Marital and fertility careers of Russian women born between 1910 and 1934

Women born in Russia in the early decades of this century grew up in a peri od characterized by profound societal changes. Their lives were affected by often devastating events, in particular World War ii, that ravaged society when they were entering their childbearing years. This note presents a det ailed demographic analysis of the marital and fertility careers of women ho rn between 1910 and 1934 based on individual retrospective life histories, collected in the most recent (5 percent) 1994 microcensus of the Russian Fe deration. It assesses the influence of external events on age at first marr iage, widowhood, divorce, childlessness, parity, and age at birth. A compar ison with younger cohorts shows that the societal disturbances had strong t emporary effects. However, the final outcomes were nor influenced very much : completed fertility continued its slow, secular decline.