**Женский бунт. Почему рожать больше некому — Transcript & Summary | SozAI**
Source: https://sozai.app/transcript/womens-revolt-why-no-one-to-have-children/

Explores Russia's declining birth rate, financial and social challenges for families, and government efforts to boost fertility.

## Key Takeaways

- Russia faces a demographic crisis with a declining population due to low fertility rates.
- Financial insecurity, especially housing affordability, is the main reason families delay or avoid having children.
- Government incentives like maternity capital have limited impact without addressing broader economic challenges.
- Supporting young families early with housing and income stability is crucial to reversing demographic decline.
- Cultural and social policies must align with economic realities to effectively encourage higher birth rates.

## What the video covers

- Russia's fertility rate is 1.36 children per woman, below the replacement level of 2 needed for population stability.
- Despite official surveys showing people desire three children on average, many women want fewer children than men.
- One in six young women aged 18-24 do not plan to have children, often due to financial and housing difficulties rather than personal choice.
- The government has created demographic units to promote family-centric policies and urges women to have more children for national survival.
- Economic factors such as high housing costs and childcare expenses deter families from having more children.
- Maternity capital and family mortgage programs exist but are often insufficient to cover real housing market costs in major cities.
- The state relies heavily on tax revenues from a larger population to sustain its budget and economic growth.
- Rural depopulation and urban migration threaten the viability of many villages and the overall demographic health of Russia.
- Cultural values and social expectations influence family planning, but financial security remains the primary barrier.
- The video discusses the need for policy reforms including paternal leave and better financial support to encourage higher birth rates.

## Chapters

1. 00:00 Introduction to Russia's demographic challenge
2. 03:12 Taxation and economic impact of population size
3. 05:52 Financial costs of raising children in Russia
4. 08:42 Maternity capital and government support programs
5. 11:46 Cultural values and demographic policy
6. 17:38 Comparisons with global demographic trends
7. 23:48 Gender roles and career impact of maternity leave
8. 29:37 Paternity leave and family dynamics
9. 32:11 Effectiveness of financial incentives on birth rates
10. 37:47 Immigration and future demographic prospects

Answers

## Questions about this video

Why is Russia's fertility rate below the replacement level?

Russia's fertility rate is 1.36 children per woman, below the replacement level of 2, mainly due to financial and housing difficulties faced by young families.

What are the main reasons young Russians choose not to have children?

The primary reasons are financial insecurity and lack of affordable housing, rather than a desire to live only for themselves or hedonism.

How effective are government programs like maternity capital in encouraging childbirth?

While maternity capital provides some financial support, it is often insufficient to overcome high housing costs and other expenses, limiting its effectiveness.

## Full Transcript — Download SRT & Markdown

00:02

Speaker A

This is a typical Russian family, a mother and father. For Russia to survive, they must have at least two children. But today the fertility rate, that is, the average number of children per woman in Russia, is only 1.36.

00:18

Speaker A

How can this be? If people in Russia, according to official surveys, dream, on average, not even of two, but of three children. But the statistics are terrifying. Firstly, women, on average, want one child less than men. Secondly, one in six girls between the ages of 18

00:36

Speaker A

and 24 doesn't plan to have children at all. And thirdly, people who don't want to have children don't do so because they don't have money, but because they want to live only for themselves. If things continue like this, then in 10

00:48

Speaker A

years our population will decrease by 10 million, then by another 10 million, and then by another. That's why the authorities are sounding the alarm and demanding that Russian women have children.

01:00

Speaker A

We, uh, have done and will continue to do everything to support the spirit of young people, to start families as early as possible and have children.

01:11

Speaker A

And the third person in the country, Federation Council Chairwoman Valentina Matviyenko, announced a year ago that every ministry and agency had created a demographic special forces unit, departments responsible for implementing a family-centric approach in government policy. So, the state has

01:25

Speaker A

decided to intervene in our lives because it's no longer a matter of your desires; it's a matter of survival. So now I'll tell you, do women today truly want to live for themselves, or do we simply lack the money to buy a lawn and

01:41

Speaker A

get a pet? We'll figure out who's to blame for our dwindling numbers: weak-willed men who don't want to take responsibility, or women corrupted by social media, whose only concern is money. And finally, we'll figure out why maternity capital has stopped

01:59

Speaker A

working. And it's not the mother, as we're used to, who should actually take maternity leave, but the child's father. My name is Nikolai Myachin. Let's figure out why women in Russia have stopped having children, who's to blame,

02:11

Speaker A

and what to do about it. This is our heroine, a Russian woman. On average, she's not even 25 or 30. She's 43. And, of course, she's married. And here's their first child. He was born when the mother was 26. And that's how six out

02:36

Speaker A

of ten Russian families look like: a father, a mother, and one child. Only one in three Russian families can boast two children, and one in fourteen has three or more. Yet the authorities dream of such families with three

02:53

Speaker A

children being the majority in Russia. I've said many times that a family with three or more children should become the norm, a natural way of life in our country.

03:04

Speaker A

Why are the authorities so concerned about what happens in your bedroom? Because more than 40% of the Russian budget's taxes come from our pockets.

03:12

Speaker A

When you receive a salary, you pay personal income tax; when you pay for groceries at the store, you pay VAT.

