Russian President Vladimir Putin has resurrected the Soviet-era ‘Mother Heroine’ award for mothers with ten or more children. This comes as Moscow faces a demographic dilemma that got compounded during the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict.
In the Soviet Union, the Mother Heroine was an honorary title bestowed for bearing and rearing a large family, which meant having 10 or more children. According to the reports, the mothers who are qualifying for the award will also be provided with a one-time payment of 1 million rubles viz $16,000 as soon as their tenth living child turns a year old.
Putin has just introduced a new Russian state award – “Hero-Mother.”
— max seddon (@maxseddon) August 15, 2022
You get 1mn rubles ($16,000) for having ten children once the tenth is a year old – *if* all nine others are still alive then. Not, uh, as easy as it soundshttps://t.co/menqz7pSM7
“To establish the title Mother Heroine, to be awarded to a mother who is a citizen of the Russian Federation, who has given birth to and brought up ten or more children who are citizens of the Russian Federation”, the official order by the government was quoted.
Reports mention that qualified women will get the reward as soon as their tenth living kid becomes one year old. According to the law, women will still be eligible for the reward if they lose a child during a conflict, a terrorist incident, or an emergency circumstance.
To note, the ‘Mother Heroine’ award was founded by former Soviet leader Josef Stalin in 1944, after the country lost a huge population during World War II. When the Soviet Union fell apart in 1991, the title was abolished.
Russia is undergoing a severe demographic change, especially after the Russia Ukraine war. The country’s population has been steadily declining for decades, decreasing to 145.1 million in early 2022. Also, Russia’s population decrease has almost doubled since 2021, when the coronavirus epidemic caused the country’s biggest natural population decline since the Soviet Union’s demise, and nearly tripled since 2020.
