Russia wants a baby boom, but some women refuse to become mothers for the fatherland

Addressing attendees at the Eurasian Women's Forum in St. Petersburg on Wednesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin praised government policies aimed at helping women achieve the ultimate balance: professional success while serving as the centerpiece of a “big, big family.”

He further joked that Russian women would do this easily and still remain “beautiful, gentle and charming.”

His comments are the latest in a public campaign by government officials seeking to undermine Russia’s falling birth rate by appealing to a sense of patriotic duty and promising financial incentives to convince future parents.

Russia's birth rate – which measures the average number of children a woman gives birth to in her lifetime – is around 1.4, below the population renewal rate of 2.1. Kremlin officials have described Russia's statistics as “catastrophic,” and they come at a time when higher mortality among younger Russian men because of the war in Ukraine.

Earlier this month, a lawmaker told state media that just as Russia had decided on a special military operation in Ukraine, it also needed a “special demographic operation” at home to secure the country’s future.

The urge to reproduce

In some regions, full-time students who become mothers receive financial compensation, and in Moscow the health authority is expanding free access to fertility tests and treatments.

Russia's strategy to expand families is part of Putin's broader shift toward more traditional, conservative values. To reach the younger generation, a new course is being introduced for students in grades 5-9.

A course published online in August said the aim was to instill a positive attitude towards large families. The course is part of a state narrative that encourages women to become mothers for the fatherland.

Some women find it disturbing and intrusive.

“Even for women who have children and want to have more children, [the language] is worrying,” said Lada Shamardina, a Russian journalist with the independent medical publication Medivestnik.

Women believe that the decision to have children should be theirs alone, she said.

She continues to report on Russia's attempts to trigger a baby boom, which, in addition to incentives, Access restriction to abortions.

Low birth rate

According to the Russian statistics agency Rosstat, 599,600 children were born in Russia in the first half of 2024 – 16,000 fewer than in the same period in 2023 and the lowest figure since 1999.

While Russian politicians have been expressing concern about the birth rate for years, in recent months politicians have been making panicked statements emphasizing the importance of reproduction.

In early September, Yevgeny Shestopalov, Minister of Health of Primorsky Krai, told a Russian news channel that a busy career is no excuse for not having a family, and that people can choose to “produce offspring” during their work breaks.

A few days later, Russian Duma deputy Zhanna Ryabtseva said that 18- and 19-year-olds should think about family planning because “the best families are student families who then go through life together.”

To support this, the Russian regions of Karelia and Chelyabinsk are introducing programs under which full-time female students under the age of 25 can receive a lump sum payment when they become mothers.

In the Russian region of Karelia, which borders Finland, students who have a baby can receive the equivalent of 1,500 Canadian dollars.

In Chelyabinsk, a region in Russia's Ural Mountains, the payout is nearly 15,000 Canadian dollars and can be spent on housing, education or medical care.

Access to fertility tests

Earlier this week, women between the ages of 18 and 40 in Moscow received referrals for fertility tests as part of a new citywide program.

The women were invited to take part in a test that measures the amount of anti-Müllerian hormone in their blood. The hormone, which is produced by the ovaries, reflects a woman's ovarian reserve, the number of healthy, immature eggs in her reproductive system.

If tests show that a woman has low ovarian reserve, she will be offered follow-up treatments, including the option of freezing some of her eggs.

Shamardina believes that the free tests are an excellent service for women interested in family planning. However, she notes that the reaction on Russian social media has been partly negative, with women receiving unsolicited invitations to be tested from Moscow health authorities.

Responding to an article posted on the social media platform Telegram, one woman wrote that the initiative made her feel like a proxy for the state, while another compared the plan to Margaret Atwood's novel. The Handmaid's Talewhere women are forced to produce offspring for the political elite.

““I think the main problem is that people in Russia and most women in Russia do not trust our government,” Shamardina said. “All these issues are very intimate… and I think women are afraid to reveal this information to the government.”

CBC News spoke to a young woman from Moscow who received an invitation to take the test. She said it left her “terribly outraged.”

The woman, who contacted CBC about Shamardina, asked to remain anonymous because she was critical of the state. She said the premise of the program was positive, but rolling it out to women without notice was problematic.

“This created a feeling of coercion and violation of personal boundaries,” she wrote to CBC via a messaging app.

“The issue of family planning is already sensitive… the media regularly calls on Russian women to give up their careers and have children, and openly condemns those who do not put family first.”

The politics of family values

While the birth rate in Russia is still higher than in many Western countries, including Canada (with 1.33), Putin said Russia’s ethnic survival depends on whether the woman has at least two children.

But during his more than two decades in power, he has made it clear that he would prefer much larger families.

The country honors families with “parental glory” who are raising seven or more children. Lilia Syropyatova, 40, and her husband Maxim, 43, received the award in 2019, and they and their nine children met Putin in person.

“Having children is a duty,” Lilia Syropyatova told CBC News, which contacted her via social media.

The couple, who live in Yekaterinburg, now have eleven children between the ages of two and 20.

“Without people there would be no state, and in order for there to be people it is necessary to have children,” said Syropyatova.

In 2022, Putin reinstated a Soviet-era honorary award, the Mother Heroinewhich recognizes and honors women with ten or more children.

“They think they need to take Russia back to the 19th century, when there were seven children for every woman,” said Alexey Raksha, an independent demographer from Moscow who spoke to CBC News via Zoom.

“The main propaganda and message in the media is that women should start having children earlier.”

Questionable strategy

According to Raksha, several countries are trying to increase their birth rate. However, in “non-democratic states” such as Russia, the measures take a different tone: there, the government equates a larger population with state power.

He says the government will continue to try to encourage women to have more children through public messages, but he does not believe this campaign will work.

The government's demographic efforts are part of a broader strategy to build a society based on more conservative values ​​in line with Orthodox Christianity.

Putin, who fathered two children with his ex-wife and Rumor has it that there are more with his alleged girlfriend Alina Kabaeva, who sanctioned by the West — often portrays Russian values ​​as superior to those of Western societies. He accused Western nations of “moral norms” and to be satanic.

According to Raksha, the family studies courses are an attempt to “brainwash” the population and the idea that this will correct the demographic trend predicted years ago is “nonsense.”

He says the main reason for the current low birth rate goes back to the 1990s, when there was a significant decline in annual births in the years following the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Fewer babies mean that there are fewer women of childbearing age today.