Even in the most backward, impoverished places of the outlying regions of Russia, burying your loved ones in cardboard boxes was considered somewhat shameful. But with the recent spike in demand and subsequent price rise of traditional wooden caskets, that has all changed.
Source: Kyiv Insider
In Russia, dying has never been more affordable—or more humiliating.
Cardboard coffins, once reserved for unclaimed bodies and stray dogs, are now flying off the shelves. According to funeral directors quoted in Lenta.ru and other Russian outlets, up to 50% of all burials in some regions now use cardboard boxes instead of traditional wooden caskets.
“We never used to offer them unless someone specifically asked,” admitted one undertaker. “Now people come in and ask for cardboard first. It’s practical.” Another explained the coffin’s appeal bluntly: “It’s lighter. Easier to carry. Cheaper. And no one’s embarrassed anymore.”
Of course they’re not. In today’s Russia, cardboard is as patriotic as the now rehabilitated Stalin.
It started as dark parody—activists hauling cardboard coffins to mock the endless stream of dead Wagner fighters. But in true Putin-era fashion, the “heroes of the special operation” are getting buried like cheap exports: folded into cardboard boxes, taped shut, and quietly forgotten. After all the chest-thumping speeches, Z-patriotism, and TV parades, this is the grand finale—no honors, no glory, just a dirt nap in recycled packaging.
And while Russians try to put a happy face on this trend, praising the much lower cost (just 6000 rubles instead of 200,000 or more for wood), the environmental friendliness, as the cardboard decomposes quickly, the real reasons for their newfound acceptance is much darker.
And all of this just happens to coincide with Rosstat (Russia’s national statistics board) suddenly deleting death statistics from its official monthly reports.
Increasingly inconvenient regional mortality numbers vanished in March. National numbers disappeared in April. No explanation given. Problem solved.
Demographers suspect the real reason is obvious:
In addition to the decades-long population exodus, too many people are now dying, and no one in government wants to print the numbers. War deaths. Medical collapse. Poverty. Suicide. Despair.
Easier to hide the bodies than explain them.
The corpsegrinder that is Putin's Russia rumbles on, as cardboard coffins sales soar.https://t.co/zU0NqbaXTp
— Kyiv Insider (@KyivInsider) June 4, 2025
Russia's so broke they’re using flatpacked Amazon box styled coffins ⚰️ 😂
The Russian postal service must be busy. pic.twitter.com/AERlbn9S1s— Grim Creeper (@OrkReaper) June 4, 2025
Translated: "In Russia, a new trend — cardboard coffins
"It’s all about their price — just 1.5 thousand rubles. They can hold up to 150 kg and decompose in just six months, while regular ones take decades. You can also print any design on them." 1500 rubles is less than $20. I would imagine more Russians would go for the "deluxe" 6000 ruble ($75) cardboard coffin.
