Modern family in Belarus. Families of Belarus

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History of the formation and development of legislation on marriage and family in Belarus:

AR
C213 Satolin, V. N. (Vladimir Nikolaevich).
History of the formation and development of marriage legislation
and the family of Belarus: Abstract of the dissertation for the competition
candidate's academic degree legal sciences. 12.00.01 -
Theory of law and state; History of law and state;
History of political and legal doctrines /V. N. Satolin;
Scientific hands A. M. Abramovich; Belarusian State
university. -Minsk, 1997. -20 p.-Bibliography. : With. 17.3 links
RUB 70.00 Material(s):

• History of the formation and development of legislation on marriage and family in Belarus.
  Satolin, V. N.
  

  Satolin, V. N.
  History of the formation and development of legislation on marriage and family in Belarus: abstract of a dissertation for the degree of candidate of legal sciences.

  GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF WORK

  Relevance of the research topic is determined by insufficient scientific development of the history of the formation and development of legislation on marriage and family in Belarus. If the issues of legal regulation of marriage and family relations on the territory of our state during the era of feudalism have already been covered in the literature, the same cannot be said about the later period, when the Belarusian provinces were part of the Russian Empire. The few publications dating back to this time contain only a brief description of customs of the inhabitants of rural areas of Belarus, which determined marriage and family relations. As for the first decade of the existence of Soviet power in Belarus, practically no scientific research was carried out at that time on the history of regulation of the relations in question.

  At the same time, a historical analysis of the problems of legal regulation of marriage and family relations in Belarus at all stages of state development is necessary, first of all, in order to use centuries-old people's experience for the correct orientation of legislative policy aimed at strengthening the family and all its institutions.

  In addition, knowledge of the history of the formation and development of legislation on marriage and family is an important part of the general legal culture of lawyers.

  Thus, the relevance of the issues under consideration, their important historical and practical significance, and the insufficient theoretical development of certain periods in the history of the legal regulation of marriage and family relations in Belarus predetermined the choice of the topic of this dissertation research. It is, in essence, the first attempt at a historical analysis of the formation and development of legislation on marriage and family on the territory of Belarus and its sources.

  Goal and tasksdissertation research. The main goal of the study is to, based on the study of available sources, the works of predecessors and modern researchers, to create a holistic picture of the formation and development of legislation on marriage and family that was in force on the territory of Belarus.

  In accordance with this goal, the following are defined: tasks:

  Study of the main factors that determined the formation and development of legislation on marriage and family throughout the entire period under study;

  Analysis of the most important sources in terms of the norms they contain regulating marriage and family relations;

  Determination of the main trends in the legal regulation of marriage and family relations.

  Basic methods dissertation research: concrete historical, descriptive, logical, comparative, systemic.

  The theoretical provisions of the work are based on the use of the works of Ya. M. Brandenburgsky, M.F. Vladimirsky-Budanov, I. Gavze, M. I. Gorchakov, S. P. Grigorovsky, A.M. Gulyaev, M. Dovnar-Zapolsky, A.I. Zagorovsky, F.I. Leontovich, G.K. Matveev, K. Nevolin, N.M. Nikolsky, A. S. Pavlov, A. I. Pergament, A. P. Sapunov, E. D. Spasovich, N. N. Tarusina, A. Tereshchenko, G. F. Shershenevich, Ya.N. Shchapov, N.G. Yurkevich, I.A. Yukho, M.N. Yasinsky.

  It should be noted that the normatively limited volume of dissertation works of this kind, the standards that we are forced to comply with, did not allow us to cover the entire history of the formation and development of legislation on marriage and family up to the present time. We were forced to stop at 1927, when the first Belarusian code of laws on marriage, family and guardianship was adopted and came into force.

  Scientific novelty of the dissertation is that it is the first attempt to scientifically study the history of the formation and development of marriage and family legislation in Belarus, its main sources, reveals the role and significance of the church, its interaction with the state in regulating relations related to marriage and family.

  The scientific novelty of the results is specified in mainprovisions made for protection.

  1. The formation of legislation on marriage and family in Belarus occurred against the background of the struggle between pagan rituals and Christian norms, implanted by the clergy who came to the Eastern Slavs from Byzantium, who were guided in their activities by

  collections of church and secular legislation carried from there.

  2. With the spread of Christianity, the marriage and family relations of our ancestors gradually begin to be streamlined and acquire a certain conformity with the law. The first ones appear legislative acts, defining the place and status of the church in society, its jurisdiction (Charter of Prince Vladimir, Charter of Prince Yaroslav, Charter of Smolensk Prince Rostislav). All issues related to marriage and family are gradually beginning to fall within the competence of church courts.

  3. During the time of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, the importance of customary law in regulating marriage and family relations decreased. The norms of the so-called written law, contained mainly in the Statutes of 1529, 1566 and 1588, come first. However, when it came to marriage, the procedure for its conclusion and dissolution, the church and religious regulations played an important role.

  4. The legislation of Tsarist Russia was basically built on the inequality of women, on the dominant position of the husband and father in the family, on the humiliated and powerless status of illegitimate children.

  5. In the first years of Soviet power in Belarus

  the regulation of relations related to marriage and family was carried out through the reception (borrowing) of relevant norms from the legislative acts of the RSFSR, aimed at secularizing marriage, equalizing the rights of men and women in marriage and family relations, eliminating the powerless situation of illegitimate children, and simplifying the divorce process . The practice of applying the first legislative acts of Soviet power in Belarus showed that the provisions enshrined in them (primarily aimed at eliminating church marriages) were not accepted by everyone and not immediately. The influence of the church and religious beliefs was strong and lasted for quite a long time.

  6. In the mid-20s, work was carried out in the republic to codify legislation on marriage and family, which ended with the adoption in March 1927 of the first code of laws on marriage, family and guardianship in the history of Belarus. The 1927 Code enshrined new, socialist principles for regulating marriage and family relations, which formed the basis for all subsequent Belarusian Soviet legislation on marriage and family.

  Personal contribution of the applicant The research lies in the fact that he studied and analyzed scientific literature, archival materials and legislative acts on marriage and family that have been in force on the territory of Belarus since ancient times. As a result of the study, independent conclusions were drawn.

  Approbation of the results of the dissertation research. The dissertation was prepared at the Department of Theory and History of States and Law, Faculty of Law, Belarusian State University, where it was discussed.

  Publication of results. The research results were expressed in three articles published in the journal "Bulletin of BSU".

  Work structure. The dissertation consists of an introduction, a general description of the work, four chapters and a conclusion. The full volume of the dissertation is 10? pages of typewritten text, bibliography - 6 pages.

  MAIN CONTENT OF THE DISSERTATION

  In the first chapter, "Marriage and family at Eastern Slavs" given general characteristics marriage and family relations. Referring to known information contained mainly in the Tale of Bygone Years, the applicant believes that the Eastern Slavs in the pagan era did not have single forms of marriage common to all.

  Considering the marriage procedure, the author notes that marriage among the Eastern Slavs was accompanied by various rituals. Among the Polyans, for example, there was a ritual according to which the bride, as a sign of future submission, had to take off her groom’s shoes.

  The wedding ended with a feast, “with dancing and humming.” A mandatory accessory for wedding celebrations, as well as all “games” of buffoons, harps, and trumpets. And, of course, we couldn’t do without honey

  When a girl got married during her father's lifetime, she received a dowry from them, the amount of which depended on the wealth of the family from which she came.

  After the wedding, the young wife received from her husband or generally from the head of the family of which she was a member, the so-called “veno”, i.e. a kind of security for it.

  It is also known that some of the most powerful and noble people from Slavic tribes, in addition to their wives, also had concubines. Prince Vladimir had especially many concubines (800). At the same time, the work notes the love and affection of Slavic wives for their husbands, and indeed the marital fidelity of the Slavs during pagan times.

  Exploring the intra-family relationships that existed among our ancestors in the pre-Christian period, the dissertation author shares the point of view that the relationship between spouses in an individual marriage was initially built in accordance with the principle according to which the husband was the master of his wife, and the wife his slave.

  An important event in the history of the Eastern Slavs, including those who were located on the territory of modern Belarus, was the official recognition of the Christian faith in 988. The author dwells in detail on how the new religion spread and what changes occurred in this regard in the marriage and family relations of our ancestors.

  In order to carry out its traditional functions (liturgical activity, celebration of the sacraments, propagation of the faith, missionary work, etc.), the created church organization needed appropriate legal norms. It needed the same norms for judicial and administrative activities, and primarily in the field of marriage and marriage. family relations. But about the legislative activities of the first princes in this area in church statutes and other sources say nothing. It remained, therefore, to use ready-made norms created for the same purposes in Byzantium.

  The applicant suggests that both church government in general and church court in particular were based on Greek normative acts adopted by our ancestors in ready-made form along with the Christian faith. In addition, already in the church charters of Vladimir and Yaroslav there are references to the “Greek Nomocanon”. Over time, when people from the local population began to appear among the clergy, the question arose about Slavic translations of the Greek Nomocanons. The first translations were made already in the 12th century and were called the Helmsman's Book.

  The dissertation shows changes in the sphere of marriage and family relations and their legal regulation in connection with the establishment of the church organization and the Christianization of the Eastern Slavs. From the point

  From the perspective of Christianity, marriage unions created by kidnapping or buying brides were no longer conceivable. Instead, a church procedure for performing marriages, previously unknown to our ancestors, was introduced. However, church registration of marriages among the Eastern Slavs took a long time and was difficult.

  Having entered into mediation in marriages, the Christian religion and the church established a number of conditions for recognizing a marriage as valid and legal. The Church prohibited marriages between second cousins. Marriages of Christians with people of other faiths, as well as with unbaptized local residents, were not allowed. Polygamy was prohibited and the number of consecutive marriages was limited (no more than two). After the adoption of Christianity, under the influence of canonical regulations and Byzantine legislation, the personal and property rights of the wife in the family expanded.

  ChapterII- "Marriage and family relationsand them legal regulation in the Grand DuchyLithuanian" is devoted to the study of the regulation of these relations in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.

