Mother Russia. Who is she?

[mlmaos.livejournal.com]

In the fan-works and commentaries Ivan often says "One with Mother Russia" or the variant of the phrase - "One with Russia."

I think that the reason for the joke - a historical feature of nicknames and the image of Russia.
But if this opinion can be given up - what do you think?
Who is the Mother Russia? Or why does Ivan (if he says about himself) seriously identify himself so?
:)

Comments

[lovelylurker.livejournal.com]

Oh my gosh, the best part about that link is that there's a list of country personifications with links for each one.

These are really very interesting. Almost all of the European personifications are female, and the two North American ones are male. XD

[wooblywooble.livejournal.com]

That's pretty much because of the gender of the word, most country names are female :)

[narcomanic.livejournal.com]

... Depending on your language, of course. German, for example, classifies most countries as neutral.

[rabieskatten.livejournal.com]

It's the same as "mother Svea". If I remember correctly "Sverige" (Sweden) originally comes from "Svea land" (the land of Svea).

TMI, but..

[boscaresque.livejournal.com]

The funny thing is, I was totally obsessed with the traditional national personifications for years before I even discovered Hetalia. I even did an entire year-long senior project on old political cartoons back in high school. (Which is actually how I discovered Hetalia, lol. I guess it was inevitable. It was like..."I'm doing serious academic research here, wtf is this crack that I keep running into?")

*Appropriate icon*

It's - destiny!

[mlmaos.livejournal.com]

It's - destiny! : )

I think that the national personifications is a very interesting topic too.

I like works of Russian philosophers of the late 19 and early 20 th centuries, who concentrated their attention on it. They tried to understand what kind of gender Russia is. And why is so. And what may do with a country, who is a woman, but her laws and society are very strict patriarchal. >_<

Almost all of the European personifications are female

[mlmaos.livejournal.com]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motherland

There is the interesting phrase «Motherland is a term that may refer to a mother country, i.e. the place of one's birth, the place of origin of an ethnic group or immigrant, or a Metropole in contrast to its colonies».

Also I saw the words about North American nations - “… the people, who were born from the most powerful individuals: peasants, sailors, who came off from the umbilical cords of home bosoms - from mother-lands of the Old World…” (“The Russian Eros” by G. Gachev)