I was reading Crapgame's thread on the Siege of Leningrad, and I was wondering if anybody knew why Russia is called the motherland and Germany was called the fatherland ?

What was France and England called ?

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Work Harder ! Millions on welfare are depending on you.

Well, Russia is traditionally known as "Mother Russia", so I suppose that is where the Motherland comes from.

Not too sure about Fatherland. Germany sort of started with Bismarck, and with Adolf in charge it makes sense. Dunno if it goes furhter back than that.

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Because Russia has a matriarchic tradition while most European countries have a patriarchic.

Best regards/ Daniel

I really don't know but, hastn't it got anything to do with the male/female of a word. E.g.:
- The lion is eating. (He's eating.)
- The boat arrived in the port of Antwerp. (It arrived ... .)
- The beast was shot dead. (It was shot dead.)

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I think Charlie got it right.

old patriarchal family of the Germans and Celts...

The coexistence of patriarchal and matriarchal social structures, among and even within the various tribes, adds yet another element to the apparent social confusion inherent in the customs of pre-Christian Russia. The autonomy of women - something that would disappear for many centuries with the advent of Orthodoxy - was the natural and unquestioned way of life. It was at least as common among all of these tribes for the representative of the woman to initiate marriage or contract negotiations. In such cases, it was not uncommon for the man to then be taken into the woman's household


Certain countries are associated with categories of masculinity and femininity. For example, Poland is a feminine country, and Germany is eternally masculine.

http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Cham.../overview.html

http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/econ/koval1.htm

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A great thread, interesting comments by all. I'm looking forward to further posts.

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Phear der PanzerPenguin!
HellFish love teh

And what about the divorce between the Motherland and the Fatherland. First, in 1939 they shared the custody of their daughter, Poland. In 1941, the Fatherland fought for it and gave up her. So the Motherland took care of her daughter until 1939, when the daughter was tired of the opression of her tirannic Mother and just left the house and started a life alone. [img]smile.gif[/img]

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