In modern society, in addition to marriage registered by the state, there is the concept of civil marriage. This concept does not have a legal status and documentary confirmation, however, the courts and other authorities are forced to actually recognize the existence of the institution of civil marriage.
Most people are convinced that a civil marriage is essentially the same as a legal one, except for the fact that the registration procedure has not been carried out. In fact, this opinion is erroneous. At one time, civil marriage appeared as a replacement for church marriage. Civil marriage is a family relationship, officially registered in the registry office, and what most people mean by it is called in legal circles an actual family or cohabitation.
Church wedding
Until 1917, there was no state registration of relations in Russia, and marriage was formalized only canonically, in the church. In those days, the state and the church were inextricably linked, but after the division, changes were required, and the state retained the right to regulate relations with the help of legislation entirely to itself. The only form in the USSR was civil marriage, in the Soviet way, and the church marriage in those days was successfully abolished.
In the same year, a number of decrees were adopted not only on the conclusion of marriage, but also on its dissolution. Since 1917, a civil marriage came into legal force and became the only one significant at the state level and legally legal. For the registration of marriages, registry offices were created, where the code specified the rights and obligations of spouses, which came into force upon marriage.
Actual marriage
That form of relationship that is not legally registered is correctly called de facto matrimony or de facto marital relationship, cohabitation. It is this concept that is often confused with a civil marriage, although they are fundamentally different from each other.
Confusion arises in connection with the reluctance of people to call their relationship cohabitation, because many, according to old habits, are accustomed to leading a joint life, raising children and leading the same life as persons who registered their relationship, but only without state registration. But it must be remembered that relations that are not officially registered are regulated only by civil law, and not by the state.
Civil marriage is exactly what is done in the relevant government agencies. A marriage formalized in a church or leading a life together without registration, in conversations they are used to calling it civil, but it is correct to call this type of relationship a de facto marriage, it does not imply any rights and obligations by itself.