03:18

Speaker A

And when you fill up with gas, you pay excise duty, which is already included in the price of gasoline. The more people, the more consumers, and the more taxes the state receives. Every person in the country is not only a

03:28

Speaker A

worker but also a consumer. And the larger the scale of production, the cheaper each unit. For example, if just one car rolls off a factory assembly line, it will be more expensive than a space rocket. But if hundreds of

03:40

Speaker A

thousands of cars roll off the assembly line, they will be inexpensive due to economies of scale. And the factory itself will provide tens of thousands of jobs. Russia is also the largest country in the world, and to prevent

03:51

Speaker A

its cities and villages from looking like this, the population must increase. But thousands of villages and hamlets are dying out because young people are leaving for the big cities. After all, there's nothing for them to do in these

04:03

Speaker A

uninhabited settlements. There simply aren't enough people for such a vast territory. And if nothing is done about this, there's a risk the country will turn into one huge abandoned place.

04:13

Speaker A

That's why the demographic issue has been raised to the highest level today. And by the age of 35, according to Matviyenko, the third-largest person in power in Russia, Russian women should have at least one or three children.

04:26

Speaker A

Women, in general, aren't opposed to this. According to polls, they themselves dream of three children. So what are they afraid of? Is it that having a child will make it impossible to live for oneself? Not quite. When childless Russians are asked how many

04:42

Speaker A

children they plan to have, one in four says, "Not one." The two main reasons for this decision are financial and housing difficulties. Ha, no hedonism.

04:54

Speaker A

If it weren't for the lack of housing and money, these same people would admit, "We'll have two, three, even four children." And only one of those surveyed stuck to their guns. Even under ideal circumstances, I wouldn't have any children because I want to

05:08

Speaker A

live only for myself. And anyway, I don't like children. It turns out the myth of female hedonism is greatly exaggerated. Such people make up no more than 4% of all childless people. In fact, women dream of children, but they're terrified of financial

05:23

Speaker A

difficulties. And these are the two main reasons: not having children. Not everyone is willing to live by the principle: "God gave you a stutterer, God will provide you with a lawn." Therefore, Russians want to first build a career, save money, and, of course,

05:37

Speaker A

buy an apartment. The question is, where are they wrong? The first year of a child's life alone costs a Russian family an average of an additional 200,000 rubles. This includes diapers, nappies, a stroller, a crib, baby food, and much more. And it seems that if

05:52

Speaker A

both parents earn the national average salary, and by the age of twenty-six it's 107,000 rubles, then it's not that much. A mere 8% of family income. But the average salary is just that, average, so in some families, this 8%

06:06

Speaker A

can easily turn into half of their income, especially if the young mother hasn't had much work experience yet and can't yet count on substantial maternity benefits. Housing is even more of a concern. The average price per square meter in a new Russian

06:20

Speaker A

building is currently 215,000 rubles. And if both parents earn an average salary, their combined monthly income will be enough to buy exactly 1 square meter. This is assuming they don't eat, buy clothes, or spend money on anything else. Buying a comfortable home in

06:36

Speaker A

Russia today is an impossible dream for millions of people. Some might say, "But what about the preferential 6% mortgage for families with children?" But, firstly, a family mortgage is only available after the birth of a child, meaning that at first, the young family

06:50

Speaker A

must huddle in a rented apartment or an addition to the family home, which the parents-to-be are unlikely to be able to afford given current prices.

06:58

Speaker A

Secondly, buying an apartment with a mortgage requires a down payment, at least 20% of the property's value. Yes, in the regions it can be covered with maternity capital, but if the apartment is in Moscow or St. Petersburg, most will have to save for several years.

07:11

Speaker A

Thirdly, the size of a family mortgage is limited. No more than 6 million rubles in the regions and 12 million in Moscow, St. Petersburg, and the surrounding region. Meanwhile, the average price of a two-room apartment in a new building in Moscow in 2026 was

07:23

Speaker A

33.6 million rubles, almost three times the limit. This means that with a family mortgage you can only buy a two-room apartment on the existing market, and it will cost you 15 million. The monthly payment for such an

07:35

Speaker A

apartment is 72,000 rubles. Our mother is on maternity leave, and our father earns an average of 100,000 rubles a month. So, how are we supposed to live — or, excuse me, survive? True, officials will ask you: "What are you

07:48

Speaker A

all unhappy about? Today is the peak of state financial assistance for the birth of children." The 2026 federal budget has allocated almost 4 trillion rubles for

08:04

Speaker A

first payment before the baby is even born. This is maternity allowance—a one-time payment that compensates for your salary for the first few months before and after childbirth. If, for example, a woman earns the average salary in the country, those same

08:17

Speaker A

107,000 rubles, then the benefit amount will be half a million rubles. The second payment is a one-time allowance upon the birth of a child—28,500 rubles. And the third is childcare allowance until the child is eighteen months old. You could say that it is

08:33

Speaker A

paid when the maternity allowance ends, but it no longer amounts to the average salary, but only 40%of it. Well, the advantage is that not only the mother but also the father can apply for it.

08:42

Speaker A

Therefore, it is more profitable for those with a higher salary. Fourth, there is maternity capital. This is a targeted payment that can be used to purchase housing, send a child to kindergarten or university, or contribute to the mother's pension.

08:54

Speaker A

Currently, a family receives 729,000 rubles for the birth of a first child, and 234,000 for a second child. But for subsequent children, there is nothing.

09:04

Speaker A

And finally, there are various regional payments, which are a bonus to federal payments. However, these are usually only available to low-income families.

09:11

Speaker A

For example, there is an additional monthly benefit of 5,000 rubles for the purchase of baby products for a child up to eighteen months in St. Petersburg . This means that a woman with an average salary who gives birth to her

09:22

Speaker A

first child in 2026 will receive a one-time cash payment of 530,000 rubles from the state. 730,000 rubles in maternity capital, and another 40,000 will be received monthly after maternity leave ends, until the child is eighteen months old. That's another

09:39

Speaker A

640,000 rubles. Add it all up, and the total state support will be 1.9 million rubles. Amazing. And why haven't we already seen lines at the maternity hospital for such a sum? The authorities are sure it's all because of your flashy reels from the Gram ban.

