Russia

During the past two decades, Russia has been undergoing a crucial transition from a soviet system to a pro-Western type of country, a transition affecting ail levels of Russian society economically, politically, and culturally. A recent report on Russia’s economy in National Geographic magazine (November, 2001) shows a monthly per capita income of approximately $200-300, with pensioners subsisting on far less. Financial hardships and poverty probably have become the most interfering and destabilizing factors for the vast majority of the population, and have contributed to an elevation of violence on both the family and macrosystem level

In general, problems of family violence were not a topic of public discussion in the former USSR. Under the Communist system, the prevailing ideology was characterized by purposeful neglect of negative aspects of people’s lives, although some kinds of misbehavior in families (e.g., alcoholism, physical abuse, cheating) were profoundly and officially criticized by various state organizations and local work committees. Only since the beginning of Perestroika has the hidden problem of fairly widespread family abuse and neglect emerged as a point of public and political attention. Such evidence as is available makes it clear that it is typically the weakest family members who are most vulnerable. Women and children compose the vast majority of cases of domestic violence. The tradition of filial piety provides a moderate degree of protection of elders, although they often suffer greatly from poverty. Discussions of family violence generally make no reference to men, who have much more social, financial, and authoritarian power in the male dominant Russian society. Scientific research on family violence and abuse is still somewhat limited because of the unavailability of funding, so most of the statistics in this chapter are derived from mass media, and internet sources rather than from published formal scientific reports.