Russian Brides

Russian Mail Order Brides – A Short History Lesson

Hot Russian brides started the modern international dating movement in the early 1990s after the fall of the Soviet Union.  And today hot Russian brides are still the most popular starting point for men interested in pursuing a mail order bride.  

Yes, there were some smaller international dating sites operating in Asia, but it was the fall of the Soviet Union that really triggered the development of the modern mail order bride industry.  

Suddenly, the entire society was thrown into flux.  The economy collapsed, crime soared, and thousands of Russian women decided that they would try to find a foreign husband or boyfriend.  Initially, it seemed like a wild gamble, but for these women the rising rates of alcoholism and death rates among Russian men made the gamble seem worth the risk.

Despite what feminists “scholars” later maintained.  The Russian mail order bride movement was started by women in Moscow, Saint Petersburg, and a thousand of other cities and towns, who wanted a better life for themselves and their children.

It was actually a slow process at first.  The first Russian mail order bride agencies actually produced monthly catalogs, sold mailing addresses, and all correspondence took place through the inefficient Russian postal service.  It was a slow painful process as the letter might take two weeks to get there and then you would have to wait two more weeks for a reply, if the mail man delivered it at all.

Corrupt mail men were not the biggest problem though. The biggest problem was that most Western men couldn’t imagine that a Russian girlfriend would be much of a catch.  Before the fall of the Soviet Union Russian women did not have the sexy glamorous image they have today.  

In fact, the stereotypical image of Russian women in the West was either of a thick peasant grandma or of a buttoned down female scientist in out of date clothes and comfortable shoes.  Most men in the United States and the European Union couldn’t even imagine the possibility of a beautiful Russian girlfriend or wife. 

Moscow was considered a drab dull city with little night life other than the Bolshoi and mind numbing binge drinking.  Saint Petersburg was considered more of a crumbling open air museum than a vibrant city. The rest of the old USSR was thought of as a vast frozen region of thick forests and closed cities where it was almost impossible for Westerners to travel.   

No, the hot Russian bride revolution still needed one more element to explode the old Cold War myths of drab Soviet women.  That element was of course the internet.  The internet allowed American and European men to actually see photos of the amazing Russian beauties.

Russian Bride Revolution

The old saying that a picture is worth a thousand words turned out to be more than just true.  Everything began to change in a hurry.  From about 1997 to maybe 2001 there was almost a gold rush feeling about Russian mail order brides.

The boom had good and bad points. Tens of thousands of men and women were able to find love and happiness.   Many of the marriages that were created still happily exist today.

However, there was also a darker side.  The boom and the lure of easy money brought criminals, both from Russia and the West out of the woodwork, and, even worse, the profusion of happy marriages brought howls of agony and anger from feminist in the West.    

Today the criminal issues have been largely addressed.  Yes, you can still get scammed, but if you use a little common sense it is not nearly the issue that it used to be.  In fact, considering the numbers involved the odds are pretty low. 

However, the damage done by Western feminists, many of whom never met a Russian mail order bride, is probably a bigger challenge for most men interested in pursuing Russian women for marriage. 

This history is important.  In no other country, except perhaps the Philippines, is the mail order bride industry as deeply ingrained as it is in Russia.  That creates some interesting dynamics.  In some respects it is probably easier to pursue Russian beauties than women from anywhere else in the world, but Russia also poses some unique challenges for Western men.

Russian Bride Tours

One of the main reasons that so many men choose Russia when they decide to pursue international dating is that there are Russian bride tours for every price range or special interest.  The tours tend to generate rave reviews from men.

Of course, some readers may not know a lot about romance tours, but the idea is simple.  You take a trip, just like any other guided vacation, to a location where you meet foreign women. 

The tours are usually group trips organized by the international dating agencies, but they can be organized one on one.  Also, there are some independent travel agencies that organize romance tours.

Some tours are no more than junkets that are for as short as three days and others are practically expeditions that last as long as six weeks.  Generally, Russian, Ukraine, and Latin America are the three most popular destinations, but the Philippines and Thailand are growing in popularity too.

