The paper is devoted to the analysis of how emigrants from Russia to the United States understand the concept of «Motherland», as well as to the comparative analysis of the perception of the Motherland image by Russians and emigrants from Russia. The author plans to determine differences in the perception of Motherland by emigrants from Russians,
and to hypothesize the reasons for the differences. Materials for writing the paper were: the results of semi-structured interviews conducted by a group of researchers, including the author of the paper, in Russ ia in 2015 and semi-structured interviews conducted in the USA in 2019. Both studies were conducted in one program, which allowed to compare the data.
The author comes to the conclusion that Russians and emigrants from Russia absolutely agree in distinguishing between the concepts of «Motherland» and «state», ascribing different meanings to them. However, on other questions of the study, significant differences are observed. For Russians and emigrants who moved to the United States forcibly over the age of
30, a similar understanding of the homeland is observed: they demonstrate a more positive attitude
to Motherland; in their opinion, a person must love his/her Motherland, which is explained by a direct analogy between the child’s attitude to mother and the relationship of a person to his/her Motherland. They believe that a person has a duty to take care of their Motherland. On the contrary, emigrants who moved to the United States by their own decision
before the age of 30, and Russians who critically assess the political situation in modern Russia, demonstrate an instrumental attitude towards their Motherland. They do not accept the family analogy of relations with Motherland, and they regard the love of motherland as a free choice, and not an obligation. In this regard, relations with Motherland are considered from the perspective of a mutually beneficial exchange. The probable reasons for the difference of views may lie in the decision-making on the move itself, the initial attitude to Motherland, formed before the move, as well as the time of the move. read in PDF>>>