09:55

Speaker A

They're selling you the illusion of a wrong way to live. And that's why you don't want to have children. So what, according to the authorities, is right?

10:02

Speaker A

Well, I'll show you now. To understand economics, it's enough to start with just one book. Over 10,000 copies sold.

10:10

Speaker A

Average rating: 4.9. The book is " Simple Economics." Search on marketplaces or by the link in the description. On February 21, 1925, a demographic special forces unit led by Valentina Matviyenko was established in Russia.

10:31

Speaker A

Today, in every ministry or department, if you call, they'll tell you the name of the deputy minister responsible for demographic issues. I mean, as I've already said, a demographic special forces unit has been created. While ordinary special forces protect the

10:47

Speaker A

country's security, traditional demographic values—you'll find what they are in the presidential decree of 2022—are essential. They are life, dignity, patriotism, strong families, and, of course, my favorite, the priority of the spiritual over the material, whatever that means. The

11:03

Speaker A

decree also states that unfriendly countries are instilling alien ideas in Russians: selfishness, immorality, non-traditional relationships, which is why traditional values are beginning to be forgotten. And because of you, yes, because of you, demography in Russia is going downhill.

11:20

Speaker A

Internal values are much stronger and more important. So what if our peasant families in Russia lived on the average European income level? No. And there were 7-10 people in a family. The values and worldviews were completely different. This is what underlies, well

11:46

Speaker A

, what should be the basis of demographic policy. It turns out that the source of the demographic problem is in the wrong values. After all, if parents prioritize procreation, they will have a child even without their own apartment or savings. Well, if that's

12:01

Speaker A

the case, then we need to somehow replace egoism and the desire to live only for oneself with collectivism and service to the fatherland, and immorality with lofty spiritual ideals.

12:12

Speaker A

But while the authorities insist that we are turning away from traditional values because of the collective West's failures, I invite you to take a broader look at how life has changed over the past 100 years. And four nesting dolls will help me with this.

12:26

Speaker A

The first nesting doll is urbanization, that is, the migration of people from the village to the city. If just 100 years ago, there were four villagers for every city dweller in Russia, today it's the opposite. There's one villager

12:39

Speaker A

for every four city dwellers. But it was precisely these rural dwellers, those very same farm families the president speaks of, who had five to seven children. They had so many children not because the villagers were particularly spiritual, but because, on

12:53

Speaker A

average, each family had four hectares of land. But imagine your dacha garden being the size of six football fields, and it had to be cultivated by hand because only one in five farmsteads had a draft horse. Harvesting the grain

13:08

Speaker A

from such a plot took almost a hundred hours, and threshing it—beating the grain from the ears—all 550 hours.

13:16

Speaker A

That's why the peasants called the harvest period "strada," from the word "suffer." After all, it was backbreaking labor, 16 hours a day. If a farmer's family consisted of, say, just four people, they physically couldn't cultivate their entire plot.

13:30

Speaker A

Today, the world has changed. Well, show me a city dweller who knows what hard labor is. And labor productivity has increased hundreds of times, meaning that we can now give birth not to workers, but to children. This is

13:43

Speaker A

clearly evident in the statistics. The average number of children per woman in a Russian village is now only one more than the average number of children per woman in an urban area. So traditional values have nothing to do with it yet.

13:57

Speaker A

Let's move on. The second matryoshka doll. 100 years ago, every third child died before reaching one year of age, and only half of those born survived past the age of five. To ensure that as many children as possible survived to

14:09

Speaker A

adulthood, women gave birth five to seven times during their lives. Such is the harsh mathematics. But today, thanks to advances in medicine and medicine, infant mortality has decreased by a factor of 100. In Russia , only three out of every thousand

14:22

Speaker A

newborns die, meaning that we can now give birth to fewer children, purely arithmetically. Again, off the mark.

14:27

Speaker A

With traditional values. Oh well. The third matryoshka doll. If a person knows that in old age they can rely not only on their children but also on the state, then the incentive to raise a hand that will hand them a glass of

14:42

Speaker A

water in old age weakens. Yes, Russian pensions today are met with bitter ridicule, but the principle remains the same. In the African country of Mibia, for example, 30 years ago, there were six children per woman. But when in

14:56

Speaker A

1992 they announced a comprehensive pension reform that allowed 90%of citizens to receive benefits three times higher than the poverty line, a child ceased to be the sole source of income in old age. And in just eight years, the number of children per woman

15:10

Speaker A

fell from 6 to 4.2. Well, that's how pensions have affected demographics. Ironic. Incidentally, the average pension in Russia is 25,400 rubles. So what if you want to receive, say, twice that amount in old age? I wrote a post

15:25

Speaker A

especially for you on my Telegram channel, "Simple Economy," where I explain what it takes. Read it via the link in the description or by clicking the code on the screen. The channel already has over 290,000 followers, and there you'll find even more relevant

15:37

Speaker A

content about the Russian economy, which I personally create. So subscribe . Finally, the last matryoshka is the emancipation of women, that is, their equal rights with men, which is rapidly gaining momentum in developed countries . In Europe, for example, for every

15:55

Speaker A

five women with a university degree, there are only four men. But in Russia, 55 out of 100 university graduates are women—the majority. Women are now becoming politicians and CEOs of major corporations. And the role of homemaker fades with the birth of a child. And

16:12

Speaker A

from this, the obvious conclusion: the more educated a woman is, the fewer children she has. Not because she understands that children are a burden, but simply because she has an alternative to the role of mother. Take a look at this graph, compiled by

