🇷🇺 Milyonki: a Russian village where children reportedly outnumber adults In Russia’s Kaluga region, the village of Milyonki offers an unusual demographic picture: reports describe a community where children make up around half the population, sometimes outnumbering adults, and one in three families has at least three children. Founded in 2006 and associated with the Anastasia movement, the settlement was established around family life, rural self-sufficiency and the creation of family homesteads. In 2012, Milyonki had 116 permanent residents: 71 adults and 45 children. Children therefore represented almost 39% of its permanent winter population. By 2018, an OTR television report put the population at 230, stating that children outnumbered adults. Other accounts gave different figures: one television report mentioned 130 permanently resident children, while a July 2018 article reported 300 inhabitants, including 150 children. Although these figures differ, they consistently describe a settlement with a notably high proportion of children. The community’s own profile also stated that more than 40 children had been born there since its foundation. Apparently, the village midwife has plenty of work. Its residents are not exclusively from Russia. A 2016 report described families arriving from Greece, Ukraine and Germany. Residents also say that various Christian and Pagan faiths are represented, rather than the community following a single religion. Milyonki is not an isolated example. Nearby Kovcheg, whose name means “The Ark”, was founded in 2001 with a similar vision of building a village around raising children, family homesteads and self-sufficiency. It reportedly has 200–300 residents, with more than one-third under 18. Both settlements illustrate the Anastasia movement’s emphasis on multigenerational family life in the Russian countryside. #info #meta #nationalism
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