Divorce Cheap And Quick In Russia

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31305, 27 February 1967, Page 2

Divorce Cheap And Quick In Russia

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter) MOSCOW. With a new law which ends marriages by a cheap and relatively quick process, the Soviet Union has probably one of the world’s highest divorce rates.

Until a year ago, the process was much longer and more expensive, and there was a heavy backlog of cases on the files.

Frequently, estranged couples, because of the housing shortage, lived in the same small flat while their divorce went through.

In those days, divorce proceedings were started in the local courts, which had powers only to try to reconcile the couples. If these attempts failed, the cases were passed on to a city court. At the same time, the petitioner had to announce the divorce application in a local newspaper, at a cost of £l6. In the last year of the old law 360,000 persons, or one in every 625 of the population, obtained a divorce. No figures are yet available for 1966, the first year of the new law. But the rate is likely to be somewhat higher. Under the new system, the local courts still try to reconcile couples—a basic principle of Soviet divorce law—but will grant divorces if they fail, without passing the cases on to higher courts. With the ending of the compulsory newspaper notice, the only real expense has been removed, and court fees are very small. Lawyers are almost never employed in divorce proceedings.