  Regarding the sources of law in the relations under consideration, the author notes that in the 13th century the main norms were local customary and Church law. But already starting from the 14th century, when the state became stronger, the legislative activity of the princes also developed, which received its most vivid expression in such normative acts as privileges.

  The further development of legislation on marriage and family is reflected in the Statutes of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in 1526, 1566 and 1588. For the first time in the history of Belarus, they attempted to systematize the norms of the so-called written law relating to marriage and family relations.

  However, not all aspects of marriage and family relations were regulated by the Statutes. Some of them, in particular those related to marriage, personal legal relations between spouses, between parents and children, adoption, etc., were partially touched upon, others were completely left outside their scope. Gaps in the legislation of this period were filled, on the one hand, by customs passed down from generation to generation, and on the other, by the norms of church law set out in the Helmsman's Book.

  During the period under review, the Church and the state still allowed

  “unconsecrated”, unmarried marriages, but only as long as there were no disputes about this. In case of their occurrence, the courts have always given preference to church marriage.

  The author examines the conditions for marriage, which included: failure to enter into another official marriage, reaching the age of marriage (13-15 years for females and 18 years for males), the absence of kinship and property relations between the spouses. In some cases, in order to get married, it was necessary to obtain the consent of parents, or relatives, and even authorities.

  The legislation of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania established periods of mourning, during which the widow was forbidden to marry after the death of her husband. The purpose of these terms is “so that holy matrimony and integrity are preserved and for the fame of the fetus,” i.e., to establish the origin of the child. The duration of the “mourning” periods was 6 months and they concerned only women, and women only of noble origin. For violating the established prohibition, a woman was deprived of her vein from a previous marriage or had to pay a fine.

  Consideration of the case on the merits in a church court, during which the guilt of each spouse was established, or valid reasons on the basis of which the decision to divorce was made and the consequences of this dissolution were provided for;

  The secular court makes a final decision on divorce and sets deadlines for its execution.

  It is easy to see that the functions of the church and secular courts were different.

  Investigating property relations between spouses, the author does not agree with the opinion of Vladimirsky-Budanov M.D. that the period of the XIV - XVII centuries. in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania was a period of dominance of the community of family property. According to the dissertation author, the property and legal status of the spouses at that time was dominated by the regime of separation of property. The husband and wife not only had common property, which they used jointly, but also had separate property. They could independently conclude all kinds of transactions, but according to their obligations, each of the spouses

  responded independently with his own property.

  The work covers in sufficient detail the procedure for securing the legal status of widows under the legislation of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. This is understandable. Left a widow, the woman received temporary rights to all or part of the property ex-husband depending on the composition of the family, the husband’s will and other circumstances. The norms contained in the Statutes clearly show that the law restricted the inheritance property rights of widows who did not have a record of marriage, and the rights of a childless widow to own property were actually abolished. Although these restrictions did not apply to the recorded vena, which the widow used for life, in legislative acts there is a tendency to replace even vena estates with a monetary equivalent, i.e. to eliminate women's rights to own land.

  The dissertation also analyzes personal and property legal relationships between parents and children in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Legislative acts established the principle of separation of their property. During the lifetime of their parents, children had no right to their property, just as parents had no right to their children’s property.

  The legislator defined the “fate” of the parents’ property in different ways. All of the mother's property, both movable and immovable, if she did not leave a will, passed to the children regardless of gender and in equal shares. The father's inheritance (in the absence of a will) passed only to sons or relatives on the father's side. Thus, children's property rights were not equal; they depended on gender. Also, the property rights of the mother and adult children were not the same.

  The institution of guardianship, which at that time performed two functions: property, i.e. protection of family property left without proper supervision, and educational care - care for the upbringing of children who cannot receive it from their parents due to death or for other reasons.

  In the third chapter - “A brief description of the legislation on marriage and family, acting onterritory of Belarus into a copierXVIII- beginningXXcenturies"- the author dwells on events,

  which the tsarist government carried out in order to strengthen its power in the annexed Belarusian lands, analyzes the legislative acts regulating marriage and family relations at that time. Particular attention is paid to guardianship and trusteeship.

  The work notes that legislation on marriage and family in Tsarist Russia was not an independent industry. Relations arising from marriage and family membership were regulated by the norms contained in Book One, Volume X, Part 1 of the Code of Civil Laws - “On the Rights and Responsibilities of the Family,” as well as numerous church decrees. A closer connection of legal norms with canonical regulations than in Western European countries is one of the characteristic features of the regulation of marriage and family relations in the Russian Empire.

  In rural areas of Belarus, customary law continued to play an important role in regulating marriage and family relations. The author shares the existing point of view that the law had not yet established itself here as the main source of legislation on marriage and family.

  The dissertation examines the conditions of marriage. The first such condition was reaching a certain age (18 years for men and 16 for women). This was the general rule, but exceptions were made to it: in necessary cases, diocesan bishops were given the right to reduce the age of marriage, but no more than six months

  The work notes that among Belarusians in the 19th century the practice of early marriage was quite rare. At the age of 15-16 years, predominantly women entered into marriage. According to the 1897 census, in the Belarusian provinces there were 300 such cases, and the marriage of girls in this age group is more typical for the Polesie region,

  in particular, for the Mozyr region.

  So-called unequal marriages, when a woman married a man many years older than herself, are also not widespread in Belarus. As a rule, the husband was 1-5 years older than his wife (60%) or 6-10 years (18.2%). Families where the husband and wife were the same age accounted for approximately 9.2%. Cases where the wife was older than her husband were relatively rare: from 1 to 5 years - 4.9%, from 6-10 years - 1.3%.

  The second condition required the mutual consent of the persons entering into marriage. However, numerous prohibitions and restrictions prevented free marriage. These are: the presence of a previous undivorced marriage; lack of consent of parents or other persons specified by law; difference of religions; the presence of kinship and property relations of a certain degree between those entering into marriage; reaching the age limit for marriage (80 years); belonging to the clergy or monasticism; it was forbidden to enter into a fourth marriage, as well as with the insane and insane, etc. The legislation in force on the territory of Belarus established and recognized as legal only one form of marriage - church. The church, which at that time also performed the functions of state bodies, registered marriages. The marriage had to take place in accordance with the rules and rituals of the church to which the persons entering into the marriage belonged. The main document confirming the creation of a family was parish (metric) registers.

  At the same time, for Belarusian peasants, the significance of the act that sealed the marriage relationship was still not the wedding, but the wedding. The applicant agrees with the opinion of M. Dovnar-Zapole who, what for the peasants church wedding did not play a significant role and was performed only because the priest demanded it.

  Analyzing the conditions for the termination of marriage, the author emphasizes that all cases of dissolution of marriages, as well as recognition of their legality or invalidity, as well as consideration of other disputes arising from marriage and family membership, were considered in spiritual courts.

  Examining the personal legal relations of spouses in Tsarist Russia, the author notes that these relations were built on the principles of inequality in the rights and responsibilities of husband and wife. The husband was recognized as the head of the family. He was instructed to love, respect, protect and support his wife.

  In rural areas of Belarus, the head of the family was called the owner. According to existing traditions, the owner distributed household responsibilities among family members and was responsible for the behavior of children and their upbringing. He was the custodian and manager of all family funds, although, however, sometimes his wife, the mistress, was also in charge of this.

  At the same time, the owner, as the head of the family, had to observe the general interests of the family, and only in this case the rest of its members obeyed him. Any injustice on his part, inept management of property and in cash, drunkenness, etc. inevitably entailed a general protest among family members, which could result in partition, or (which was extremely rare) all affairs were transferred into the hands of someone else, most often the eldest son.

  The legislation of the Russian Empire required a wife to obey her husband, love and obey him, and “provide him with all kindness and affection.” Upon marriage, a woman was deprived of the right to choose a surname; a married woman was limited in her right to choose her place of residence at her own discretion, and to engage in educational or other activities.

  However, in the Belarusian family the position of a woman cannot be called oppressed. Although the law, as well as custom, obliged a woman to obey her husband, in practice this obedience was not blind, it was the obedience of the younger member of the family to the elders. The separation of personal property, the division of labor, participation in common affairs legalized by custom - all this provided the woman with a certain independence and eliminated reasons for family discord.

  Property relations were characterized by the separation of the property of the spouses. They were given the right to independently dispose of their property and enter into transactions with each other. The law did not establish the liability of one spouse for the debts of the other.

  Family legal relations between parents and children were based on the assertion of parental authority. Children, regardless of gender and age, were essentially under the uncontrolled care of their parents. Pre-revolutionary legislation established the complete separation of property between parents and children.

  When studying issues related to the legal status of parents and children, the author pays special attention to the so-called “illegitimate” children. The state and church, interfering in the sphere of relations between men and women, were intolerant of children born out of wedlock. However, the law, under the pretext of protecting the sanctity of marriage and the inviolability of the family hearth, fell with its full weight primarily on those who were least guilty of violating this “sanctity” and “inviolability” - children.

  How acute and painful the problem of “illegitimate” children was for Belarus can be judged by the example of the Minsk province. In the second half of the 19th century, for every 20 children born in towns, villages and hamlets, there was 1 “illegitimate” child in the cities These figures were much higher (by 8 - 1). However, in St. Petersburg, as well as in Geneva, the picture was even worse. There, there was 1 “illegitimate” child for every 5 births.

  The main means of improving the situation of illegitimate children in the period under review was legitimation. Its essence was that children born out of wedlock could be legitimized by the subsequent marriage of their father and mother. Children legalized in this way were fully equal in rights to children born in marriage. The establishment of relationships between parents and children was also possible through adoption.

  The author examines another institution that was closely connected with marriage and family relations and which received undeservedly little attention in Soviet literature. This is guardianship and trusteeship. Guardianship was state institute and had the goal of protecting both the personal and property rights of those under guardianship. The dissertation author notes that the main feature (and disadvantage) of the organization of guardianship and trusteeship bodies in Tsarist Russia was their class. Unlike the countries of Western Europe, where there were common guardianship institutions for all classes, here each class had its own special guardianship and trusteeship bodies, which caused great inconvenience in practice.

  In the fourth chapter "The formation of marriage legislationand family Byelorussian SSR" the author examines the regulations on marriage and family adopted in the first decade of Soviet power.

