February 2012
88 posts
I usually see отчество translated as fatherland and родина as motherland. It makes sense, I'm not a linguist but I assume it comes from the same root as отца.
That makes sense actually. Отечество does indeed originates from отец (father)!
Thanks for the comment, things like that are so obvious & familiar that sometimes it’s hard to notice them. :)
I love this blog!! the other day my grandma was showing me pictures and intourist travel brochures, catalogues and tourist guides/books from when she went to Russia in 1982 (yes, she's kept all of it ever since) And it makes me want to go to Russia!! :) xx
This is really cool! I think a lot of foreigners visited Russia around this time thanks to the lighter regime. I hope you can come visit some day. :)
So today in my Russian Conversation class we were talking about Defender of the Fatherland day and a friend of mine was really confused as to why it's defender of the fatherland and not the motherland. Isn't Russia the motherland and Germany the fatherland?
It’s just a matter of translation. The original Russian word is отечество (neuter gender). I don’t see any difference between motherland and fatherland to be honest, but “Defender of the Fatherland” is used traditionally.
February 23 — Defender of the Fatherland Day
Congratulations to all the men, boys and grandpas! Thank you for the extra day off. ;D
This blog makes me very happy. How do you find all of these wonderful postcards?
Thank you. :) Well, I have a massive amount of contacts among postcard collectors, so I mostly rake through their collections, and also throw in some from my own.
