Thepersonification of Russia is traditionally feminine and most commonly maternal since theMiddle Ages.^[1] The common terms for thenational personification ofRussia are:

• Mother Russia

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

• Homeland the Mother

Russian:Родина-мать,romanized: Rodina-mat

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

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

Harald Haarmann andOrlando Figes see the goddessMokosh a source of the "Mother Russia" concept.^[2][3]Mikhail Epstein states that Russia's historical reliance on agriculture supported a mythological view of theearth 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 ofmatushka Rossiia (Mother Russia).^[4]

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

• 
  1914 Russian poster depicting theTriple Entente –Britannia (right) andMarianne (left) in the company of Mother Russia.
• 
  "For the Motherland!" on a 1965 Soviet stamp. The literal translation is "Motherland calls!"

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

• The Motherland Calls (Russian:Родина-мать зовёт,tr.Rodina-mat' zovyot), a colossal statue in Volgograd, Russia, commemorating the Battle of Stalingrad
• Mother Motherland (Ukrainian:Батьківщина-Мати,tr.Batʹkivshchyna-Maty,Russian:Родина-мать,tr.Rodina-mat'), now calledMother Ukraine, is a monumental statue in Kyiv that is a part of theMuseum 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 (Russian:Родина-мать, скорбящая о погибших сыновьях,tr.Rodina-mat', skorbyashchaya o pogibshikh synov'yakh),Minsk, Belarus commemorating the dead in Afghanistan
• Mother Motherland (Naberezhnye Chelny) [ru], a monument inNaberezhnye Chelny, Russia^[5]
• Mother Motherland (Pavlovsk), a memorial complex,Pavlovsk, Voronezh Oblast, Russia^[6]
• Motherland Monument (Matveev Kurgan)

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

• Ellen Rutten,Unattainable Bride Russia: Gendering Nation, State, and Intelligentsia in Russian Intellectual Culture, 2010,ISBN 0810126567.

• Media related toMatushka Rus’ at Wikimedia Commons

• Fictional Russian people
• National personifications
• National symbols of Russia

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