  Already in the first months, the Soviet state began to transform the family on the principles and laws inherent in a socialist society; it separated the church from the state, thereby depriving it of the opportunity to influence marriage and family relations. Legislative acts issued in 191? - 1918 the effect of the old pre-revolutionary norms in the area of ​​the relations in question was canceled. .The secularization of civil status acts was carried out, and the equality of spouses was secured. Freedom of termination was proclaimed

  marriage; The divorce process itself was simplified as much as possible and freed from numerous obstacles and restrictions. Lies concluded before the publication of Soviet laws were considered equal to those registered.

  As noted in the work, the Russian Code of Laws on Civil Status, Marriage, Family and Guardianship Law of 1918 (abbreviated as KZAGS) was an act that extended to the territory of Belarus, which was not subject to occupation in 1918-1920. The Belarusian SSR, which declared its independence and independence in January 1919, essentially did not become such at that time and therefore initially used the legislation of the Russian Federation, including in the field of marriage and family relations.

  The KZAGS of the RSFSR of 1918 operated in Belarus until 1927. To ensure the correct application of the norms of this code, taking into account the conditions of the BSSR, the government bodies of the republic have repeatedly adopted relevant resolutions and circular instructions. Thus, on September 29, 1920, the Military Revolutionary Committee of the Soviet Socialist Republic of Belarus, which had full power in the territory of the republic liberated from the occupiers, issued Order No. 40 “On Family Divisions.” This order established which disputes arising during the dissolution of marriages were within the jurisdiction of the court, and which were under the jurisdiction of other government bodies.

  On May 29, 1925, the Central Executive Committee and the Council of People's Commissars of the BSSR adopted a resolution that approved the procedure for processing cases of divorce and the provision of maintenance to a needy spouse and children.

  At the same time, the main legislative act in the field of the relations under consideration, which was in force on the territory of Belarus, still remained the KZAGS RSFSR of 1918. However, in it, along with certainly positive aspects, quite soon significant shortcomings were revealed: this is not complete normative act The relationships between spouses, parents and children were regulated, and such an important institution as adoption was not recognized at all by the Soviet government and remained unregulated by the law.

  The applicant covers in detail the process of preparation and adoption of the first Code of Laws on Marriage, Family and Guardianship in Belarus.

  In the summer of 1926, the draft of this legislative act was developed by the People's Commissariat of Justice and submitted to the Council of People's Commissars of the BSSR, and then submitted to the 3rd session of the Central Executive Committee of the BSSR of the VII convocation. But on June 30, 1926, the 3rd session of the Central Journal of the BSSR, after stormy protests, adopted a resolution by which the draft Code was transferred to the districts for discussion by the working masses.

  The main discussion during the discussion of the draft Code centered on the issue of registration of marriage. In the course of it, two opposing points of view emerged: some considered it correct to retain the provision on compulsory state registration of marriage in the draft, others considered registration of marriage optional and advocated the legalization of actual marriage.

  According to the author, the reluctance of some residents of Soviet Belarus to formalize their marriage and family relations in an appropriate manner is explained, first of all, by the policy towards the church and church marriages. The majority of the population of the former Russian Empire, who were brought up on religious beliefs, could not, and did not want to, overnight abandon the old ones and accept new rules for registering marriages. It took time for people to realize the need to register their marriage and family relations with the relevant bodies of Soviet power. Of course, the then widespread theories of the “withering away of the family” and “free love” under socialism also contributed to the increase in the number of actual (unregistered) marriages.

  The draft, and then the Code of Laws on Marriage, Family and Guardianship of the Byelorussian SSR, followed the path of recognition of actual marriage. Actual marital relations were recognized if the persons involved in them mutually recognized each other as spouses or if marital relations between them were established by the court.

  Other provisions of the draft Code aroused significantly fewer objections and passed without any significant changes. On January 27, 1927, by the resolution of the IV session of the Central Executive Committee of the BSSR of the VII convocation, the first Code of Laws on Marriage, Family and Guardianship in the history of Belarus was approved and came into force on March 1, 1927.

  In structure and main provisions, the Belarusian Code of 1927 was in many ways reminiscent of the Code on Marriage, Family and Guardianship of the Russian Sideration of 1926. Moreover, their names are absolutely identical. According to the applicant, such similarity between the codes of the BSSR and the RSFSR explains

  This is determined, first of all, by the unity of the socio-economic and political tasks being solved by the Soviet republics at that time. In addition, the Russian code was approved and put into effect earlier than the Belarusian one and was, however, like the Family Code of the Ukrainian SSR of 1926, the main source of the 1927 Code of Labor and Social Security of Belarus.

  CONCLUSIONS

  1. The regulation of family relationships has been carried out since ancient times. Initially, behavior in marriage and family was determined by customs and traditions passed down from generation to generation. Legal customs not only preceded the appearance of written legislative monuments, but also for a long time were the main, dominant form of regulation of relations related to marriage and family.

  2. The Eastern Slavs in the pagan era did not have any uniform rules for marriage and family relations. Issues of marriage and its dissolution, as well as all other intra-family relationships, were resolved depending on which tribe the husband and wife belonged to and what customs existed in this tribe.

  3. The adoption of Christianity and the subsequent Christianization of the local population produced a dramatic revolution in the marriage and family relations of our ancestors. Now these relations, on the one hand, were regulated by old customs that were not the same everywhere, but enjoying great authority, and, on the other hand, by previously unknown, not understandable and accessible to everyone and therefore difficult to take root norms of Byzantine legislation. There is no doubt, however, that these new norms (reworked and adapted to local conditions) had a generally beneficial effect on marriage and family relations and the entire family structure of East Slavic society, especially that part of it that adopted Christianity and was guided by Everyday life canonical instructions.

  4. In the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, the institutions of marriage and family have reached a new, higher level of development and have become much more perfect. First of all, this concerns property relations between spouses, between parents and children, as well as custody

  ki. This entire complex of relations mainly fell within the scope of secular civil legislation. As for other institutions, for example, the institution of Srak and all related issues - the form of marriage, the conditions of its validity and dissolution - here the influence of the church and customary law was most strongly felt. Simultaneous regulation of marriage and family relations by civil, ecclesiastical and customary norms rights are one of the characteristic features of these relations in the period under review.

  5. The legislation on marriage and family of the Russian Empire, which included the territory of Belarus at the end of the 18th century, had a pronounced confessional character. Unlike some countries of Western Europe, where civil marriage had already been established, the Russian Code of Civil Laws recognized only the church form of marriage as legal. Pre-revolutionary legislation was built on the dominant position of the husband in the family, on the powerless position of illegitimate children, and on the rules of divorce that degraded human dignity. In the Belarusian provinces during this period, customary law still continued to apply.

  6. In the first phase of the development of the Soviet state, the main task in the field of relations under consideration was a radical restructuring of the previous legislation on marriage and family and the establishment of new, more democratic principles of family building.

  7. Marriage and family legislation was the first branch of Soviet legislation in which the codification of legal norms was carried out, and in contrast to tsarist Russia, where legislation on marriage and family was part of civil legislation, the first codification of Soviet legislation on marriage and family was carried out as a codification independent branch of law

  8. In the first years of Soviet power, the regulation of marriage and family relations on the territory of Belarus was carried out through the application of legislative acts of the RSFSR, the main of which was the KZAGS of 1918. This code not only reproduced the starting provisions of Soviet legislation on marriage and family, enshrined in the first decrees, but also developed them, providing more specific and complete regulation of family relations. He introduced a number of basic institutions, established some provisions that differed from the existing

  marched earlier.

  9. The first Code of Laws on Marriage, Family and Guardianship of the Byelorussian SSR, adopted in 1927, eliminated gaps and shortcomings in the regulation of relations related to marriage and family membership. With changes and additions, it operated on the territory of Belarus for more than 40 years.

  1. Satolin V.N. On the sphere of regulation of legislation on marriage and family // Bulletin of the BDU. 1989. Gray 3. No. 2.

  2. Satolin V.N. Legislation on marriage and family that was in force on the territory of Belarus in the first years of Soviet power // Besnik BDU. 1990. Gray 3. No. 3.

  3. Satolin V.N. The first codification of legislation on marriage and family of the Belarusian SSR // Bulletin of the BDU. 1991. Gray 3. No. 1.

  SATOLIN Vladimir Nikolaevich

  History of the formation and development of legislation on marriage and family in Belarus

  Marriage, family, adoption, guardianship, trusteeship, termination of marriage, conditions and obstacles to marriage, divorce, personal and property relations of spouses, parents and children, state, church, wedding, church law, legislation on marriage and family, code.

  The relevance of the topic is determined by the role that the family plays in the state and society, the lack of special research on the history of the formation and development of legal regulation of marriage and family relations in Belarus, and the need to improve legislation on marriage and family.

  The author aims to create a holistic picture of the formation and development of legislation on marriage and family in Belarus, its main institutions, to show the role and importance of the church, its interaction with the state in regulating marriage and family relations. This at the same time constitutes the scientific novelty of the dissertation, since such research is carried out in the Belarusian legal literature for the first time.

  The practical significance of the work lies in the fact that the main provisions and conclusions contained in it can be used both in rule-making activities when improving the current legislation on marriage and family, and in the preparation of textbooks and teaching aids on the history of state and law of the Republic of Belarus, family rights.. The dissertation materials can be used in educational process at law faculties of higher educational institutions.

  The main provisions and conclusions formulated in the dissertation are reflected in three works published by the author.

  SATOLIN ULADZMIR MIKALAEVICH

  HISTORY OF STANAULENIYA I DEVELOPING LEGISLATION OF AB SCHLUBE I SYAM"I BELARUS.

  Slub, here I am, adopted, apex, apiakunstva, sleeping whore, minds and perashkods and the final whore, raevod, safe and may-masny adnosins of husbands and wives, father and actions, days, kingdoms , vyanchanne, tsarkounae rights, lawsdaustvz here and there, codex.

  The current topic is based on the role that I have discovered in the country and civil society, adjoining a number of special investigations on the history of the Republic of Belarus and the development of legal regulations in the area of ​​Belarus. hodnzsstyu udzskanalennaya eakanzdaustva zb sjam" i i shlube.

