Modernization of Family and Marriage in Ukraine: Features of the Soviet Period

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Modernization of Family and Marriage in Ukraine: Features of the Soviet Period

Journal Title: Демографія та соціальна економіка - Year 2013, Vol 19, Issue

Abstract

Throughout the Soviet period, the development of family and marriage in Ukraine passed mostly according to the common European laws, but also in line with the “Soviet” scenario. After going through artificially accelerated modernization of marriage and family relations in 1920–30s, and a number of social disasters (Holodomor, repressions, wars), Ukraine’s population became much earlier than population of most European countries characterized by fragility of marriage, high divorce rates, single-child families. On the other hand, artificial socioeconomic environment and “closed” model of society have long preserved early marriage and childbirth, traditional gender relations in the family. Several periods (stages) of the modernization of family and marriage in Ukraine in the 20th cen- tury due to certain changes in the organization of society and the principles of state management can be highlighted. The first stage of modernization – 1920s: it is a period of artificially accelerated demographic modernization, caused by radical restructuring of the whole society and the corresponding changes in the value-motivational mechanisms of the population behavior, and accelerated liberalization of family laws. During this period, the number of divorces has increased dramatically (two decades ago divorces were rare), the number of marriages, including remarriage, was growing; women were increasingly involved in social production and this changed the gender relations in the family; limitation of births by artificial termina- tion of pregnancy (abortion) has spread. The second stage of transformation of a society – (1930s to early 1950s): reproduction of the population, including in the marriage and family sphere, was in conditions of tough totalitarian system, social disasters and war. The state used social catastrophes for accelerated modernization in accordance with the ideological dogmas of building communism, but at the same time legislatively delayed the modernization of marriage and family, trying to create a “strong socialist family” according to its ideological template. The third phase of modernization (1960s–1980s) – development of the family and marriage took place in a more civilized socioeconomic environment, the state rejected harsh methods of pressure on the family, and used indirect methods. At this stage the contradictions of family development accumulated over the past decades were exposed: the divorce rate of the population dramati- cally increased, one-child families became widespread, population nuptiality remained high, and the age of marriage was reduced.

Authors and Affiliations

L. I. Slyusar

Keywords

family marriage population demographic modernization divorce state society birth rate abortion.

EP ID EP287250
DOI 10.15407/dse2013.01.017
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