Personification of Russia

The personification of Russia is traditionally feminine and most commonly maternal since the Middle Ages. The common terms for the national personification of Russia are:

• Mother Russia

(dim.); also<br>

or<br>

or<br>

• Homeland the Mother

In the Russian language, the concept of motherland is rendered by two terms:

• "place of birth", (feminine gender, )
• "fatherland", (masculine gender, )

Harald Haarmann and Orlando Figes see the goddess Mokosh a source of the "Mother Russia" concept. Mikhail Epstein states that Russia's historical reliance on agriculture supported a mythological view of the earth as a "divine mother", leading in turn to the terminology of "Mother Russia". Epstein also notes the feminine perceptions of the names Rus' and Rossiia, allowing for natural expressions of matushka Rossiia (Mother Russia).

Usage

During the Soviet period, the Bolsheviks extensively utilized the image of "Motherland", especially during World War II.

Statues

During the Soviet era, many statues depicting the Mother Motherland were built, most to commemorate the Great Patriotic War. These include:

• The Motherland Calls (, <small>tr. Rodina-mat' zovyot</small>), a colossal statue in Volgograd, Russia, commemorating the Battle of Stalingrad
• Mother Motherland (, <small>tr. Batʹkivshchyna-Maty</small>, , <small>tr. Rodina-mat' </small>), now called Mother Ukraine, is a monumental statue in Kyiv that is a part of the Museum of The History of Ukraine in World War II
• Mother Motherland (Saint Petersburg), a statue at the Piskarevskoye Memorial Cemetery, St. Petersburg, Russia
• Mother Russia (Kaliningrad), a monument in Kaliningrad, Russia
• Mother Motherland Mourning over Her Perished Sons (, <small>tr. Rodina-mat', skorbyashchaya o pogibshikh synov'yakh</small>), Minsk, Belarus commemorating the dead in Afghanistan
• , a monument in Naberezhnye Chelny, Russia
• Mother Motherland (Pavlovsk), a memorial complex, Pavlovsk, Voronezh Oblast, Russia
• Motherland Monument (Matveev Kurgan)

See also

• Defender of the Fatherland Day
• Mat Zemlya
• Russian Bear
• Propaganda in Russia
• Propaganda in the Soviet Union

References

Further reading

• Ellen Rutten, Unattainable Bride Russia: Gendering Nation, State, and Intelligentsia in Russian Intellectual Culture, 2010, .

External links