  Autar stzvіtsya svja matay sklzstsі (dat) tselzsnuyu carcinoma stabilization i raevіtsya ekonodavostva zb slyuba i sam*i nz Belzrusі, yago asnovnykh іstutau, pakzeat's rôle і enzchenna tsarka, ya uezemzdeeyanne e deyarzhavzy pr regulavanni shlyubnz-family adnosіn. This is an hourly structure and a sound name of the dissertation, since this is due to the fact that the Belarusian legal literature is superior.

  Practical and practical work is key to the fact that as-nowadays decisions and conclusions, which are difficult for her, can be vykary-tzny as in the normative activities of udaskanalennye deeyuchagz eaka-nadaustEZ ab Shlyube and here and there deyarzhzvy i przvz Republic Belzrus, sameynaga rights. Materials dysertatsy mogut vykarystou-vatszz u vucheonym prztsese nz juridical faculties of the highest sounding regulations.

  Assured executioners and Eyyads, formulated in a dyssertatsiya, enapshli adlustravanka in three published autars.

  Vladimir N. Satolin

  The History of the Establishment and the Development of Family Law in Belarus.

  Marriage, family, adoption, custody, guardianship, the abandonment of wedlock, conditions and hindrances to marry, divorce, personal and property relations of matrimony, parents and children relations, state, church, religious wedding, the Church Law, The Family Law, The Code.

  The urgency of the theme is defined by the role that the family plays in the state and in the society, the absence of the special researches in the history of the establishment and the development of law adjustment in matrimony relations on the territory of Belarus and the necessity of perfection of the Family Law.

  The author's aim is to compile the picture of the establishment and the development of the Family Law in Belarus, it main institutions, to show the role and the significance of the church, it relationship with the state at the adjustment of the matrimonial relations. This, at the same time, composes the scientific innovation of the thesis, as such research is made in byelorussian legal literature for the first time.

  The practical significance of the work is contained in the main propositions and conclusions which can be used as in law making activity in perfection of the Family Law, so as in the preparing" the handbooks and textbooks in the History of State and Law in the Republic of Belarus in the Family Law.

  The material of the thesis can be used during the educational process at the Law faculties in the higher educational establishments.

  The main propositions and conclusions, formulating" in the thesis, are represented in the three works published by ty the author

Information updated:22.06.2018

Related materials:
| Persons

It is a natural desire for every person to have a family. This is one of the instincts of a person that forces him to find a mate to continue his family line. All families are completely different; in order for this union to take place, many rules must be fulfilled and observed.

What is family?

This concept can be defined in different ways.

A family is a group of people who live together.

A family is a close-knit group that is united by common interests.

Types of families can be different. They can be classified according to various criteria, so there are dissimilar approaches to this issue.

Family functions

Regardless of the type or type, all families must perform some functions. The main ones include:

1. Continuation of the family, and, therefore, reproduction of society.
2. Educational. It manifests itself in motherhood and fatherhood, interaction with children and their upbringing.
3. Household. At the family level, the material needs of all family members are satisfied - food, drink, clothing, and so on.
4. Emotional. Satisfying the needs for respect, love, psychological protection.
5. Spiritual communication. Joint work, relaxation with the whole family.
6. Primary socialization. The family must ensure that its members comply with social norms.

From these functions it is clear that the traditional type of family has all the signs of social culture. The main ones are the ability to reproduce, division of labor, inheritance and development of cultural values.

Just as every organism is made up of cells, so the whole society is made up of families. Will a person be healthy if his cells are not in order? Similarly, the whole society cannot be called healthy if there are dysfunctional families.

Types of families

Different researchers approach classification in different ways. Most often, to characterize the forms and types of families, the following characteristics are taken as a basis.

1. Family size. That is, the number of its members is taken into account.

3. Number of children:

• childless;
• single children;
• small children;
• large families.

4. Form of marriage:

• Monogamous families consisting of two partners.
• Polygamous people have one partner burdened with several marital obligations.

5. By gender of spouses.

• Diverse.
• Same-sex.

6. According to the person’s location.

• Parental family.
• Reproductive. One's own family created by man.

7. Place of residence.

• A patrilocal family lives with the husband's or wife's parents.
• Peololocal lives separately from parents.

If you want, you can also name the types of modern families, but this is already a deviation from the rules.

Forms of marriage

Until recently, it was possible to become a real and recognized family only after registering a marriage. Currently, a lot has changed in people's minds, so today, not only the one concluded in the registry office (church) is considered a marriage. There are several varieties:

1. Church. The spouses swear love and fidelity “before God.” Previously, only such a marriage was considered valid; now, most often, immediately after official registration, some couples prefer to get married in a church.
2. Civil marriage. It is registered in the registry office; the main types of families arise precisely after its conclusion.
3. Actual. Partners simply live together without formalizing their relationship. As a rule, such marriages have no legal force and are not recognized in many countries.
4. Morganatic marriage. Family formation by people of different social levels.
5. Temporary union. In some countries, it is quite common and is concluded according to a marriage contract for a certain period.
6. Fictitious marriage. Partners, as a rule, do not plan to create a real family; there is only material or legal benefit.
7. Polygyny. When a man officially has several wives. In Russia such marriages are prohibited.
8. Same-sex marriage. Some countries have passed laws allowing same-sex marriage.

Historical family types

Historically, families have been divided into the following types depending on the distribution of responsibilities and leadership:

Relationships within the family

Types of families may be different, but no one has canceled the relationships between its members. Another famous philosopher Hegel considered several types of relationships in a social unit:

• Between a woman and a man.
• Parents and children.
• Brothers and sisters.

The first type, according to the author, has no humanity, because all relationships are built on the basis of animal instinct, that is, sexual satisfaction. Partners become human in the process of raising children and working for the benefit of their family.

The nuclear family type means the presence of both parents and children. The relationship between them can develop in different ways. It often happens that daughters are more attached to their fathers, and sons, on the contrary, to their mother.

Everything here depends on the parenting style. It is desirable that parents have a common opinion on this issue.

Relationships between brothers and sisters are sometimes difficult. It all depends on the difference in age, the characteristics of upbringing and the attitude of the parents. They often make the mistake of making different demands on their children, thereby contributing to the growth of hostility between them.

Nuclear family

Until recently, it was commonplace for several generations to live under one roof at once. Although such families can still be found today, it is all due to the lack of funds to purchase their own home.

The nuclear type of family began to gradually supplant the patriarchal cell and became the dominant type. This family has some features:

• Small numbers.
• Limited emotional experience.
• More freedom and privacy.

The question arises as to why such families became prevalent. Living together among several generations requires everyone to be able to find a compromise and be willing to carry out instructions from older family members.

On the one hand, in a patriarchal family there are all the prerequisites for the formation of collectivism, but at the same time, individualism is almost completely destroyed.

A nuclear family usually consists of two generations, that is, parents and their children. Often relationships between members are based on democracy, so everyone can have their own personal space.

Despite the prevalence of such families, statistics inexorably show a high number of divorces in them. Relationships without marriage registration have become increasingly common; even the birth of children cannot force some men to take their chosen one to the registry office.

This suggests that personal comfort and convenience are put first, and public opinion does not matter. The desire for freedom and privacy leads to a lack of mutual understanding and support even between members of the same family.

There are increasingly cases where the younger generation prefers to send their elderly parents to a nursing home instead of caring for them. Children are sent to kindergartens and nannies to be raised, but previously this was done by grandparents.

The nuclear family is a reflection of the processes taking place in our society, and this, unfortunately, contributes to the destruction of state traditions.

Partner family

When creating their own family, everyone wants the relationships in it to be equal. This is a natural desire, but in practice this does not always happen.

A partner type family means the following:

If you are planning to have such a family, then everything needs to be discussed in advance so that there are no misunderstandings later.

Pure partner families are quite rare, because there is always an advantage on one side on some issues.

Single-parent families

Based on the number of divorces in our country, it is not difficult to assume that the number of families with one parent will only increase.

As a rule, raising children falls on the shoulders of the mother; in some cases, this process is entrusted to fathers.

Becoming a single mother means getting into difficult life situation. But this situation also has its advantages:

• Getting rid of a bad marriage.
• The ability to manage your life.
• Emotional uplift from the feeling of freedom and the beginning of a new life.
• Moral satisfaction from work.
• Respect your children for their professional successes.

Despite all the advantages, there are also a lot of problems in single-parent families:

Adoptive families

Not all children are lucky enough to live and be raised in a family with their natural parents. Some end up in foster care, which can be divided into the following types of families:

• Adoption. The child becomes a full-fledged member of the family with all rights and responsibilities. There are cases that throughout his entire life he will never know that he is being raised by adoptive parents.
• Guardianship. A child is taken into the family to be raised. Biological parents are not exempt from the responsibility for its maintenance.
• Patronage. The child is placed in a professional foster family; before this, an agreement is signed between the guardianship authorities, the family and the institution for orphans.
• Adoptive family. Children are placed in a family for a certain period of time, which is specified in the contract.

For some children, a foster family sometimes becomes better than their own, in which the parents lead an immoral lifestyle and are not involved in raising the younger generation.

Dysfunctional families

Such families can be very different from each other. Among them there are two groups:

1. Asocial families. In them, parents lead a riotous lifestyle, drink, and engage in drug addiction, so they simply do not have time to raise their children. This also includes parents who deliberately engage in criminal activity.
2. Respectable families. Outwardly, they do not differ at all from ordinary families, but family foundations and principles do not allow them to raise a full-fledged citizen and a normal personality. This may include families of sectarians who do not allow their child to go to school for some of their own reasons.

Everyone creates their own family; it is up to you what kind of relationship will develop between children and parents, as well as spouses. Types of families may be different, but respect for each other, mutual assistance, love and compassion are universal human qualities that should be manifested in every cell of society.

Belarusian traditions are determined by the multinationality of this amazing country: the cultures of Lithuanian tribes, Russian, Polish, Jewish and Ukrainian peoples have long been united here. However, despite this, Belarusians have their own customs and traditions that are unique to them. Particularly revered in the country are rituals associated with ancient Slavic pagan holidays, such as Ivan Kupala, Maslenitsa, Welcoming Spring, and others. In our time, such traditions associated with natural phenomena and the seasons are closely intertwined with Christian ones, and have formed the common national culture of Belarus.

