MICHAEL SCHWIRTZ

MOSCOW - Two decades after government-imposed prudishness ended with the Soviet collapse, Russians still shy away from European-style sexual mores.

Sure, sexual innuendo is commonplace: on television and in glossy magazines and in the provocative attire of women on the streets. But, when it comes to the bedroom, tastes here tend toward the safe and predictable.

“There is just no sexual culture, none,” said Nadezhda Dovgal, an organizer of a recent sex shop convention, called the X’Show. “People are still ashamed.”

This is partly the legacy of the Soviet era, she said. The Soviet government tried to drive all talk of sex under the bedsheets . A lack of private space, especially in the communal apartments of major cities, limited access to sexual encounters even more.

“We have always had sex, but information on this topic was practically nonexistent,” said Yelena Khanga, who hosted Russia’s first talk show about sex in the 1990s, coyly named “About That.” “In general,” she said, “it was not acceptable to speak about sex.”

The annual X’Show, which is in its ninth year, might be considered a bit risque, even if subdued by the standards of such events in the West. Beyond caged strippers were models decked out in the latest latex fashions demonstrating proper whipping techniques.

Ms. Dovgal framed the convention as a social welfare project for a country where sex education is practically nonexistent.

“We know that we are needed to help people preserve their families,” she said.

While Ms. Dovgal’s recipe for marital bliss might not be for everyone, it is clear that Russian families are in crisis. There were three divorces for every five marriages in 2008, according to the Russian statistics agency.

Russia is also suffering from a demographic crisis. The population declined by 6.6 million people between 1993 and 2008, according to a 2008 United Nations report. Emigration and a high mortality rate among middle-aged men are part of the cause. But so is a low birthrate.

To get couples copulating, the government of the Ulyanovsk region has, for several years, given couples a day off to help reverse the population decline.

Yet demographics did not seem to be the main concern for many visitors at the X’Show.

“I’m into fetish mostly ,” said Olga Podolskaya, 41, a psychologist. Dmitri Karablin, a 20-yearold student, who along with his girlfriend was in search of vibrators and a sexy maid outfit, said Russians in general were less ashamed than they used to be.

"I have a young mother and can talk to her about these things.”