Specialists in the field of family research emphasize that the history of the family in Russia, as in all other countries of the world, is closely linked to the social, economic, and political processes of the modernization of society. The general vector of the development of the institution of the family, under the influence of processes of modernization, is linked to the establishment of particular social relations and forms of the organization of life, to a stronger orientation toward the individuation of family members and to the emergence of more democratic relations between married partners, parents and children, and other family members. The various stages of the development of a society are characterized by different features in the development of the institution of the family, and these are by no means always positive. The process of the development and change of the family as a social institution whose purpose it is to pass social values down from one generation to the next is closely linked to issues of the stability of society. This article explores the development of the family and family relations under the conditions of the realities of today's Russia, at a time when society, having gone through a stage of radical breakup and reform of all aspects of social life, is entering a stage of stabilization, this time on a new round of development. (Contains 6 tables, 1 figure and 2 notes.)