Do you know where the name "Belarus" came from?

Belarus used to be called “White Russia”. This name was given to it by Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, who occupied these territories in the second half of the 17th century. The word “white” in this case means “legitimate,” that is, a part of Rus' that is officially annexed to it.

Family in Belarus is the basis of everything, and the closest attention was paid to raising a child in the family. Large families are encouraged in Belarusian families. It was believed that the more children a woman gives birth to, the happier the entire clan will be. Much attention was paid to careful care of the baby in the first years of life. They sang songs to him, told him fairy tales, nursery rhymes, and tried in every possible way to make the child smile more often. Upbringing in a Belarusian family was demanding and strict, and parents taught their children hard work, patience, and respect for elders by personal example. Physical punishment was used extremely rarely, and they were ready to buy any toy for a child who cried. Characteristic was equal treatment of all children who were most of the time under the care of their mother. The authority of the grandparents was unquestionable; they obeyed them, tried to please them in everything, and always addressed them only as “you.” It was customary to call children affectionately and tenderly: sunshine, bunny, swallow or flower. In general, the family for Belarusians was and is the main wealth that a person can have.

Traditions of Belarus

Belarusian wedding traditions

Weddings were only allowed during certain periods of the year. At other times they were strictly prohibited, for example during the period from January 7 to 21, as well as during fasting and during the harvest season.

The marriage ceremony among Belarusians took place in three stages:

• pre-wedding (matchmaking and engagement);
• the wedding itself (vyaselle);
• post-wedding (pies and honeymoon).

Each stage was accompanied by its own obligatory rituals. For example, it was possible to get married only on Monday, Thursday or Saturday. Matchmakers, numbering 5-6 people, came to the bride’s house with gifts and sweets. The humorous conversation ended with a direct question: does the girl agree to the wedding, and if everything went well, the future relatives on both sides drank a bottle, after which grain was poured into it, in honor of the future rich life of the young people.

Before the wedding, the bride always had a bachelorette party, where the future wife said goodbye to her freedom, carefree life and wove beautiful wreaths with her friends. On the wedding day in the groom's house, the table was set with a snow-white tablecloth. There should have been bread, water and a candle on the table. At this time the bride was dressed in wedding dress, and prepared for ransom. With jokes, jokes and songs, the newlyweds went to get married, after which they celebrated this event cheerfully and noisily. The honeymoon began on the 9th day after the wedding and lasted 30 days.

Culinary traditions of Belarusians

Belarusian cuisine is a combination of satiety, simplicity and a variety of ways to prepare the same (preferably local) products. A large number of ancient recipes have survived to this day, which are the basis of Belarusian cuisine. Potatoes appeared in Belarus only at the end of the 17th century, and before that, greens, legumes, cereals, berries and fruits, as well as a large number of seasonings - cumin, flax-seed, mustard, coriander and horseradish. Meat was not the main food; preference was given to vegetables and flour products. Dishes from river fish were prepared for holidays or on weekends.

Culinary delights of the Belarusian people

Advice

If you are lucky enough to visit Belarus, be sure to try the traditional local yeast-free bread. It is incredibly tasty, because flax, nuts or sunflower seeds are added to it. Such bread is baked in ovens, adding oak bark or fruit tree leaves for flavor.

Conclusion:

Belarus is a distinctive ancient country, in whose traditions the cultural customs of many peoples intersect. A unique combination of pagan and Christian rituals is embodied in the rituals of this country. Belarusians are a hospitable, friendly and cheerful people who carefully preserve their history and protect their customs.

Traditions and rituals of Belarus

I. Crisis phenomena of the modern Belarusian modern family. Attitude towards marriage

II. Methodological part

Bibliography

I. Crisis phenomena of the modern Belarusian modern family. Attitude towards marriage

Analysis of the problem situation:

The family, like all social institutions, has experienced a number of changes throughout its history. Its development did not stop at its modern forms. A thoughtful study of a number of phenomena shows that at present the family, as a socio-legal organization of a certain type, is experiencing an acute turning point; its old and partly modern forms are gradually disappearing and giving way to other forms, so far known only in the most general terms. In short, the modern family is changing and moving into a new, upcoming family these days. Of course, this process of changing it is connected with a change in the rest of social life. We often notice some crisis phenomena occurring in the family.

Problem:

moving away from old family traditions, forming new changed relationships in the family as the foundations of modern society change.

Aspects of the problem:

the ever-faster and faster growing percentage of divorces and “separations from the table and bed”;

a decrease in the number of marriages itself, indicating that there are more and more people who do not want to bind themselves to the modern bonds of “legal marriage”;

the growth of “extramarital” unions between men and women;

falling child birth rates;

freeing a woman from her husband’s care and changing their mutual relationship;

destruction of the religious basis of marriage;

the increasingly growing role of the state (state bodies) in raising children and protecting family and marriage.

Purpose of the study:

Analyze the reasons for the weakening of the family and signs of the fall of its modern “foundations”.

Tasks:

Identify moments of crisis that entail the decomposition and weakening of the Belarusian family.

Analyze the percentage relationship between the number of registered marriages and divorces.

Expand the concept of marriage (officially registered and actual).

Consider the influence of the church on marriage and family relationships.

Point out the weakening of family functions. The role of mother and father in raising children.

Monitor how marriage protection is carried out by the state.

An object: Belarusian family as a social institution.

Item: problem of family and marriage relations.

Interpretation of basic concepts.

The key concept in this study is the term “marriage”.

MARRIAGE- a family union of a man and a woman, giving rise to their rights and responsibilities towards each other and towards their children. In most modern states, the law requires appropriate registration (registration) of marriage in special government bodies; Along with this, in some states legal significance is also attached to marriage concluded according to religious rites. In some countries (for example, in France), a marriage contract is often concluded when registering a marriage. In Belarus, only marriages entered into at state civil registry offices (registry offices) are recognized.

Some forms of marriage should be distinguished.

CIVIL MARRIAGE- a marriage registered in the relevant government authorities without the participation of the church. Sometimes a civil marriage is also called a de facto marriage.

CHURCH MARRIAGE- in Orthodoxy, one of the sacraments, marriage, concluded in the church according to religious rites.

ACTUAL MARRIAGE- de facto marriage, not formalized in accordance with the procedure established by law.

The concept of "marriage" is inseparable from the concept of "family". But the family is a more complex system of relationships than marriage, because it unites not only spouses, but also their children and other relatives. There are many definitions of the concept "family". The following interpretation most accurately reveals its essence.

Family - based on a single family activity, a community of people connected by the bonds of marriage, parenthood, kinship and thereby carries out the reproduction of the population and the continuity of family generations, as well as the socialization of children and the maintenance of the existence of family members.

Family - a small group based on marriage or consanguinity, whose members are bound by a common life, mutual assistance, moral and legal responsibility.

A family is created by parent-child relationships, and marriage turns out to be a legitimate recognition of those relationships between a man and a woman, those forms of cohabitation or sexual partnership that are accompanied by the birth of children. For a more complete understanding of the essence of the family, one should take into account the spatial localization of the family - housing, house, property - and the economic basis of the family - the general family activity of parents and children, going beyond the narrow horizons of everyday life and consumerism.

Usually " core" families consider a married couple, and all statistical classifications of family composition are based on the addition of children, relatives, and spouses’ parents to the “core.” From a sociological point of view, it is more correct to take as a basis the most common type of family in the population with the trinity of these relationships - the main type of family, and those family associations that are formed by subtracting one of the three relationships are better called family groups. This clarification is due to the fact that in last years In the sociology of the family in the West and in our country, a tendency has become noticeable to reduce the essence of the family to any of three relationships, most often to marriage, and even partnership or cohabitation.

System analysis.

BLOCK DIAGRAM

The continued existence of the family in modern forced forms becomes very difficult. Highlighting the main aspects of the problem serves as a sign of the fall of the modern “foundations” of the family, but in relation to the fact of weakening family ties, it is irrefutable evidence.

One of the manifestations of a family crisis is divorce. In our country, along with freedom of marriage, there is also the right of spouses to divorce. According to statistics, approximately 1.5% of the total number of all marriages were dissolved annually and 2,788 thousand new families were formed. Thus, the ratio between marriages and divorces is approximately 3:

1. But this indicator varies depending on the place of residence and age of people. So in big cities there are more divorces than in rural areas.

As the number of divorces increases, the possibility that they will be compensated by remarriage becomes less and less. Only 10-15% of women with children remarry. As a result, the number of single-parent families is increasing.

So, using data from the last ten years we see: 1990. - 99229 registered marriages, 1995 - 77027, 2000 - 62485, 2009 - 90444.

Number of divorces: 1990 - 34986, 1995 - 42119, 2000 - 43512, 2009 - 40164.

At the same time, no small importance is given to the age of marriage. The average age of men and women wishing to get married is increasing. The statistics are as follows: in 90 - 24.2, in 2000. - 25.0, 2009 - 25.9 years. For women: 90th year - 22.5, 95g. - 22.1, 2000 - 22.8, 2009 23.8 years. It is also noted that the age of remarriage is also increasing. This is influenced primarily by economic, social factors, and the influence of public opinion formed with changes in the life of the entire state.

At the same time, the fact of a decrease in childbearing in marriage is both the reason for the weakening of the family and at the same time a sign of its disintegration. Having children and being a father and mother was still the norm for families. A family without children was an exception, something abnormal. What has been observed in recent decades? The birth rate is gradually falling. “Childless” marriages are becoming “fashionable”; having children is now considered “inconvenient and impractical” for a number of reasons: in these cases they talk about the difficulty of life, and about material and economic worries, and about the fact that children are a “luxury” , which is very expensive, and about the difficulties of their maintenance, upbringing, and training. Various reasons are given. But, no matter how diverse they are, the facts remain: the percentage of marital birthrates is falling.