The great thing about the Russian tours is that the best mail order bride agencies have been organizing tours for fifteen years or so and they are well established.  Usually, the companies arrange large mixers every night and it gives men a chance to meet dozens or even hundreds of beautiful Russian women for marriage condensing what may take months or years via the internet into a very small span of time.   

Russian women know they will be treated well at the events and that everything is on the up and up and of course the main attraction is the stunning, sexy, amazing Russian women.

A History of Diverse Russian Brides

One of the most surprising aspects of actually visiting Russia is the sheer diversity among Russian brides. Yes, there are tall Russian blondes who could be Swedish, but there are also slim brunettes with pale skin and blue eyes, Celtic Russian red heads that you would bet were Irish, and dark eyed beauties who might be Turkish or Persian or Arab or Chinese. 

To a large extent the ethnic diversity is simply a record of the incredible success of Russian imperial expansion that started under of Peter the Great with the great Russian victory over Charles XII of Sweden and continued steadily and relentlessly, almost without pause, under czars and commissars, until Stalin brought Russian power to its furthest reaches after the Battle of Berlin in 1945.

This steady advance brought dozens of different ethnic groups under Russian rule.  The variety is one of the most interesting aspects of Russian dating there are just so many different types of women and they are all beautiful in their own way.

This intriguing mix of ethnicities is one of the primary factors that makes Russia such an attractive location for men interested in pursuing an international bride.

There is a stunning array of ethnicities and many of the Russian women are simply model gorgeous.   

The Russian women for marriage that we highlight in our galleries are beautiful, intelligent, ambitious, and many of them seem like genuinely sweet girls that you could take home to momma or out to Vegas.

A sexy Russian girlfriend could change your life in a good way and it would definitely be an adventure. However, many guys just can’t believe that there are so many stunning women in Russia.  They want to know...

Why do so many of the women in our Russian Bride Gallery look like young Russian Models?

Russian Models

Yes, many of the hot Russian brides could be models. It's a cold, cold country and it just doesn't seem logical that Russian women would be so smoking hot. However, Russia is the largest country in the world.

In fact, it is such a big country that it used to have eleven times zones from Vladivostok to Kaliningrad.  This caused so much trouble that the government recently cut back to just nine time zones.  Maybe sheer size explains the stunning number of Russian beauties, but I don’t think so.

Russian women have had a reputation for beauty for centuries. Usually, guys imagine hot Russian brides as tall, slim, and blonde. They think about Russian models like, Anne Vyalitsyna or Natsha Poly, or maybe one of the beautiful Russian tennis players like Maria Sharapova or Elena Dementieva. There is certainly some truth to the myth of the tall blond Russian girls, but Russian beauty is more than just genetics, it's cultural.

Russian Fitness Girls

One place that Russian girls work very hard is in the gym.  The average Russian girl’s fitness obsession is something that you will probably appreciate even if the most you ever curl is a sixteen ounce Bud. 

The average Russian girl is generally thinner than the average American girl. In America, depending on the region, 40% to 60% of the girls are overweight. In contrast, 95% of Russian women are slim or average (weight-height proportionate).

Part of the reason for the slim Russian girl is because of dietary differences. Russia isn't nearly as drenched in fast food and junk food as America is, but the cultural values are more important. Much like French women, a Russian girl considers it very important to maintain her weight and stay physically fit.

The Soviet Union made physical fitness and sports almost the state religion.  Becoming an Olympic hero was virtually the only way to become wealthy in the Soviet Union overnight and many pretty young Russian girls dedicated themselves to becoming world class gymnasts, swimmers, or track athletes.  

The fall of the Soviet Union did not change any of the nation’s fascination with sports and fitness.  Yes, a lot of Russian men balanced their workouts by pouring back vodka seemingly determined to obliterate any health gains at the gym with alcohol at breakfast, lunch, and dinner. 

