PBC0163: love of homeland

PBC 163 is a common expression of tsarist love of the idea of the Russian homeland as “Rus’,” “otchizna” (affectionate term for fatherland), “otechestvo” (fatherland), “rodina” (motherland, native land, homeland) during the earliest years of World War I. Very often the terms used show a visceral sense of kinship, e.g. native land, country of my birth. Various voices and perspectives find representation in PBC 163. Several exhort “all of us” to work for the fatherland (otchizna) (W131). Another conveys God’s voice praising Russians for “punishing evil” and “burning with love for the fatherland (otchizna)” (W602). Still another example dramatizes a soldier taking leave of his family, recognizing that the country of his birth (“rodnaia strana”) is in flames, and he gladly goes to fight the German foe (W34). Still another imagines a beloved girl holding out hope for her “warrior of the splendid fatherland” (W35) to return home. Unexpectedly, one praises the Russian worker for his “glorious service to the fatherland” (W161). Later expressions, during the Civil War, look backward to the nineteenth century for model Russian heroes who sacrificed themselves in defense of the homeland (W85)—but this time against traitors who are destroying Russia (W86).