The loss of the religious basis of marriage and family is of enormous significance. What was formerly a divine institution has become an ordinary human institution; what was previously surrounded by an aura of holiness has turned into the work of human hands; an attack on marriage, which had previously been a sin and a crime, has now become a matter of everyday convenience. Breaking or desecrating a marriage previously meant an insult to the divine institution and commandments, but has now become a common occurrence. If before it was difficult to decide to break up, now all unnecessary obstacles have fallen. In short, the disappearance of the religious character of marriage made it possible to view and treat it more easily and only from the point of view of convenience. Thanks to civil marriage, one of the levers that previously forced people to treat and respect the “God-given” relationship more strictly and seriously has disappeared.

The decline of parental power over children is the main feature that characterizes the history of relationships between parents and children. If previously the family was the only or main teacher, school and guardian, now this role of the family must disappear . And indeed, before our eyes we see how the state little by little takes away from the family its educational, teaching and guardianship functions and takes them into its own hands . Previously, it all belonged to the family; Now the state is taking it upon itself. Previously, the latter did not interfere in the management of parents, but now it is breaking into this sphere more and more, demanding an account from parents, imposing a number of responsibilities on them and saying: “you cannot do this, you have no right to do this, you must do this” and etc.

Hypotheses:

The socio-economic development of the country influences changes in family and marriage relations and their forms.

IN modern society There is a transformation of family functions and the emergence of new ones.

A woman, having received equal rights with a man, changes her behavior towards the family and raising children.

The state, taking custody of the family, frees parents from performing certain functions, which has a number of positive and negative aspects.

II. Methodological part

2.1 Rationale for the sample population

The research sample is of an objective non-probability nature, as it was constructed for a specific purpose - to study the attitude towards marriage among the population of the republic over 18 years of age. Persons over 18 years of age can more adequately substantiate their position, since it is more likely that they are closer to the period of marriage choice, unlike minor citizens. Therefore, the general population is taken in the amount of 8,137,000 people. Due to the nature of the change in the sampling unit, the sample will be multi-stage. The division is based on the type of settlement (city, rural area) where the respondent lives. Based on this, a division is added by gender and age (from 18 to 29, from 30 to 49, from 50 and older). Men and women tend to have different points of view regarding a given topic. Differences are also observed between the older (married for a long time) and younger generations (recently married or not yet). According to the selection method, the sample is independent (variable).

Having carried out the necessary statistical calculations, the sample population was 1536 people. To conduct a survey of urban residents, you will need to take 1140 randomly selected people, from rural areas - 396 people; 768 women and the same number of men. The data is shown in the table below.

The sample population is based on statistical data obtained during the population census of Belarus from 10/08/2009. to 02.11.2009 Data received as of 00:00 hours on November 2, 2009.

Dear respondent, we invite you to answer the questions in the questionnaire. This questionnaire is a sociological study conducted to study attitude towards marriage. We are interested in your attitude to this problem. The questionnaire is conducted anonymously.

Instructions for filling out the questionnaire.

Read the different answers, then mark any symbol answer option that matches your opinion. In addition, you can offer answers not provided in the questionnaire.

Your age

Your marital status

Married)

Single, not married)

Divorced

Widower (widow)

Where do you live?

regional center

district center

urban village

Do you prefer “civil” (actual without registration with government agencies) marriage?

At what age do you think a man should get married?

After 30 years

At what age do you think a woman should get married?

After 30 years

I. At what age did you get married? __________

II. At what age do you plan to get married? ___________

How do you feel about getting married at an early age (before 18 years of age)?

Very good

More good than bad

Very bad

More bad than good

I find it difficult to answer

What do you consider most important when choosing a partner to start a family?

Religion

Personal qualities. If yes, which ones? __________

Financial situation

Nationality

Social status

Level of education

Other___________

What do you mean by the concept of “happy marriage”? (choose no more than 5 answer options)

Understanding

Harmonious sexual relationships

Having children

Independent financial situation

Living separately from parents

Spending time together

Respect

Other ____________

Do you consider the wedding ceremony important today?

I find it difficult to answer

Who do you think should be the head of the family?

Spouses must have equal rights

Do you think a man should earn more than a woman?

Not always

Do you have children? (if not no, go to question #17)

How many children do you have?

More than 3

Do you think having children can save a family from divorce?

I find it difficult to answer

Which member of your family devotes more time to raising children?

Grandparents

Older brothers, sisters

Other relatives______________

Please indicate on a 5-point scale at what level, in your opinion, is the “family-state” relationship realized? (a higher value corresponds to a higher scale level)

Thank you for your frank answers.

Bibliography

1. Code of the Republic of Belarus on Marriage and Family: symbol. and additional As of August 1st. 2009 - Minsk: NATs. Legal information center RB, 2009

2. Constitution of the Republic of Belarus of 1994 (with amendments and additions) dated November 24, 1996. Mn. 2003

3. Antonov A.I., Medkov V.M. Medkov. Sociology of the family. M. 1996

4. Antonov A.I. Family: functions, structures, theories of family changes // Fundamentals of Sociology. M., 1994

5. Wolfson S.Ya. Family and marriage in their historical development. M., 1937

6. Kovalevskaya I.A. Transformation of the concept of "civil marriage". Arkhangelsk, 2009

7. Matskovsky M.S. Sociology of the family: Problems of theory, methodology and technique. M., 1998.

8. Smelser N.J. Sociology. // Sociological research. No. 10, 1992, p. 79.

9. Bokun N.Ch. Sample survey methods. Mn., 1997

10. Muchnik I.B., Petrenko E.E. Territorial sampling in sociological research. M. 1980

Characteristics of a modern Belarusian family

According to the materials contained in the book by I.I. Kalacheva “Family in modern Belarusian society: realities and prospects for development”, 76.6% live in 30 cities of the Republic of Belarus (Minsk, regional cities, medium and small cities) - married, 9.6% - divorced, 5.8% unmarried/single, 4% living in an unregistered marriage, 4% - widowed (800 Belarusian families took part in the study).

In recent decades, the number of children born to women who are not in a registered marriage has been growing rapidly in the country (compared to 1970, this figure has already increased 3 times and continues to increase rapidly). In 1990, such children accounted for 9% of all births, in 2000 - 19%, in 2006 - almost 23%. Thus, at present, almost every fifth child is born outside of a registered marriage. The out-of-wedlock birth rate in rural areas is growing especially rapidly. Here every third child is born to a single mother. A large number of divorces and an increase in out-of-wedlock births lead to an increase in single-parent families (mainly maternal families), the share of which in Belarus is 15%.

These trends, together with a number of socio-economic reasons, have a negative impact on the reproductive attitudes of modern youth, leading to a reduction in the number of children in marriage and increasingly frequent decisions to postpone the birth of the first child to a later stage of marriage.

Currently, more than 90 percent of families with children are small: they contain one or two children. The social norm of small children continues to persist in society, despite the emerging increase in the number of children born second and third (in order of birth). The country has not yet ensured simple replacement of parental generations. The birth rate in rural areas is still higher than in urban areas. There has been a positive trend towards a decrease in the number of births among women under the age of 18. The share of children born out of wedlock in the total number of births has begun to decline since 2006.

It should be noted that for families with children, pensions, benefits, financial assistance from relatives, income from personal subsidiary plots and sales of agricultural products continue to be an important source of income. The more children there are in a family, the more benefits (all types of benefits received from the state budget, the Social Protection Fund of the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection of the Republic of Belarus and at the expense of organizations) influence the level of family income.

The level and quality of life in families with the birth of the first or second child is practically no different from the level and quality of life in a family on average in the republic. The financial situation of large families is much worse than that of families with one or two children. Thus, the birth of a third and subsequent children in a family is a risk factor for a family to fall into the low-income category.

The active state social policy pursued in recent years to support families with children, including large families, is beginning to affect their level and quality of life for the better.

In the USSR, they tried to solve the problem of preparing the younger generation for family life at the national level. During the Soviet period, special training courses were developed whose purpose was to prepare young people for marriage and family. As archival sources testify, in the Soviet school there were the following main areas of such training:

· introduction in class and extracurricular activities with the ethics of family relationships;

· sex education for young people with the involvement of employees in this work
healthcare systems and parents;

· formation in young people of personal qualities that contribute to the successful fulfillment of the role of a family man in the future: friendliness, respect for social norms and values, discipline through involvement in pioneering and Komsomol organizations; formation of a caring attitude towards women, the elderly, and children;

· practical training of senior schoolchildren in labor training classes and within the framework of educational and production plants for running a family farm, raising children and independent work.

In preparing students for family relationships, the role of the family was especially emphasized: the participation of parents of schoolchildren in various extracurricular activities was encouraged, there was control social institutions over the conditions of home life and recreation of students.

During the crises of the 90s. In the 20th century, adaptation of the younger generation to family life continued to be declared as an important task. However, the discipline “Ethics and Psychology of Family Life” was excluded from the school curriculum. Considering the collapse of the Pioneer and Komsomol organizations, parents’ preoccupation with material support, etc., the problem of readiness for family life has lost its relevance.

At the beginning of the 21st century, socio-economic, cultural and moral changes in society led to the fact that many years of experience in preparing young people for family life turned out to be unclaimed due to the lack of public institutions ready to support young people in the crucial period of marriage and family self-realization. The problems of sexuality education, safe and responsible behavior have become more pressing. This fact can be explained by the action the following factors: on the one hand, a decrease in the age at which sexual activity begins, on the other hand, a tendency to marry at a later age. Unfortunately, the exclusion of the problem of preparation for family life from the school sphere, it did not become the object of due attention during vocational training youth in higher and secondary specialized educational institutions.

Belarusian researchers L.I. Smagina, L.I. Olifirovich, A.S. Chernyavskaya and others note that beginning of XXI century was marked by the emergence of a crisis in the Belarusian family. This is evidenced by

lack of rich interpersonal communication, when family members discuss only everyday problems and, as a result, an increase in the number of children with speech impairments, limited vocabulary, with various neuropsychiatric disorders. Experts explain this phenomenon by the emotional and spiritual loneliness of children caused by a lack of parental love and attention. Without going through the school of cultivating feelings in the parental family, young people may later face serious problems when creating their own.

Family leisure through a system of values, traditions and customs, according to L.I. Smagina, L.I. Olifirovich, A.S. Chernyavskoy and others, determines the tastes, preferences and behavior of each person. For most modern families, an apartment or a house has become the only place to spend free time on weekdays and holidays, and such secluded lifestyle entails an increase in alcohol consumption.