However, for Russian women the obsession with sports and fitness seems to have actually grown since the fall of the USSR, because during the Soviet-era the focus was more on competitive sports, which was mostly focused on developing children and teenagers into Olympic champions.

Today every Russian town of any size has a gym and unlike a lot of places in the world many, perhaps even most of the serious gym members are women.  Russian women are obsessed with getting in shape and on any decent Russian dating site it is not hard to find sexy Russian fitness girls. 

Yes, praise the Lord!  All of the Russian mail order brides seem to want to be fitness girls. There are plenty of fit Russian women seeking men who mention aerobics or the gym in their profiles and some Russian girls who are trainers, coaches, and even professional athletes. 

It is ironic, but the only country, other than the culturally similar Ukraine, that can even hold a candle to bitterly cold Russia in terms of the sheer number of fit mail order brides is sun drenched Brazil. 

So, there are lots of Russian beauties with the bodies of fashion models, but another reason that so many Russian girls look like models is that the dress like models.

Russian Girls and Fashion

Beautiful Russian girls love fashion!  Fashion is probably not something you worry about too much, but for many Russian beauties it borders on an obsession.

Perhaps, this is because fashion was so dull during the Soviet era. Consequently, a Russian girl is more likely than an American girl to be fashion-conscious and stylish. A Russian girl, for example, is more likely to wear a skirt and high heels than jeans and a sweatshirt.  Furthermore, Russian women, especially city girls, love to shop. In fact, Moscow and St. Petersburg have luxury shopping districts that rival or even exceed anything in Pairs, New York, or Beverly Hills.  

Russian culture places a high value on beauty.  It always has, but during the communist period beauty and fashion were specifically suppressed as signs of bourgeois decadence. Three generations of stunning Russian beauties where forced to drab clothes and comfortable shoes.  However, when the Soviet Union fell Russia’s love of beauty reemerged with a vengeance, perhaps even because the appreciation of female beauty had been suppressed for so long.

Also, the years immediately after the fall of the USSR were particularly tough on Russian women.  The Soviet Union had opened more fields to women than any other nation on Earth. Officially women were absolutely equal to men under the law, but during the early chaotic years of new Russia many of the gains that women had made in the workplace and under the law were rolled back. So, it is not surprising that so many women were entranced by the glamour and promise of beauty pageants and model searches. 

A beauty pageant craze swept the country and hundreds of young Russian models were suddenly discovered.  This reinforced the message that all girls in every culture get: It is good to be pretty.  Smart, ambitious Russian girls work harder to be beautiful than almost any other group of women and this is something you should always keep in mind if you are visiting Russian women for marriage. 

Whether they are Moscow girls, Siberian brides, or Vladivostok women they have all worked hard to look good and they like to be noticed.    

Date a Russian Model!

Many of the women whose profiles we highlight look like young Russian models. For the most part they are not, but worse things could happen to you than having a hot Russian girlfriend who people thought was a model. We admit these are not necessarily average Russian brides, but they are a good cross section of young, educated Russian women.

Successful Russian Dating

So, Russian women are hot.  You already knew that before you read this article, but what you need to learn is the secret of successful Russian dating. In part because the women are so amazingly hot and in part because the mail order bride is so deeply entrenched the rules of the game are a little different.

One problem in recent years is that too many Western men have shown up for tours or simply vacations and acted like getting laid was a foregone conclusion.  No girl ever, ever wants to be treated like a prostitute, so be careful about crazy scoring advice on message boards and in guide books.  Maybe, you will get lucky and maybe you won’t, but don’t be a jerk.  

No, hot Russian bride wants to be treated like a commodity.  If you flash money and gifts too easily it can make you come off like you are just trying to buy them and that is just not the way to win any girl’s heart.  If you had some success in life let your Russian date know a little about your accomplishments, but don’t brag too much about how rich you are, especially right away. 

Use a little judgment.  Yes, when you are dating in Russia you will need to explain a little more about who you are, what you do, and where you are from, but try not to come off as arrogant, condescending, or superior.

