their families， and even tend to use violence to solve the problems.

俄羅斯為什么有如此之高的離婚率？一些民意調(diào)查和專家研究顯示，上世紀(jì)90年代，俄羅斯人離婚的主要原因是酗酒或吸毒、沒有孩子、長期兩地分居等；而最近10年來，另有新歡或感情破裂成為了離婚的主因。

2013年全俄社會(huì)輿論研究中心就俄羅斯人離婚原因進(jìn)行了大規(guī)模民意調(diào)查。在離婚理由當(dāng)中，最常被提到的是“變心和背叛”，以及“不能互相妥協(xié)、不肯讓步、不理解對(duì)方、自私、爭(zhēng)吵”。除了“變心背叛”及“性格不合”，其他常見的離婚原因還包括“貧窮、失業(yè)、不能養(yǎng)活家庭”，以及“酗酒、吸毒”，這也反映出俄羅斯的深層次社會(huì)問題。

俄羅斯《新消息報(bào)》曾刊發(fā)過調(diào)查報(bào)道稱，俄羅斯人常常因?yàn)樨毟F、缺乏社會(huì)及醫(yī)療保障、住房緊張等原因而離婚。巨大的生活壓力導(dǎo)致夫妻感情破裂，許多人將重新組織家庭作為改變生存狀況的手段，這在中小城市更為常見。

此外，丈夫酗酒以及根深蒂固的大男子主義也是俄羅斯離婚率高發(fā)的重要原因。一方面，俄羅斯女性受教育程度提高，因而難以容忍丈夫酗酒等惡習(xí)，但另一方面，部分俄羅斯男性仍然希望在家庭內(nèi)部擁有絕對(duì)權(quán)威，甚至傾向于使用暴力解決問題。

Russian sociologist Kuchma considers that Modern people are likely to try a new way of life， so they frequently switch jobs， change careers， transfer interest preferences， move to new residences and even change partners. In addition， compared with the previous generation， today’s young people pay more attention to their personal feelings， and they are lack of tolerance and understanding to their partners， which result in their impulsive divorce when they discord with each other.

In recent years， people’s views on divorce have also changed. Divorce is regarded as a very normal and common phenomenon. Modern women are more independent with wider horizons and higher incomes. So even if divorced， they can also maintain their own costs and raise the children at the same time， which is also an important factor for many girls initiating a divorce.

Some experts point out that the role of some media cannot be ignored in promoting higher divorce rate. Ve Medkov， associate professor in the Department of Sociology， University of Moscow， says that some TV programs tell people that no one needs marriage that is a kind of outdated social phenomenon and lots of young people have accepted this view; Besides that， getting divorced or bizarre “falling in love” also has become a means for some stars and even politicians to become famous， which also has deepened people’s notion with no respect for marriage.

俄羅斯社會(huì)學(xué)家?guī)炱骜R耶娃則認(rèn)為，現(xiàn)代人喜歡嘗試新的生活方式，頻繁地?fù)Q工作、換職業(yè)、換興趣、換住處，甚至換伴侶。此外，與上一輩人相比，現(xiàn)在的年輕人更注重個(gè)人感受，對(duì)伴侶缺乏包容和體諒，發(fā)生不和就容易沖動(dòng)離婚。

近年來，人們對(duì)離婚的觀念也發(fā)生了變化。它被視為很正常、很普通的現(xiàn)象。現(xiàn)代女性更獨(dú)立、眼界更開闊、收入也更高。即使離婚，她們也能在維持自身開銷的同時(shí)養(yǎng)育孩子。這也是許多女伴能主動(dòng)提出離婚的重要因素。

還有一些專家指出，在推動(dòng)離婚率走高方面，某些媒體的作用不容忽視。莫斯科大學(xué)社會(huì)學(xué)系副教授維·梅德科夫說，一些電視節(jié)目告訴人們，任何人都不需要婚姻，婚姻是一種已經(jīng)過時(shí)的社會(huì)現(xiàn)象，許多青年人都接受了這種看法；此外，鬧離婚或離奇“戀愛”也成為一些明星乃至政客成名的手段，這也加深了人們不尊重婚姻的觀念。

With the high incidence of divorce rate， more and more Russia’s young people pursue “celibacy”， and many young people would rather choose to cohabit. Some investigators estimate， at present， nearly 30% of Russia’s young people don’t want to get married and prefer to live together.

Experts believe that laying too much emphasis on their careers and self-realization make some young people don’t have the energy and time to start and raise a family; The high housing prices and costs of living in big cities have increased their living pressure; Modern family service equipments and complete system make men need not rely on any housewife type of wife， in turn， women don't need to rely on men to bring home the bacon， in addition， unmarried sexual relationship is becoming more common. These are the important causes why some young people don't want to get married.