16:25

Speaker A

Oxford scientists based on UN data. The horizontal axis shows the average number of years a woman spent in education, and the vertical axis shows the birth rate. And in the countries where women spend the most years in school—South Korea, Japan, and

16:39

Speaker A

Australia—the birth rate is the lowest. But in Niger, Mali, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where women study for an average of 3-4 years , they also have six children. It turns out that the richer the country, the

16:53

Speaker A

fewer people work on Earth. The lower the infant mortality rate, the more women get an education, and the more people place their hopes in the state, not in their children. Such is the paradox. The better off we are, the

17:07

Speaker A

more we seek happiness not in having a large family, but in a career, travel, and self-realization. Our values have changed not because we have become culturally corrupted, but because the world around us has changed. Russia simply encountered this later than

17:23

Speaker A

Western countries. While in Europe, the decline in birth rates due to progress began as early as 1870, and this first demographic transition was complete by 1930, in Russia, that is, in the Soviet Union, it only ended in 1960. But in

17:38

Speaker A

countries where people are having a lot of births today, such as African states , the first demographic transition has not yet occurred, despite the advent of Coca-Cola and iPhones. Many countries are now facing a second and even third

17:54

Speaker A

demographic transition. While the first transition was associated with declining mortality and birth rates, the second is associated with a change in those very same values and family norms. And the third is associated with mass migration, when the native

18:08

Speaker A

population dies out due to declining birth rates and is replaced by migrants . Where is Russia? But despite scientists 'assurances that our country has already undergone the first demographic transition, this is not entirely true, as certain regions continue to live as before, and

18:23

Speaker A

therefore their birth rates are perfectly normal. Thus, the number of children per woman in the Chechen Republic even today stands at 2.7, and in the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug, 2.6. But most of Russia is truly approaching a second demographic

18:37

Speaker A

transition, which threatens to transform those very values. That's why the authorities are sounding the alarm, because otherwise, by the end of the 21st century, the Russian population will be 20, 20 million fewer than it is now. The first demographic transition

18:51

Speaker A

cannot be reversed. To do so, we would have to abandon healthcare, education, and other benefits of progress and return to the drudgery of peasant labor . But Russia is currently disavowing the second and third transitions, selling you the image that the

19:04

Speaker A

spiritual is superior to the material. But we still learn about the pyramid of needs in school. On the first level is physiology: food, water, sleep. On the second, the need for security and a roof over our heads. And until these

19:20

Speaker A

two material levels are reached, it's too early to talk about any kind of spirituality. Of course, the average Russian today lives far better than a peasant who huddled in a cramped hut and worked 14 hours a day in the fields

19:34

Speaker A

. But we're not comparing ourselves to our great-great-grandfathers from the last century, but to our neighbors. One bought a new car, another moved from a one-room apartment to a three-room apartment. Can anyone blame us for wanting a better life and therefore

19:49

Speaker A

delaying having children? The problem isn't that Russians have all become selfish, but that today's needs have become more complex, as they, too, have changed over the past 100 years.

19:58

Speaker A

Therefore, appealing to spirituality is pointless until the material foundation is laid. This is precisely what China, for example, is doing today, pursuing a birthrate. Since July 28, 2025, Chinese parents have been receiving monthly benefits. This is approximately 41,500

20:15

Speaker A

rubles, or 3,600 yuan. This benefit is paid for each child under three years old. The state covers all pregnancy and childbirth expenses, including medical care and medications. To avoid having to cram themselves into a small apartment, parents receive housing

20:28

Speaker A

certificates for home purchases, which can reach up to $ 50,000 for families with three children. You'll be surprised, but China, like Russia, has fallen into a demographic black hole.

20:40

Speaker A

Although 1.4 billion people live there today, by next year, if nothing is done , the country's population will more than halve. Just think about those numbers. -700 million in 70 years. It's ironic, but just half a century ago, in

20:55

Speaker A

1979, the authorities feared something entirely different: that there would be too many Chinese and the economy simply wouldn't be able to cope. So, China instituted a one-family, one-child policy. Authorities fined citizens for having more than one child, and even

21:10

Speaker A

forced women to have abortions and sterilizations. Over the past three decades, having one child per family has become the new norm, and China itself has transformed from a poor agricultural country into the world's most technologically advanced factory.

21:22

Speaker A

And when, in 2015, the Chinese government allowed three children, the number of children per woman increased, but only by 0.2, and today stands at around one. So, in 2024, China, too, rightly decided to promote the traditional virtues of the Chinese

21:39

Speaker A

nation—the value of procreation— along with material incentives, to prevent the second demographic transition from devastating its demographics. But what if I told you that the problem of low birth rates isn't just about wallets and values? If only it were that simple, to understand

21:58

Speaker A

the depth of this rabbit hole, we need to look at this unjust world through the eyes of women. When a new family begins in Russia, they say about the woman: "She got married." Literally, she got married. A woman ends up with

22:18

Speaker A

her husband and usually takes his last name. Men have dominated for almost all of history. They ruled countries, made scientific discoveries, and waged war.

22:26

Speaker A

And the role of women, with rare exceptions, was limited to bearing and raising children. Today, we believe that men and women are equal in everything. But is this really true?

22:36

Speaker A

Here's a study by Rosstat on the average salaries of men and women. The findings are disappointing. Women are typically paid a third less than men.

