Development of voluntary marriage principle in Russian family law

We consider the issues of origin and development of voluntary marriage principle, which is the basis of legal regulation of family relations in modern Russia. The purpose of the study is to examine the features of development of voluntary marriage principle of in Russian law. We use general scientific methods (dialectical, logical, systematic), private scientific methods (historical, statistical, sociological), as well as special legal (comparative legal, formal legal). We note that the voluntary nature of the marriage union is revealed through the freedom of marriage and freedom of its dissolution. The following stages are distinguished in the development of voluntariness principle: the pre-Christian period, the period after adoption of Christianity before the reign of Peter I, the period of empire, the Soviet and post-Soviet periods. We conclude that the development of voluntary condition was consistent and corresponded to the democratization of society. We note that the definition of the boundaries of the freedom of divorce in domestic law was of a fluctuating nature: from the tightening of divorce to its liberalization. We draw attention to the fact that the issue of divorce freedom legal regulation is to find the most optimal balance of the personal interests of spouses who are dissolving their marriage, their children, as well as society and the state.