A Russian Middle-aged man Eagle Serebranaiin divorced again with his second wife. Referring to the reason for the divorce， “She wants to be independent and get promotion on career. She earns three times more than I do. She can afford a babysitter and her parents can help to look after the children. Why does she need a husband?” Serebranaiin says in an interview with Global Magazine. “In ancient society， men hunted animals， turned up the soil or did other heavy work， while women stay at home to take care of the children. At that time， women can’t leave men， otherwise they would be unable to survive. But now both men and women work in front of the computer and in many big cities， such as Moscow， some women can earn much more money than men.” Serebranaiin says.

在離婚率高發(fā)的同時(shí)，俄羅斯也有越來越多的年輕人奉行“不婚主義”。不少年輕人更愿意選擇同居。一些調(diào)查機(jī)構(gòu)估計(jì)，目前，有近30%的俄羅斯年輕人不愿意結(jié)婚而更愿同居。

專家認(rèn)為，過分重視自己的事業(yè)和實(shí)現(xiàn)自我價(jià)值使得一些年輕人沒有精力和時(shí)間組建家庭和養(yǎng)育后代；大城市房?jī)r(jià)和生活成本的高昂加重了他們的生活壓力；現(xiàn)代化家庭服務(wù)設(shè)備和完備的體系使男性不必依賴家庭主婦式的妻子，女性也不需要依靠男人掙錢養(yǎng)家，加之非婚性關(guān)系越來越普遍……這些都是造成一些年輕人不愿結(jié)婚的重要原因。

俄羅斯中年男性伊格爾·謝列布良內(nèi)和第二任妻子又離了婚。關(guān)于離婚原因，謝列布良內(nèi)在接受《環(huán)球》雜志采訪時(shí)表示:“她想獨(dú)立，想在職業(yè)上獲得升遷。她掙的比我多三倍，可以請(qǐng)得起保姆，父母也可以幫助照看孩子，她為什么需要丈夫？”“在古代社會(huì)，男人獵殺猛獸、翻地或者干其他重活，而女人在家里照顧孩子。女人不能離開男人，否則無法存活。而現(xiàn)在男人和女人都在電腦前工作，在很多大城市，例如莫斯科，女人可以掙得比男人更多?！敝x列布良內(nèi)說。

Who are hurt by the high divorce rate?

高離婚率傷了誰？

In Russia， the high divorce rate even has a negative effect on the whole society. Sociologists point out that unstable marital relations may make couples pessimistic and do not feel like having children.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union， from 1993 to 2002， on average， every woman of childbearing age gave birth to less than one child. After 2003， the fertility rate of Russian women has recovered. In recent years， per woman of childbearing age gives birth to an average of 1.3 children， but it is still not enough to maintain a stable population growth.

Experts estimate that if Russia wants to get rid of the population crisis， per woman of childbearing age has to give birth to an average of at least 2.5 children. At the end of 2013， during the annual state of the nation address， Russian President Vladimir Putin said， “A family with three children” should become the standard of Russia.

在俄羅斯，過高的離婚率甚至對(duì)整個(gè)社會(huì)都產(chǎn)生負(fù)面影響。社會(huì)學(xué)家指出，婚姻關(guān)系不夠穩(wěn)定，可能導(dǎo)致夫妻對(duì)未來產(chǎn)生悲觀心理，而不愿意生養(yǎng)孩子。

蘇聯(lián)解體后，從1993年至2002年，平均每名育齡女性生育孩子還不到1個(gè)。2003年之后，俄羅斯女性生育率有所回升，最近幾年平均每名育齡女性生育1.3個(gè)孩子，但這尚不足以維持人口穩(wěn)定增長態(tài)勢(shì)。

據(jù)專家測(cè)算，俄羅斯若要擺脫人口危機(jī)，平均每名育齡婦女至少要生2.5個(gè)孩子。俄羅斯總統(tǒng)普京2013年底發(fā)表國情咨文時(shí)說，“一個(gè)家庭有3個(gè)孩子”應(yīng)該成為俄羅斯的標(biāo)準(zhǔn)。

Furthermore， sociologists point out that， excessively casual marriage will have an unfavorable influence on the growth of children， and parents divorce will have a huge negative impact on children. Research shows that for children， parents divorce is similar to lost loved ones， which makes the children create a sense of powerlessness. In addition， parents divorce may leave shadows to children， and they would worry about that similar cases will happen in their own future family life.

In Russia， after divorce of the husband and wife， most of the time the children are brought up by the woman， and grow up in a single-parent family. About 600，000 Russian children do not live with their fathers， according to official data.

In Serebranaiin’s opinion， this kind of Russian boys have no “male role models”， so they do not know what father is and when they grow up， they also don’t know how to be a qualified father， which “unfortunately， is a chain reaction”. Serebranaiin believes that the society also needs 15 or even 20 years to generally realize the negative effect. “They won’t realize the importance of the role of father in the family， until this generation that don’t live together with their fathers grow up and they themselves become fathers.”