22:45

Speaker A

Why is this injustice so injustice so prevalent? The first reason: in Russia, there are purely male and purely female professions. These are professions where four out of five workers are of the same sex. For example, male professions include drivers, electrical

22:56

Speaker A

engineers, and metallurgists, while female professions include administrators, pharmacists, and salespeople. Salaries in male professions are typically higher than in female ones. For example, the average income of a healthcare worker in 2025 was 82,000 rubles, while that of an administrator was 71,500. These

23:12

Speaker A

are traditionally female professions. Meanwhile, salaries in male-dominated professions such as mining are 167,000, metallurgy 114,000, and construction 101,000. The second factor is the number of working hours. Men, on average, work more and are able to combine several jobs or work overtime

23:33

Speaker A

because they are, on average, more inclined to achieve and earn money. Another reason is that during this time , the woman usually shoulders the entire household responsibilities. A third reason, closely related to the first and second, is that women advance

23:48

Speaker A

more slowly in their careers than men and are less likely to reach the highest-paying positions. Because men devote more time to work, they are promoted faster. And every maternity leave is a 13-year loss in career, during which male peers gain a

24:04

Speaker A

significant head start in career advancement. The most ironic thing is that the same factor affects men's and women's incomes differently. For example, a woman with children typically earns less. For her, this is a kind of motherhood penalty, but for a

24:17

Speaker A

man with children, it's even higher, by a full 25%. For him, it's not a penalty , but rather a fatherhood bonus. This can be explained by the fact that a working mother takes sick leave and time off more often, and work isn't a

24:28

Speaker A

priority for her. For the father, on the contrary, he is the one who has to support the family, which means he will take work much more seriously. It turns out that although formally there is no gender inequality in Russia, it

24:40

Speaker A

develops over time. Every Russian woman has two options. The first is to build a career and earn money, that is, to realize one's potential in one's profession and become financially independent. But then she will have no time left for having children. Or very

24:56

Speaker A

little. The second option is to devote herself to family and children. But then the woman becomes completely financially dependent on her husband, who will have to work for three: himself, his wife, and their child.

25:08

Speaker A

Thirty years ago, this path was a clear role model, and a woman was considered successful if she married well. Today, success in the progressive world means a good job and financial freedom. And I didn't invent this. This is what

25:20

Speaker A

Russians think when they ask what they would choose for their daughter: a good job or a good husband. Wanting the best for your child is perfectly natural, which is why we teach them how to achieve success. But some things are

25:35

Speaker A

ingrained in us from birth. A DNA test from Gynotek can help you find out which genes you inherited from your parents. It analyzes approximately 650,000 key genetic markers across various blocks. It also analyzes predisposition to many diseases so you

25:51

Speaker A

can take preventative measures in a timely manner, the risks of food intolerances, vitamin deficiencies to adjust your diet, and, of course, ancestry with automatic family tracing.

26:01

Speaker A

We took the test as a family because it was important for us to assess our risk of disease, but fortunately, nothing serious was found. However, there are some things that need to be monitored very closely. For example, I was found

26:12

Speaker A

to have an increased risk of high blood pressure. It's actually one of the leading causes of death worldwide. So now I know it's vitally important for me to lead a healthy lifestyle, because the risk is quite high. My doctor can

26:25

Speaker A

help me understand the results and apply them to my lifestyle during a consultation, which is, of course, included in the price of this test. Our DNA doesn't change, which means you only need to take the test once, and

26:37

Speaker A

then you can use the results for life. Follow the link in the description or this code on the screen and order your test with a 72%discount using my promo code: Economy 4. True, the authorities don't agree with putting a union

26:55

Speaker A

between these two paths, or they insist that a woman can do it all: study, work , and give birth. But she's not a woman , she's a Swiss Army knife. And our task is to ensure that young people

27:06

Speaker A

understand that they don't have to choose one over the other, that they can successfully combine parenting with studying or starting a career. Yes, it may not be easy, but it's still possible, and it should be combined with raising a child.

27:26

Speaker A

But what kind of life will it be if a woman decides to do it all at once: raise a child and succeed in her career ? Well, first of all, she'll have not one, but two jobs. The first is at the

27:36

Speaker A

office, the second is at home. There's a common stereotype: while she's checking homework, cooking dinner, and tidying up the house, her husband sits and plays tanks. After all, he's tired after work. But there's some truth to this. Russian men spend only 6%of their

27:50

Speaker A

time on household chores, such as washing dishes and taking out the trash . Even showering and shaving take twice as long. At the same time, the role of the man in the family has changed. He's no longer the sole breadwinner and

28:04

Speaker A

provider on whom the whole family depends. After all, the woman also works. This means the man should share the household chores. And feeling this support, the woman will agree to have a child. That's a fact. In countries where women spend less time on

28:17

Speaker A

household chores, birth rates are higher than in those where they are solely responsible for housework. The connection is weak, but it exists. Just look at how Swedish and Norwegian men spend almost as much time on housework as women. But in South Korea, they've

28:31

Speaker A

shifted all the burden onto the fair sex, and the birth rate there is more than half as low. Secondly, there's that maternity penalty. In Russia, employers are wary of hiring young women. They'll soon go on maternity leave. They'll have to find a

28:44

Speaker A

replacement, and then constantly pay for sick leave due to the child's snot. More than half of women in surveys say they're asked during job interviews, " When are you planning to have the baby?

28:55

Speaker A

" The Norwegian authorities have found an unusual solution to this problem. Both mother and father can take parental leave. And for the employer, it no longer matters so much who comes to the interview, because he understands that any employee,

29:09

Speaker A

regardless of gender, can take maternity leave, which means there is no point in refusing to hire women. You might say, "But in Russia, a father can also take paternity leave. But he can go to work, and the family will receive

29:23

Speaker A

two sources of income: his salary and child care benefits. But the difference with Norway is that if a father refuses paternity leave, the family will not receive any payments. You either stay with the child or work. Therefore, 97

29:35

Speaker A

out of 100 Norwegians who can take it go on paternity leave, and the remaining three are those who, due to the nature of their work, cannot leave it for such a long time. While the father sits at home with the child, the

29:45

Speaker A

Norwegian woman returns to work. And since both men and women go on maternity leave, there is no career gap . Everyone is on an equal footing.