Limiting your living space by the walls of your home also poses such a danger as exaggeration of family troubles. Boredom, monotony, and the joylessness of everyday life provoke quarrels over trifles. This is how a breach is made in the “wall” with which the family fences itself off from society, trying to fulfill the mission of protecting its members from the stresses that accompany the dynamization of current life.

These and other changes in family life are also provoked individualization of the lives of adults and children, democratization of interpersonal relationships, erosion of behavioral norms and role responsibilities.

The mentioned changes in the implementation of its functions by the modern family indicate that, having gone through a long path of development, the small cell of society has undergone transformation, or rather deformation, often called family crisis.

Family life cycle

The life cycle of a family is the history of the family’s life, its length in time, its own dynamics; family life, reflecting the repetition and regularity of family events. As you know, young people who have just gotten married and spouses who have lived together for decades treat each other differently, face various problems and difficulties, which cannot but affect the family atmosphere. Recognition of the existence of these differences has led to the need to define the main stages of the family life cycle. The importance of such periodization is largely determined by the fact that each stage of the life cycle is characterized by typical developmental problems, knowledge of which, on the one hand, will help spouses prepare for their emergence and resolution, and on the other hand, develop a system of recommendations from specialists in providing social and psychological assistance family.

The idea of ​​family cycles appeared in psychology in the 40s of the twentieth century, coming from sociology. The concept of “family development cycle” was first used in 1948 by E. Duvall and R. Heal at the national American conference on family life, where they made a report on the dynamics of family interaction. Initially, 24 stages of the family cycle were identified. In the 60s, when this idea began to be considered in psychotherapy, the family life cycle began to be reduced to 7-8 stages.

There are different classifications of stages in the family life cycle. In this case, they most often proceed from the specifics of the tasks that the family as a group must solve at each stage for its further successful functioning. In most cases, such periodization is based on a change in the place of children in the family structure. This approach is typical for both domestic and foreign scientists.

Naturally, not every family can be viewed through the prism of a diagram; There are numerous family groups that do not “fit” into any classification. For example, families with children of very different ages, who have been married many times and have children from previous marriages, single-parent families (with one parent) living with the parents of one of the spouses, etc. However, whatever the structure of the family, whatever specific tasks it solves, at a certain stage of the life cycle it encounters difficulties typical for this stage of development, knowledge of which will help to cope with them much more successfully.

Very often, problems arise in families because family members cannot smoothly move from one stage to another or one stage “overlaps” others (divorce, second marriage, children from a first marriage, etc.). It turns out that the family lives in two stages at the same time: for example, where there is Small child and teenager, problems appear that are characteristic of both phases of family development, which creates additional difficulties in the implementation of marital and parental functions. At the same time, the approach to family development based on changes in the function of giving birth and raising children can hardly be considered the only correct one. Family relationships are not only the relationship between parents and children. Formally, the family exists from its registration until the dissolution or termination of the marriage, and its psychological essence arises when the relationship in a married couple becomes personally significant, influencing feelings, thinking and behavior, and remains so as long as these relationships retain their significance. Therefore, the periodization of family development as small group It would be more reasonable to determine by the totality of various relationships associated with the family and their significance in a given period of its functioning. With this in mind, we can consider typical tasks and problems at different stages of the life cycle of a modern family.

1. Premarital courtship period. The main objectives of this stage are to achieve partial psychological and material independence from the genetic (parental) family, gain experience in communicating with the other sex, choose a marriage partner, and gain experience in emotional and business interaction with him.

For some, this period is excessively prolonged. Young people may avoid marriage for reasons that lie within their family of origin. But in the same way, they may strive for premature marriage, trying to free themselves from the relationship that constrains them with their parents. Many cannot marry a loved one due to financial and economic difficulties (lack of decently paid work, despite the presence vocational education, the problem of own housing, etc.).

2. Marriage and the phase without children. At this stage, the married couple must establish what has changed in their social status and determine the external and internal boundaries of the family: which of the husband’s or wife’s acquaintances will be allowed into the family and how often; to what extent is it permissible for spouses to stay outside the family without a partner; how permissible is interference in marriage on the part of the parents of the spouses (at this stage it is very important how new family will accept a daughter-in-law or son-in-law).

In general, during this period, a young married couple needs to conduct a huge number of negotiations and establish many agreements on a variety of issues (from values ​​to habits). Social, emotional, sexual and other problems may arise. Firstly, you should accept changes in the intensity of feelings, establish psychological and spatial distances with genetic families, and gain experience in interaction in resolving organizational issues everyday life families, accept and carry out the initial coordination of marital (family) social roles. Secondly, the issue of material support and financial support for the family has to be resolved: who will earn money, what level of society the family will belong to.

Thirdly, it is necessary to create intimacy in relationships, which may be accompanied by the emergence of sexual problems due to inexperience, differences in upbringing, level of desires, etc. At this stage, it is also necessary to take into account the career issues of each spouse, discuss the problem of the birth of the first child and the number of children in the family. It may turn out that one of the spouses is infertile, and then new questions will arise: whether or not to take an adopted child for upbringing, or whether it is worth getting a divorce and trying to create another family.

In modern reality, many newlyweds do not immediately decide to have their first child; Increasingly, there are cases when couples do not register, preferring the so-called civil marriage to the legal registration of relations. This also creates its own problems in relationships.

3. Young family with small children. This stage is characterized by the division of roles associated with fatherhood and motherhood, their coordination, material provision of new living conditions for the family, adaptation to heavy physical and mental stress, limitation of the general activity of spouses outside the family, insufficient opportunity to be alone, etc.

A couple may not be ready for children, and the birth of an unwanted child may complicate the challenges of raising the child. In addition, people who thought of their marriage as a trial run find that they now find it much more difficult to separate.

There are cases when the birth of a child is considered by the mother as a way to make up for the lack of self-love. During pregnancy, the mother may be happy with the fantasy of acquiring a being who will love her. The collapse of the dream occurs after childbirth due to the need to “give” a lot yourself. Postpartum depression is sometimes seen as a reaction to the irrevocable loss of one's own childhood.

A number of important issues at this stage are related to who will care for the child. New roles for mother and father emerge; their parents become grandparents (great-grandparents). A peculiar age shift occurs: aging parents have to see their children as adults. For many, this is a difficult transition. What has not been worked out between the two spouses must be worked out in the presence of a third person: for example, one of the parents (most often the mother) is forced to stay at home and care for the child, while the other (most often the father) tries to maintain ties with the outside world.

There is a narrowing of the wife’s communication zone. Material provision falls on the husband, so he “frees” himself from caring for the child. On this basis, conflicts may arise due to the wife’s overload with household chores and the husband’s desire to “relax” outside the family. A rather important problem of this period can be the problem of self-realization of the mother, whose activities are limited only to the family. She may have feelings of dissatisfaction and envy towards her husband's active life. The marriage may begin to disintegrate as the wife's demands for child care increase and the husband begins to feel that his wife and child are interfering with his work and career.

In relation to a young family, in some of them there is a need to separate from the older generation (exchanging an apartment, etc.), in others, on the contrary, all worries are transferred to the grandparents (the newlyweds do not become parents).

As the child grows older, the mother may return to work. In this regard, a new problem arises: what to do with the child - look for a nanny or send him to a preschool institution.

WITH special problems single mothers face each other - children begin to ask questions about their father. In addition, in all families there may be a problem of unity of requirements for the child and control of his behavior: the grandmother spoils, the mother indulges in everything, and the father sets too many rules and prohibitions; the child senses this and manipulates them. Along with this, the family faces the issue of preparing the child for school, so choosing an appropriate educational institution can lead to disagreements between adult family members.

4. Family with schoolchildren (middle-aged family). The time a child enters school is often accompanied by the onset of a crisis in the family. The conflict between parents becomes more obvious, since the product of their educational activities becomes an object of public viewing. For the first time they are experiencing the fact that the child will one day grow up and leave the house, and they will be left alone with each other.

There may be some related to the child’s school life - the issue of the intellectual usefulness of a son or daughter who is lagging behind in school is being resolved (transfer to special school or individual training at home); there may be problems with behavioral abnormalities.

At this stage, parents solve problems of the child’s comprehensive development (simultaneous sports, music, foreign language) or choosing an activity based on interests and inclinations. Along with this, the child (teenager) is taught to take on household responsibilities, distribute them, and combine them with studies. It is possible to transfer to another school (either due to relocation, or for in-depth study of any academic subject). Even when children reach adolescence, parents continue to care for them, not trusting them to make decisions and not paying attention to the fact that teenagers are looking for freedom and self-realization.

This is still the time of the parents’ own career, so little attention is paid to the spiritual and mental world of the child (at a later age, parents may accuse the child of interfering with their career). Elderly parents tend to shift their problems onto the child; their pessimism in life can be passed on to the teenager.

Sometimes the problem arises of loss of parental authority (they were protected from the “truth of life”, and when confronted with reality, the teenager realized that he was taught the wrong thing). Another important problem is the discrepancy between the hopes and forecasts of parents and the real, grown-up child: teenagers get out of control and show an active interest in activities outside of school and family. Against this background, spouses may have problems with their own parents, who, as they age, begin to increasingly feel unwell and require care. Thus, the middle generation is subject to great pressure from both above and below, which can significantly aggravate intrafamily relations, which take on the character of a protracted crisis.

5. A mature family that is abandoned by children. Usually this phase of family development corresponds to the midlife crisis of the spouses. Often during this period of life the husband realizes that he is higher in career ladder he could no longer rise, but in his youth he dreamed of something completely different. This frustration can spill over into the entire family and especially the wife.

One common conflict is that when a man reaches middle age and acquires high social status, he becomes more attractive to younger women, while his wife, for whom physical attractiveness is much more important, feels that she has become less interesting to her. men. Children are at home less and less often, and it turns out that they played a particularly important role in the family. Perhaps it was through children that parents communicated with each other, or that care for them and love for them united the spouses. Parents may suddenly find that they have nothing to talk about with each other. Or old disagreements and problems, the resolution of which was postponed due to the birth of children, suddenly escalate. In families where there is only one parent, he may feel the departure of a child as the beginning of a lonely old age. In two-parent families, the number of divorces increases during this period. If the conflict is very deep, murder and suicide attempts occur. Resolving a problem that arises in the mature stages of marriage is much more difficult than in the early years, when the young couple is not yet stable and is in the process of creating new patterns of interaction. More often than not, the stereotypes developed by the family by this time, both for solving problems and avoiding them, become inadequate. Sometimes this leads to an intensification of problem behavior - such as drinking or spousal abuse - until it gradually reaches intolerable levels.