Russia is not the poor, shattered country it was in 1994. Yes, Russian ladies are interested in meeting Western men.  Yes, they hope that dating a Western man will improve their lot in life, but a lot of this is because of the sad state of male-female relations in modern Russia, not strictly because of economics.  If you want to know more about this check out The Truth About Mail Order Brides.

Drinking in Russia

One of the main reasons that so many Russian women are interested in Western men is because of the extraordinary levels of alcoholism among Russian men.  Often Russian women have never met a man who was a teetotaler and they are often fascinated in you if you don’t drink. 

Further, if you meet a Russian bride who doesn’t drink she might be a real catch too.  Many Russian brides claim they are looking for a husband or boyfriend who does not drink, but even the most petite girls from Moscow tend to consume alcohol on a scale that you never see an American or Western European girl drink, even English birds.

And, unless you want to end up sick and embarrassed you never want to get into a drinking contest with a Russian girl.  Most American men will simply lose, because they aren’t generally used to drinking enough to out drink the average but even if you win you’ve lost, because you’ve proven to her and all her hot friends that you are no better than any of the hundreds of Russian men she already knows.

Russian Dating Tips

There are a few of more pointers for succeeding on a date with a beautiful Russian babe.

First, if you know you are going to Russia, and you probably will have a month or two of lead time, workout.  Russian girls are fitness obsessed, so you should try to get into the best shape of your life or at least the best shape you’ve been in since you were twenty-five. 

Most Russian men, although they tend to drink too much, are in pretty good shape.  No, they don’t push it to the extent of Russian women, but, sadly, they are probably in better shape than most American men and many men from other Western countries.  

Fortunately, most Russian hardbodies know that Americans tend to be fat, but it doesn’t hurt to get in the best shape you can get into and this goes double if you are thinking about pursuing a girl more than five years younger than you. 

Russian Women Love Compliments

Next, regardless of how cheesy it seems give the girl some compliments.  If you are sitting across from the most beautiful girl you’ve ever seen, just tell her.  Yes, this might not go so well back in Los Angeles or Chicago, but it plays better in Siberia.

Part of the reason is that meeting a girl on a romance tour or a short visit, even one you have previously corresponded with, is sort of a super speed dating experience.  If you are expecting a stunning young Russian babe to give up her life and move to Lubbock or Las Vegas you have to convince her you are stone cold serious.  This is a life changing event and she does not want to make the wrong choice.  

Don’t try to play it too cool, because with the language barrier and potential for cultural misunderstanding playing it cool may very well come off as disinterested.  The tricky part is you want to compliment her, but without seeming like you are simply trying to get into her pants.  As this article mentioned earlier your average Russian girl bristles at the idea that she is simply selling herself to a Western man, because she decided to register with a mail order bride agency.

It is all about making the right choices.  Try to give her compliments about things that you know she has thought about like her clothes, jewelry, or shoes.  This will show her that you pay attention to the details and women realize how important that is.  Compliment her about being in shape, because she almost certainly goes to the gym and then ask her about her workout.  This isn’t rocket science.  Let her know that you think she is marvelous – not cheap.

Russian Marriage

One real positive about marrying a Russian wife is that meeting the parents is usually a breeze.  A Russian girl’s parents will usually be overjoyed that she is not marrying one of the drunken sots from the neighborhood.  In part, the positive reaction of Russian parents is because often the only parent a girl will have is her mom.

Russian men have one of the lowest life expectancies in the world, largely because of alcoholism. Most older Russian women do not want their daughters to follow a similar path with a seemingly sweet Russian guy down the long road of alcoholism, domestic violence, and a relatively young widowhood.  Really, the story of Russian men in the last thirty years is simply a vodka fueled tragedy – a tragedy most parents are relieved that their daughters are not going to participate in.

A decent Canadian, American, or European guy often seems like a Godsend to Russian parents.  They believe you will treat their daughter better than the local men and you will be able to send a little check back every so often.