29:52

Speaker A

Unfortunately, Russian women can only dream of this. After all, while you sit with a child for a year and a half, work progress passes you by. Thirdly, the loss of financial independence.

30:03

Speaker A

Let's not even take any A strong and independent woman from a banned social network, but an ordinary Russian woman who earned her own money and managed her own money during her marriage. But then they had a child, and now she has

30:15

Speaker A

to account for all her expenses to her husband, because he's the one bringing in the money. To prevent this from happening, an experiment has been underway in the Nizhny Novgorod region since July 1, 2025. There, a woman receives a monthly salary simply for

30:30

Speaker A

being a mother. For the first child, she receives 10,000 rubles per month for the first three years, and for the second, 22,000, and starting with the third, 30,000. Moreover, this salary is available to any family, not just low-income ones, as is usually the case

30:45

Speaker A

. And what do you think? Before the experiment, the Nizhny Novgorod region lagged behind neighboring regions in terms of birth rate, but in just six months, it has overtaken them. If not just one region, but all of Russia had

30:55

Speaker A

shown such birth rate dynamics, then in 2025, the country would have had 134,000 more children. So, it turns out that money, not values, decides whether women will have children or not. But the whole case is exposed. Give me

31:08

Speaker A

money, you will have children. But, as usual, the mercenary West ruined everything. In 2022, the amount of family benefits in the European Union, that is, the sum of all payments for the birth of an average of one child

31:21

Speaker A

per year, was 830 euros. At the same time, in Bulgaria, where the benefit is the smallest, 211 euros, the birth rate per woman is 1.7, and in generous Luxembourg, where a parent receives a whopping 3,800 euros, the birth rate is

31:34

Speaker A

only 1.25. It turns out that for Europeans, it's the opposite. The more a parent receives for a child, the lower the birth rate. And it turns out that for wealthy Europeans, money is not the most important thing. And the

31:48

Speaker A

authorities know this. Here's what Nina Ostanina, Chair of the State Duma Committee on Family Protection and Fatherhood, Motherhood and Childhood, says.

31:56

Speaker A

If you continue to implement social measures like this, support, which is a system of measures to lift people out of poverty, if we consider all this as demographic measures, then we will never solve the demographic issue.

32:11

Speaker A

Translated from officialdom, she says that money helps only the most needy to have a child. And when the standard of living rises, then money not only stops working, it even begins to harm.

32:23

Speaker A

Social policy to lift people out of poverty and work must provide targeted benefits. Indeed, this should be done, but not to the point where families are deliberately divorcing in order to fall into the low-income category, receiving these benefits. We will not solve a

32:38

Speaker A

single problem by this, unless we worsen our statistics. On the one hand, in Russia, 97%of people earn less than 200,000 rubles per person per month. For a large city, this is not some kind of luxury, it is rather a comfortable life. And for this

32:53

Speaker A

level of income, even a small support from the state already increases the desire to have children. Background.

32:58

Speaker A

Let me remind you of the experiment in the Nizhny Novgorod region. But on the other hand, there are terrible statistics. In 2025, for every 10 In Russia, there were eight divorces per marriage, many of which were sham. This

33:09

Speaker A

is when a husband and wife are divorced on paper, but in reality, they continue to live together and raise their children. This is indirectly confirmed by the fact that the highest number of divorces is recorded in the regions of

33:20

Speaker A

the federation with the highest number of large families, such as the Caucasus . In simple terms, this means, for example, that a family was receiving benefits and then the husband got a promotion at work. This seems like great news, but if the husband agrees,

33:33

Speaker A

the family will no longer be considered needy and they won't receive benefits. But if you get a successful divorce, you can have your cake and eat it too, meaning you get a promotion, and keep your benefits. After all, with a

33:46

Speaker A

successful divorce, the husband, with his high salary, effectively leaves the family, and now they easily meet the need threshold. On January 1, 2025, the state fee for divorce was raised from 650 to 5,000 rubles. Some believe this was done precisely to reduce the number

34:04

Speaker A

of sham divorces. But do you think there are fewer of them? Of course, it didn't work. If, for example, the fee were raised to 100,000 rubles, I'm afraid Russians would simply stop getting married. It turns out that money works as an incentive to have

34:20

Speaker A

children only for the poor. Well, this is clearly evident from the results of the VCM study. Those who assess their standard of living as poor or very poor have the highest gap between the desired and actual number of children.

34:32

Speaker A

But those who live well have almost as many children as they want. Then let's give the poor money, and they will increase the birth rate. No problem. In 25, only 7%of Russians were poor in Russia. This is the lowest in recent

34:46

Speaker A

memory. Moreover, why pay for poverty? Better tell me, why did they transfer the main amount of maternity capital from the second child to the first?

34:55

Speaker A

Today, a family receives 729,000 for the birth of their first child, and only 234,000 for the second. Payments for the third and each subsequent child are not at all It's supposed to be. At the same time, the first child in a

35:08

Speaker A

family is usually born without state support, out of desire, necessity, or, let's be honest, by chance. And this is important, because when the bulk of maternity capital was transferred from the second child to the first in 2020, the birth rate of second children in

35:23

Speaker A

Russian families fell by 30%. The idea was a good one. To make the birth of a first child easier for a young family.