Children should feel like adults (i.e. they become close to the 1st stage): they develop long-term relationships, marriage is possible, i.e. New members are included in the family group. At this stage, problems arise: does the children’s choice meet the parents’ expectations; where do young people spend their time? The question arises of exchanging an apartment in order to allocate their own housing to the newlyweds. A fairly common option is when a grandmother (grandfather) moves in with the parents of one of the newlyweds, and they move into her apartment (“waiting for the death of a grandmother or grandfather”).

Another problem is the forced residence of young people with their parents. Grandchildren appear, and the question arises that the grandmother should leave her job. However, this is difficult to do, since modern grandmothers are often far from retirement due to age.

6. Aging family. At this stage, older family members retire or work takes up only part of their time. A financial shift is taking place: old people receive less money than young people, so they often become financially dependent on children. It is possible to move to a new place of residence in another area or to a more modest apartment (sometimes it is possible to go to a village, to a dacha, etc.).

At this stage, marital relations are resumed, new content is given to family functions (for example, the educational function is expressed by participation in raising grandchildren). Retirement can make the problem of being alone with each other even more acute. In addition, a lack of self-actualization can lead to symptoms. At the same time, the symptoms of one spouse help the other adjust to life in retirement. For example, after leaving work, a husband may feel that if he previously lived an active life, helping others, now he is of no use to anyone and does not know how to fill his free time. When his wife falls ill, he again has a useful function: he must now help her get well. His wife's illness protects him from the depression he will fall into when she gets better. If his wife relapses, he comes to life again and can take active action.

7. The last phase of the family life cycle. One of the spouses may die, and then the survivor must adjust to living alone. Often he is forced to seek new connections with his family. In this case, the single spouse is forced to change his life style and unwittingly accept the lifestyle offered to him by his children. Sometimes he is forced to move from one child's family to another. Naturally, this does not have the best effect on his physical and mental state.

Being in the family of his own children, the widowed spouse painfully experiences his psychological isolation from others. Children who are busy with their own problems are of little interest or are not at all interested in his opinion on certain issues, or in his well-being, which everyone already knows about. Therefore, the grandmother (grandfather), who is not spoiled by her own adult children with attention, seeks and finds solace in her grandchildren, compensating with this affection for the lack of emotional warmth towards her in the family.

Sometimes, as a way out of this situation, in order to get rid of loneliness and be able to satisfy the need for communication with people of his generation, the widowed spouse, despite his advanced age, enters into a new marriage. In such a case, his emotional and physical distance with his own children increases, up to a complete break in the relationship.

Recently, a new approach to identifying the stages of the family life cycle has appeared in domestic family science. Its authors A.I. Antonov and V.M. Medkov believe that The family cycle is determined by the stages of parenthood and occurs in four main stages:

· Pre-parenthood stage- from marriage to the birth of the first child.

· Reproductive Parenthood Stage– the period between the birth of the first and last child. It may partially overlap (and in the case of the birth of an only child, completely disappear) with the next period.

· Stage of socialized parenting– the period from the birth of the first child to the separation of the last child from the family.

· Progenitor stage– the period from the birth of the first grandchild to the death of one of the grandparents.

At the pre-parenting stage spouses are preparing to become parents and form a family in the strict sense of the word, for only the birth of children turns a married couple into a family, husband and wife into father and mother.

At the stage of reproductive parenthood the first child appears and the birth of a second and subsequent children is possible - depending on the family’s need for children. This stage can be shorter or longer depending on the number of births. And only in one case does it have no duration, when there is only one child in the family.

The second stage begins third– the stage of socialized parenthood, during which children are raised. For many parents, this stage never ends, but it should be limited either to reaching adulthood or to the moment of separation of the last of the adult children. The delay in this separation for many reasons (for example, due to lack of housing) prolongs the stage of socialization of adult children for an indefinite period. The phenomenon of “prolonged socialization,” in which an adult remains single while continuing to live with his parents, will be one of the characteristics of this third stage. It is necessary to distinguish between “prolonged socialization” and “continued”, when marriage is postponed due to study or other circumstances.

The appearance of the first grandchild turns the founding parents into grandparents, although this does not mean the end of the stage of “socialized parenthood,” since there may still be minor children in the family. Last primogeniture stage lasts until the death of the spouses.

Thus, we can distinguish at least five family events (marriage, the birth of the first child, the birth of the last child, the separation of adult children from their parents or, more precisely, the birth of the first grandchild, the death of one or the other spouse), forming four stages of the family cycle . This type of family cycle can be considered ideal, full family cycle.

Family structure and typology

A family is a natural group in which stereotypes of interactions arise over time. These stereotypes create a family structure that determines the functioning of its members, delineates the range of their behavior and facilitates interpersonal contacts between them. This or that viable family structure is quite significant both for the full implementation of its main functions and for solving personally significant tasks - maintaining individuality, while at the same time creating a sense of belonging to the whole.

Family structure includes the numerical and personal composition of its members, as well as a set of family roles and various relationships between them (marital relationships, child-parent relationships, spouses and their parents, relationships between children, relationships between grandparents and their grandchildren).

The issue of determining family structure is quite complex in the theory and practice of organizing psychological assistance to families. As the famous American family psychotherapist S. Minukhin rightly notes in this regard, “a family is something more than the individual biopsychodynamics of its members. The interaction of family members is subject to certain patterns that govern their transactions. These patterns are usually not formulated explicitly or even consciously, but they form a whole - the structure of the family. The reality of the structure is a reality of a different order from the reality of the individual members.” Therefore, when analyzing the structure of a particular family, it is necessary to study its numerical and personal composition, to dwell separately on the characteristics of the different levels of the family system, which includes the entire family as a whole, the subsystem of parents, the subsystem of children, as well as individual subsystems. In addition, the family structure should be described taking into account its main parameters (cohesion, hierarchy, flexibility, external and internal boundaries, role structure). It is important to know who each family member considers to be a member, because it is not uncommon for family members to disagree about who is part of the family. This concerns primarily the boundaries of the family and who is physically or psychologically present in a given family system. Solving this problem is especially important for divorced families and remarried families. The family structure includes sets of conscious and unconscious rules that determine family interaction. In order for this mechanism to operate (rules were followed, behavior was predicted), a maintenance system is necessary, which consists of two parts. The first is a hierarchical system based on the authority of parents, which is always and everywhere higher than the authority of children.

The second is family complementary (complementing each other) roles: for example, if one of the parents is more reasonable, and the other is more emotional. Hierarchy and roles are not always clearly understood, but they must certainly be interconnected and complementary. If this is not the case, the family ceases to function and actually falls apart.

Concerning subsystems (subsystems) of the family, then their dynamics are closely related to its life cycles. First - pair subsystem, or spouses, formed with marriage. At the same time, the process of her accommodation (adaptation) begins, when the roles that the spouses will perform when interacting with each other are accepted or rejected.

The preliminary attitude towards coordination, adaptation and the ability to implement this are associated with the experience acquired in the parental family.

Subsystem parents appear with the transformation of the married couple after the birth of the child. In turn, the parental subsystem changes and adapts to age characteristics children. Besides, parent subsystem is obliged to take into account the needs of all children growing up in the family, which, naturally, is associated with a number of difficulties due not only to age, but also to individual psychological characteristics, as well as gender differences.

Children's subsystem provides the child with the opportunity to be just a child, allows him to study the relationships of peers, and cultivate the ability to harmonize and adapt. S. Minukhin calls this subsystem a social laboratory where one can communicate experimentally without the responsibility and competence that hinder the communication of adults. Children's communication becomes peculiar experimental site, allowing the child to develop the necessary communication skills for subsequent independent establishment of contacts with peers and adults.

Selection subsystems allows us to more clearly identify their internal and external connections, and these connections characterize the structure of the family from the perspective of its borders. Boundaries regulate relationships between subsystems, and at the same time within them.

Term border used to describe the relationship between the family and the social environment, as well as between various subsystems within the family.

External borders - these are the boundaries between the family and the social environment. They manifest themselves through the fact that family members behave differently with each other and with the external environment. For example, the head of an organization can rudely reprimand his subordinate and a minute later call home and talk affectionately to his wife and little daughter.

Internal boundaries are created through differences in the behavior of members of various subsystems. For example, spouses behave differently among themselves than with a child.

Within the family itself there are three types of boundaries: clear, rigid and diffuse.

Clear boundaries between family subsystems allow family members to support and care for each other. At the same time, a certain amount of their autonomy is allowed, therefore a balance of freedom and control is ensured. Clear boundaries also improve communication between subsystems and facilitate coordination and adaptation, since many things are known in advance thanks to such boundaries. In addition, clear boundaries allow parents and children to feel interdependent, but at the same time do not interfere with the manifestation of their individual identity.

Rigid boundaries isolate family members from each other and even from society. In a family with rigid boundaries, members are autonomous, but the family has difficulty functioning. Children acquire the skills to fight for themselves, but do not develop coordination skills. Communication between subsystems in a family with rigid boundaries is scarce; only intense crises, shared difficulties or extreme stress unite the family in order to help any of its members. Words that characterize relationships in families with rigid boundaries usually come down to expressions such as “don’t interfere, I have my own worries,” “mind your own business,” “it’s time to take care of...”, etc. This is why families with rigid boundaries seek help outside their family group.

Diffuse boundaries are uniquely opposed rigid features. In a family with diffuse boundaries, each member constantly cares for each other and gradually tries to offer and provide help. In such families, the functions of the subsystems are unclear. Therefore, they lose autonomy, and at the same time the opportunity to experiment. This may suit some parents, but the development of children in such cases is slowed down. In a family with diffuse boundaries, the subsystem of the married couple disappears, as it were, dissolves into the parent