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In both Mediterranean European countries and post-communist countries, the wide diffusion of so-called modern contraception does not necessarily mean that planned births have become the ideal. In post-Soviet Russia, young people mainly use condoms, and to a lesser extent the pill and coitus interruptus, to postpone entry into parenthood; seldom do they resort to abortion. Transitions to adulthood are lasting longer, especially among the highly educated, in a context of welfare state decline. This article compares the contraceptive and procreation trajectories of young people of the post-Soviet generation with those of the preceding generation, focusing on women. Drawing primarily on interviews with urban middle-class men and women born between 1957 and 1994, it shows that pregnancies that are unplanned but are in fact predictable and socially expected enable young people to resolve contradictory injunctions related to changing gender and age norms and a familialist model of transition to adulthood.