Many tittering newscasters reported on a recent Russian initiative to shore up a declining population by encouraging workers to take a day off to "make babies:"
Today has been declared the Day of Conception in Ulyanovsk, Lenin's birthplace, when couples are told go to home and multiply. If they succeed they could win a car, cash or a fridge. Under the city council's "Give Birth to a Patriot" scheme, those who give birth on June 12, Lenin's birthday, will get a prize.
I guess the Putin Youth needs new members. The story reminded me of Vichy France's natalist policy, as related in Paul V. Dutton's book on the US and French health care systems. Apparently the political class there was deeply upset by "decadent" urban regions' failure to keep up with the birth rate in rural areas.