此外，社會(huì)學(xué)家指出，婚姻關(guān)系過于隨意對(duì)孩子的成長不利，父母離婚會(huì)對(duì)兒童產(chǎn)生巨大負(fù)面影響。研究顯示，對(duì)于兒童來說，父母離婚類似于失去親人，兒童會(huì)產(chǎn)生無力感。此外，父母離婚會(huì)給兒童造成心理陰影，兒童會(huì)擔(dān)心未來自己家庭生活也會(huì)發(fā)生類似事件。

在俄羅斯，夫妻離婚后，孩子大多數(shù)時(shí)候歸女方撫養(yǎng)，并在單親家庭里長大。根據(jù)官方數(shù)據(jù)，大約60萬俄羅斯兒童沒有和父親住在一起。

在謝列布良內(nèi)看來，這類俄羅斯男孩沒有“男性榜樣”，所以他們不知道什么是父親，等他們長大之后也不知道該如何當(dāng)好一個(gè)父親，“很遺憾，這是連鎖反應(yīng)”。謝列布良內(nèi)認(rèn)為，社會(huì)還需要15年甚至20年才能普遍認(rèn)識(shí)到這種負(fù)面影響，“需要等到現(xiàn)在這代沒有與父親共同成長的孩子長大，等到他們自己當(dāng)父親的時(shí)候，才會(huì)明白父親這個(gè)角色在家庭里的重要性。

The Russian government makes a positive response

to family crisis

俄羅斯政府積極應(yīng)對(duì)家庭危機(jī)

Faced with the occurrent serious family crisis， the Russian government has tried to intervene. For one thing， traditional values have been heavily promoted by the Russian government to encourage people to attach importance to family and reduce divorce and domestic violence. Since 2005， Russia has held film festivals in the theme of family life to raise people’s awareness of the importance of family.

Since 2008， Russia has celebrated “Family， Love and Loyalty Day” on July 8. Every year on this day， local governments will hold concerts， lectures and other events， and reward the couples have a long lasting marriage.

Local media has reported that on the days of the festival， recreational and educational activities are held throughout Russia including concerts， lectures and so on， and the couples who have gotten married for more than 25 years are awarded a medal for their “Family， Love and Loyalty”. On those very days of the festival， the “wedding boom” has occurred in many cities of Russia， and the number of newlyweds who grant marriage licenses exceeds the average number of former days. On that day， the marriage registrations of some cities don’t received the petition for divorce， which gives the couples who plan to break up one more day to think over.

面對(duì)正在發(fā)生的嚴(yán)重家庭危機(jī)，俄羅斯政府已試圖進(jìn)行干預(yù)。一方面，俄羅斯政府大力倡導(dǎo)傳統(tǒng)價(jià)值觀，以鼓勵(lì)人們重視家庭、減少離婚和家庭暴力。從2005年起，俄羅斯開始舉辦以家庭生活為題材的電影節(jié)，提高人們對(duì)家庭的重視程度。

2008年開始，俄羅斯將每年的7月8日定為“家庭、愛情和忠貞日”。每年的這一天，各地政府都會(huì)舉辦音樂會(huì)、講座等活動(dòng)，并對(duì)那些婚姻長久的夫婦給予獎(jiǎng)勵(lì)。

據(jù)當(dāng)?shù)孛襟w報(bào)道，節(jié)日當(dāng)天，俄羅斯各地舉辦文娛和教育活動(dòng)，包括音樂會(huì)、講座等，婚齡超過25年的夫婦被授予“家庭、愛情和忠貞”獎(jiǎng)?wù)隆９?jié)日當(dāng)天，俄羅斯不少城市出現(xiàn)“結(jié)婚潮”，登記結(jié)婚的新人超過往日平均數(shù)量。一些城市的婚姻登記處在這一天不受理離婚申請(qǐng)，給打算分道揚(yáng)鑣的夫婦多一天考慮時(shí)間。

For another， The Russian government also tries to provide economic support for the young families to avoid the breakdown of this kind of families due to financial distress， which includes providing child-support allowances for families with children， helping young parents with children to find a job， providing preferential housing loans to young families and so on.

Although the Russian government is trying to promote the value of family and help the young families to solve their financial problems， some sociologists think pessimistically that it is still difficult for the destroyed Russian family tradition to recover in a short time.

另一方面，俄羅斯政府也努力為年輕家庭提供經(jīng)濟(jì)支持，包括對(duì)有孩子家庭發(fā)放育兒補(bǔ)貼、幫助有小孩的年輕父母找工作、為年輕家庭提供優(yōu)惠住房貸款等，以避免這類家庭因經(jīng)濟(jì)窘迫而破裂。

雖然俄羅斯政府正努力宣傳家庭的可貴，并從經(jīng)濟(jì)上幫助遇到困難的年輕家庭。但一些社會(huì)學(xué)家悲觀地認(rèn)為，俄羅斯遭到破壞的家庭傳統(tǒng)短期內(nèi)仍難以恢復(fù)。