http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2006/03/22/013.htmlJust over half of all Russian wives have been battered by their often-drunk husbands, while one-third of husbands have been hit -- but usually during arguments, according to a survey.
Women say they complain mainly about chores, while husbands say their biggest gripe is over sex.
A total of 52 percent of women said they had been beaten at least once by their husbands, and 41 percent said they had been beaten more than once, said Irina Shurygina, a leading sociologist and co-head of the survey.
"The problem of domestic violence is a universal problem, but in Russia it is becoming a serious one, since the numbers are high. Only less than half of the women said they had never been beaten," said Shurygina, who works at the Sociological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
Forty-five percent said their husbands had never hit them.
In 70 percent of cases, the men became aggressive after drinking.
"Women usually tell off their husbands when they come home drunk, and as a response they beat them," Shurygina said.
Shurygina said the beatings were serious, and that women often had to be treated by doctors or be hospitalized.
Husbands, in contrast, said they usually suffered only minor injuries, such as bruises or scratches, after being hit by their wives.
Thirty percent of women confirmed they had beaten their husbands, said Irina Gorshkova, the other sociologist who headed survey. "But 93 percent of these women said that they used violence during a domestic fight," said Gorshkova, who works for the Gorbachev Foundation.
Seven percent of the women said they beat their husbands regularly for no specific reason.
Women said their most frequent complaint was that their husbands were not helping with chores. Other complaints about husbands included not showing affection, drinking too much, ignoring their children and not earning enough money.
Men said they complained about a lack of sex and about the quality of sex.
The survey was carried out in 2003 and is the most recent of its kind. It was little reported when released and is now receiving national attention after Komsomolskaya Pravda devoted a page to it Monday. The survey's authors said the situation surrounding domestic violence had not changed.
The survey of 1,058 men and 1,076 women was carried out in Moscow and the surrounding region, the Buryatsk autonomous district, Bashkortostan, Karelia, Irkutsk, Omsk and Stavropol. It had a margin of error of 3 percentage points.