35:30

Speaker A

And thanks to maternity capital, which was introduced in Russia in 2007, almost 3 million additional children were born. But these weren't firstborns , but second or third children in the family. The problem seems insoluble.

35:43

Speaker A

People don't want to have children, there's no money, and where it's provided, it doesn't help. So what to do then? I could offer you these options: increase maternity capital, pay parental salaries throughout Russia . But all this is pure populism. You

35:56

Speaker A

can see for yourself that even handing out money doesn't radically increase the demographics. Nevertheless, the propaganda of traditional values Without a big, tasty carrot, it simply doesn't work. A woman, on whom the country's future depends, is already conditioned from the very beginning to

36:11

Speaker A

embrace the image of a patriarchal family, where the man is the primary breadwinner, destined to rise through the ranks and bring in money for the family, where he should be pampered and wooed in return. Compare this to the

36:21

Speaker A

content from pretograms, where women are told," You don't owe anyone anything. You should express yourself, earn money, travel, live your best life . You're free, woman, a woman deserves a home. "Let's be honest, if you were a woman, which image would you choose?

36:36

Speaker A

Tonu. The most ironic thing about all this is that even if the birth rate in Russia rises—for example, if families were having not one child per family, but two—there will still be fewer and fewer children being born. This is

36:49

Speaker A

because the number of women of childbearing age in the country is steadily declining, because, alas, we are aging. It turns out that the demographic problem has one very unpleasant, but inevitable, solution.

37:10

Speaker A

This is what families look like in Central Asian countries. In Uzbekistan, there are three children per woman. In Tajikistan, there are three. In Kyrgyzstan, there are 2.6. Today, there are 6.1 million emigrants in Russia.

37:21

Speaker A

See the connection? If the state cares so much about demographics, why doesn't it fill this void with migrants? But that won't happen. On October 15, 2020, the concept of state migration policy through 2030 was released. And there it

37:35

Speaker A

is stated in black and white:" The source of population replenishment is natural reproduction. The authorities do not need the children of migrants, but the children of Russians, so as not to erode those very traditional values.

37:47

Speaker A

Every newcomer carries a piece of a foreign culture and religion, speaks a different language. And it can take years to assimilate, that is, to accept Russian culture and way of life. And it is not a fact that a person will

38:00

Speaker A

exchange his native identity for a Russian one. As an example, the president cites Europe, which opened its door to migrants. And today, every tenth person there is a newcomer. The Europe we loved so much is no more. As

38:15

Speaker A

a rule, first-wave migrants, that is, those who were born in another country and then moved to Russia, really do retain more in common with their homeland. And only their children adapt to life in Russia. But they often live

38:27

Speaker A

within their diasporas. Both the Russians themselves and the authorities themselves see newcomers rather as threat. So there's no point in talking about replacing Russians with migrants.

38:36

Speaker A

There are currently a whopping 49 Russian children for every migrant child. And the birth of a child in Russia doesn't necessarily mean the person will receive Russian citizenship . At least one parent must be a Russian citizen. You're

38:53

Speaker A

not even a citizen. Don't forget that for the state, a child is a long-term investment. First, they need to be provided with kindergarten and school, and given a specialized vocational or higher education. Only then, when they become employees, will they repay these funds

39:10

Speaker A

through taxes and insurance premiums. But if a migrant family comes to Russia where only one adult works—say, the father, while the mother is a homemaker and raising three minor children—then the equation no longer works. Russia spends more on such a family than it

39:26

Speaker A

receives. Therefore, on January 1, 2027 , a law will come into effect requiring immigrants to earn at least one subsistence minimum for each family member. For example, if a migrant If someone decides to earn some extra money in Moscow and brings his wife and

39:43

Speaker A

three children with him, his salary must be at least five Moscow subsistence minimums per capita. Today, that minimum is 25,342 rubles. This means that a newcomer must immediately find a job with an official salary of at least 127,000 rubles per month. Or

39:57

Speaker A

leave his family behind, which means a suitcase, a train station, and the rest is history. So, the authorities are promoting the formula: come, work, leave. In their opinion, a migrant's family should wait for him in his home country, not squander budget money in

40:10

Speaker A

hospitals, kindergartens, and schools. It looks like Russia is some kind of xenophobic country. But if you put aside moral questions and open the text of that same concept of migration policy, it becomes clear that its main principle is the priority of the

40:26

Speaker A

interests of Russians over newcomers. Well, at least this has finally been recorded on paper, because who would like it if all the benefits go to the wrong people? Those who have lived in the country since birth, and those who

40:38

Speaker A

are newcomers. However, refusing migrants is also impossible. To stop the population from declining, Russia needs to accept at least half a million people a year. And now this number is half that. For example, in 2023, Rosstat counted only 200,000 newcomers.

40:52

Speaker A

This means that no migrants will populate Russia. And the country won't be able to improve its demographics with their help. Therefore, you and I are facing a future that science fiction writers have described in their books, but you probably won't like it.

41:13

Speaker A

The average age of a Russian woman is 43, and that of a Russian man is 38.

41:16

Speaker A

And the longer we go, the older we will become. Today, two-thirds of Russia's population are between 15 and 64. At the same time, the proportion of elderly people, that is, over 65, and children aged 0 to 14, is the same. In

41:30

Speaker A

20 years, due to the declining birth rate, there will be half as many children as elderly people. One in four Russians will be over 65. years. This will completely break the pension system. But look, the average pension today is 25,400 rubles. To pay even

41:47

Speaker A

this small amount, there are almost two working people for every pensioner. But in 20 years, there will be only one and a half people for every pensioner. This means that in order to maintain the already low pension, the government

42:00

Speaker A

will have to resort to unpopular measures. First, they will have to continue raising taxes. Each subsequent generation will give the state more and more money from their income because the number of pensioners will grow.

