This article is based on research on preschool childcare services and analyses the issues of its provision in Russia in comparison to Western and Eastern European countries. A micro-level cross-sectional data analysis of the first waves of the Generations and Gender Survey (GGS) is performed. The results show that variations in using childcare services can be partly explained by the age and number of children in the family, mother’s education and characteristics of her employment.

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The paper addresses the link between getting pregnant and getting married in Russia. The authors use 2010 data on current births in selected regions of Russia to analyze the relationship between marriage registration date and the date of conception, as well as age-related and regional features of this relationship. Special attention is given to the phenomenon of registering out-of-wedlock births based on parents' joint applications as well as to the association between this type of behavior and parents' age. Using individual data from the 2010 Census the authors examine the change of women's marital status during the first five years after birth of the first child. The results suggest that the widespread practice of registering marriages during the second trimester of pregnancies still persists in Russia. This is most typical for young people getting married for the first time. Together with the relatively high rates of dissolution of marital unions with children, this supports the interpretation of this kind of marriage as a marker of traditionalist demographic behavior.Data from Russian demographic surveys show increasing length of cohabitation before starting a registered union, growing number of couples not registering their marriage at all, and, accordingly, a significant proportion of out-of-wedlock births [Zvereva, Arkhangelsky 2011;Rosstat 2013]. At the same time, a weakening of the link between the official registration of marriage and starting a family can lead to another correlation: between the time of marriage and the onset of pregnancy (often planned). In this case, the registration has a predominantly legal purpose and is regarded by the couple as a rational step.

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