Personification of Russia#Statues
{{short description|National personification of Russia}}
{{redirect|Mother Russia}}
File:Thecristisrizenoldrussiancivilwarposter.jpg, trampling the Communist flag. The words "ХРИСТОС ВОСКРЕСЕ" roughly translate to "Christ is Risen".]]
The personification of Russia is traditionally feminine and most commonly maternal since the Middle Ages.{{cite book| author = Рябов О. В. | title = Русская философия женственности (XI—XX века) | location = Иваново| year = 1999 | pages = 35–46}} The common terms for the national personification of Russia are:
- Mother Russia
{{langx|ru|Ма́тушка Росси́я |translit=Matushka Rossiya}} (dim.); also
{{langx|ru|Мать-Росси́я |translit=Mat'-Rossiya}}; or
{{langx|ru|Ма́тушка Русь |translit=Matushka Rus' |translation=Mother Rus'}}; or
{{langx|ru|Росси́я-ма́тушка |translit=Rossiya-matushka |translation=Russia the Mother}}
- Homeland the Mother
{{langx|ru|Ро́дина-мать |translit=Rodina-mat}}
In the Russian language, the concept of motherland is rendered by two terms:
- "place of birth", (feminine gender, {{langx|ru|ро́дина |translit=rodina}})
- "fatherland", (masculine gender, {{langx|ru|отечество, отчи́зна |translit=otchizna |link=no}})
Harald Haarmann and Orlando Figes see the goddess Mokosh a source of the "Mother Russia" concept.Harald Haarmann, [https://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-66355314.html The Soul of Mother Russia: Russian Symbols and Pre-Russian Cultural Identity, ReVision] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160409142014/https://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-66355314.html |date=2016-04-09 }}, June 22, 2000 (retrieved May 2, 2016){{cite book
| last = Figes
| first = Orlando
| author-link = Orlando Figes
| title = Natasha's Dance: a cultural history of Russia
| year = 2002
| publisher = Metropolitan Books
| location = New York
| isbn = 9780805057836
| page = 321
| quote = [...] the goddess known as Mokosh, from whom the myth of 'Mother Russia' was conceived.
}}
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).{{cite book |last= Epstein|first= Mikhail|editor-last= Rosenthal |editor-first= Bernice|date= 1997|title= The Occult in Russian and Soviet Culture|publisher= Cornell University Press|page= 332 |isbn= 9780801432583}}
Usage
During the Soviet period, the Bolsheviks extensively utilized the image of "Motherland", especially during World War II.
File:Triple Entente.jpg|1914 Russian poster depicting the Triple Entente – Britannia (right) and Marianne (left) in the company of Mother Russia.
After the October Revolution and during the Russian Civil War, the image was employed by some anti-Bolshevik forces seeking to restore pre-revolutionary Russia.
File:Rodina-mat-zovet-po-plakatu-I-Toidze--ic1965 3198.jpg|"For the Motherland!" on a 1965 Soviet stamp. The literal translation is "Motherland calls!"
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 ({{langx|ru|Родина-мать зовёт}}, tr. Rodina-mat' zovyot), a colossal statue in Volgograd, Russia, commemorating the Battle of Stalingrad
- Mother Motherland ({{langx|uk|Батьківщина-Мати}}, tr. Batʹkivshchyna-Maty, {{langx|ru|Родина-мать}}, tr. Rodina-mat' ), 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 ({{langx|ru|Родина-мать, скорбящая о погибших сыновьях}}, tr. Rodina-mat', skorbyashchaya o pogibshikh synov'yakh), Minsk, Belarus commemorating the dead in Afghanistan
- {{ill|Mother Motherland (Naberezhnye Chelny)|ru|Родина-мать (Набережные Челны)}}, a monument in Naberezhnye Chelny, Russia[http://www.rg.ru/2004/08/27/xram-kazan.html Казань. Храм на шести сотках — Ольга Юхновская."Не йог, не маг и не святой" — Российская Газета — Этот объект не включен в программу подготовки к казанскому миллениуму. Но его, без сомнений, будут показывать гостям города как редкую достопримечательность. Создатель множества памятников, художник из пригорода Казани Ильдар Ханов к тысячелетию столицы Татарстана строит на своем участке храм всех религий. В свое время творчество Ханова высоко оценил Святослав Рерих]
- Mother Motherland (Pavlovsk), a memorial complex, Pavlovsk, Voronezh Oblast, Russia{{cite web |url=http://pavlovsk.by.ru/pav.html |title=Павловск (Воронежская область) |access-date=2012-11-02 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110124163522/http://pavlovsk.by.ru/pav.html |archive-date=2011-01-24 }}
- Motherland Monument (Matveev Kurgan)
See also
References
{{reflist}}
Further reading
- Ellen Rutten, Unattainable Bride Russia: Gendering Nation, State, and Intelligentsia in Russian Intellectual Culture, 2010, {{ISBN|0810126567}}.
External links
- {{Commons category-inline| Matushka Rus’}}
{{Russia topics}}
{{National personifications}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Personifications Of Russia}}