42:12

Speaker A

Second, they will have to raise the retirement age, because the later you retire, the longer you will work, which means supporting current pensioners and later becoming a burden on the budget.

42:21

Speaker A

If previously the average man in developed countries received a pension for 18.5 years, today it is already a full 23 years, simply because he lives longer. These extra 4.2 years hit the country's budget hard. That's why the authorities say: "Guys, come on...""You

42:36

Speaker A

understand that you'll have to work more now." In Russia, pensions are broken, because a man can retire at 65, and a woman at 60. But men live on average only to 69, and women to 79. So it turns out that a retiree man will

42:53

Speaker A

receive a pension for only 4 years, and a woman 19 years. If you're not ready for this and don't want to go to work and work 5-6 days a week in 20-30 years , just like now, then subscribe to

43:05

Speaker A

Simple Finance, where I explain how to sooner or later achieve passive income at your level. In this course, I explain what to do if you have no savings and never have enough money, and in this one, where to invest so

43:16

Speaker A

that it grows for you personally and you feel comfortable. Link in the description. By the way, even here the authorities are trying to force women to have children. For three children, a mother will be able to retire not at 60

43:28

Speaker A

, but at 57. Four children-4 years, but five or more children is already 10 years. If we use the average pension of 25,000 rubles, then an additional 10 years for five children will bring such a pensioner 3 million rubles. In short,

43:41

Speaker A

a world of eternal youth awaits us, only it will not be inhabited by eternally young people, but by old people and predominantly single women.

43:49

Speaker A

The entire developed world is facing similar problems today. For example, in China, by 2070, half the population will be over 60. Just imagine, every second person in the country is elderly . What's good about this? It means that

44:05

Speaker A

Russia can copy successful ideas. For example, on December 11, 2025, in the Red Room of the House of Lords in Westminster Palace in London, British officials gathered and drew conclusions about their demographics that are surprisingly similar to ours. In total,

44:21

Speaker A

the British lords identified three scenarios. The first is to force women to have more children. But they don't know how to achieve this. The only developed country that has succeeded in this is Israel. But There are reasons there, which I discussed in a separate

44:34

Speaker A

video. They have their own specifics. We can't do it because we need money, and we don't have it, but we're holding on. The second scenario is to give up and accept that the native population will die out and age. Well, and simply

44:48

Speaker A

adapt to this, replace people with robots, reform the pension system and the labor market. But all this also requires money, and also technology, which is in short supply today. Finally , the third scenario, which Europe is pursuing, is attracting migrants.

45:00

Speaker A

Russia, as we have already established, also rejects this scenario, but the Lords themselves say that this is not a solution, but only a way to delay the inevitable. And at this rate, by 2050, every third person in the UK will be an

45:11

Speaker A

influx of migrants. So, the big question is: will Britain remain Britain? What remains? Well, you can't envy the state. Money is needed everywhere at once: in defense, industry, artificial intelligence. And as we have already seen, what Russia and other countries are offering today

45:28

Speaker A

is not enough to ensure that women They rushed to have children. It's impossible to reverse the trend toward extinction simply by increasing maternity capital, because everything is intertwined here: culture, tradition , propaganda, and, of course, economics . You can't just say, "Have children,"

45:44

Speaker A

give them money, and people will go have children. It doesn't work that way . For this to happen, demography must become not just a topic for conversation from high-level platforms, but the main priority of policy, including budgetary policy. But for now

45:56

Speaker A

, priorities are different. Therefore, the state can only hope that people themselves truly want to have children.

46:05

Speaker A

The decision to have a child is, of course, a private, personal matter for each person, each family.

46:10

Speaker A

Fortunately, leaving offspring is a basic human need. But remember the study at the Center for Public Health at the beginning of the video, where only one in twenty people, even under ideal conditions, would refuse a child.

46:21

Speaker A

But 23 people clearly said, "Wrap it up ." Yes, when you have children, your life is no longer your own. Children need to be fed, clothed, raised, and you can no longer come home in the evening as before. After work, just

46:32

Speaker A

turn on your favorite TV show, disconnecting from everything. They'll inevitably come running to you and say, "I'm hungry, I'm thirsty, I want to play." And you, sighing, put your desires aside. But that's the true joy of parenthood, one that can't be

46:45

Speaker A

described in words. That's why people will still have children, because the need to pass on our genes is ingrained in us by nature itself. Yes, there will be fewer of us Russians, and indeed all people on the planet, but we certainly

46:58

Speaker A

won't die out due to declining birth rates. Therefore, those post-apocalyptic movie scenes of a handful of people walking through a deserted, dead city will probably remain the fantasy of their creators.

47:12

Speaker A

That's how things are, friends. What do you think about demographics in Russia? How bad or good do you think things are , and what awaits us in the future?

47:21

Speaker A

Share your opinion in the comments. And if you're already experiencing the demographic problem, then join our Tinder for simple finances, where you can find friends in your city.

47:31

Speaker A

Colleagues to share experiences with business partners, even your significant other or friend. Link in the description. That's all. This was Nikolai Myachin. See you there.

Topics: Russia demographics fertility rate population decline family policy maternity capital housing affordability demographic crisis Russian families government incentives childbirth economics


---
This is the markdown twin of https://sozai.app/transcript/womens-revolt-why-no-one-to-have-children/ — the same content, without the markup.
Published by SozAI (https://sozai.app). Reuse and quotation are allowed with attribution and a link back.
Machine-readable index: https://sozai.app/llms.txt · data API: https://sozai.app/api/