Russia’s population has declined in this century, a consequence of high death rates, low birthrates, and emigration trends, all exacerbated during periods of economic insecurity. After a period of stabilization and improvement, the birthrate is again falling. In November 2017, Vladimir Putin announced a new round of pro-natalist policies. In the current issue of the Russian Social Science Review, we present a collection of articles covering many aspects of this topic, including childlessness (Fakhrislamova), religious correlates of birthrates (Rybakovskii and Taiunova), contraception and abortion (Shabunova and Kalachikova), child morbidity (Kononova), supports for large families (Leonidova and Kalachikova), assisted reproductive technologies (Emelyanova and Vopilova), and surrogacy (Dushina et al.).
—P.A.K.