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

Russian: Ма́тушка Росси́я, romanized: Matushka Rossiya (dim.); also
Russian: Мать-Росси́я, romanized: Mat'-Rossiya; or
Russian: Ма́тушка Русь, romanized: Matushka Rus', lit. 'Mother Rus''; or
Russian: Росси́я-ма́тушка, romanized: Rossiya-matushka, lit. 'Russia the Mother'

  • Homeland the Mother

Russian: Ро́дина-мать, romanized: Rodina-mat

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

  • "place of birth", (feminine gender, Russian: ро́дина, romanized: rodina)
  • "fatherland", (masculine gender, Russian: отечество, отчи́зна, romanized: otchizna)

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).

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