Mother Russia

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Mother Russia

• The Feminine Roots of Russia

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• Russia is inherently close to the earth because
  of its long-standing agrarian existence
• The personification of the land as Mother
  conveys the protective and life-giving qualities
  of the earth
• In the peasant tradition, all things are borne by
  the earth and derive from her fertility
• The soil is considered sacred because it provides
  sustenance for the village

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Matrioshka

• We can view Matrioshka as a symbolic embodiment
  of Mother Russia
• Matrioshka doll contains progressively smaller
  versions of her own images within her body
• Like the ancient Great Mother Goddess, the
  Matrioshka spills all creation out of her body
  like the protective and nurturing individual
  mother, she gathers her children under her
  skirts, where they must find identity through
  natures cyclical rhythms of confinement and
  release (Hubbs)

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Historical Context

• The concept of Mother Russia is deeply rooted
  in Slavic past
• Well-organized, sedentary society existed in the
  general area of Russia for millennia. This Old
  Europe characterized as a peaceful, matrilineal
  culture
• Worshipped an all-powerful Goddess of creation,
  death, and regeneration that encompassed various
  attributes of goddesses of other cultures
• First invasion affecting the culture of Old
  Europe was the Indo-European tribes from the
  East. These warriors invaded around 3000 B.C.
  from the Eastern steppes
• This resulted in a change towards a
  warfare-oriented, class stratified, and
  patriarchal society

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Remnants of the Past

• Old European way of life still found in several
  corners of Europe today, its traditions
  preserved in myths, legends, tales, popular
  beliefs, customs, and rituals
• The cult of the Mother Goddess was carried into
  religious and folk traditions of various forms

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• In the North of Russia during the winter
  festival of Koliada, this folksong is sung about
  a girl who sits inside a white tent in a meadow
  embroidering a napkin as she waits for her future
  husband
• And the first thing she embroidered was
• the moon,
• The shining moon and then the stars.
• Then she made the beautiful sun,
• The beautiful sun and the warmed clouds.
• And after them the wet pine trees in the forest,
• The wet pines in the forest with wild animals
• around them,
• And then the shining sea with its waves

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• The girl of the song creates all nature like a
  goddess she then populates nature, becoming
  fertile as she embroiders herself a husband. The
  napkin she embroiders in the meadow is like those
  offered by peasant girls in northern Russia to an
  all-encompassing female divinity.
• This goddess of all creation has been revealed in
  three figures representing the progressing life
  stages of a woman the young maiden (rusalka),
  the mother/lover (Mother Moist Earth/Mokosh), and
  old wise woman (Baba Yaga)
• Each aspect associated with the three figures
  contains all the others. For example, the old
  wise woman figure Baba Yaga sometimes appears as
  a young maiden, as represented in the figure of
  rusalka.

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Baba Yaga

• One of the most well-known figures in Russian
  folk tales is Baba Yaga
• She is represented as an old witch with magical
  powers
• Associated with the goddess of embroideries
• Dually good and bad
• She is bringer of life and death, both devours
  children and reunites couples

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The Frog Princess

• Baba Yaga helps a young prince win the
  competition for the kingdom. He acquires a
  frog-bride, who is actually an enchanted princess
  the daughter of a sorceress. The King gives
  his kingdom to this youngest son because his
  brides abilities cannot be matched by the brides
  selected by the older sons.
• This tale speaks to the matriarchal past. The
  criteria of the competition set by the king is
  based on the abilities of the brides, not his
  sons.
• By analyzing the symbolic meaning of such tales,
  the pre-Indo-European social structure is
  recreated

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Rusalka

• Slavic folk figure
• Young maiden with long, flowing hair runs
  amongst lakes and trees
• She represents the untamed life-giving and
  life-taking force of woman and nature
• Associated with fertility, reproduction, as well
  as death
• Connected with the underworld and the deadly
  waters siren-like, she lures men to their deaths
• She looked at him and shook her hair
• Threw kisses, laughed
• And like a child
• Cried to the monk Come to me here.
• -Alexander Pushkin, Rusalka

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Mokosh / Moist Mother Earth

• Mokosh closely associated with the most ancient
  of the Slavic gods, Moist Mother Earth.
• Mokosh was a great female deity
• Mokosh the sole female in the pantheon of gods
  that Duke Vladimir of Kiev attempted to establish
  before the spread of Christianity
• Venerated as goddess of the soil, fertility, and
  weaving

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Paraskeva Piatnitsa

• She is a transitional figure
• Believed to be the pagan deity Mokosh transferred
  to a Christian context
• In contrast to the pure image of Mary, Mother or
  God, she is the Dirty One
• Like Mokosh, she is associated with spinning,
  fertility, health and marriage
• Piatnitsa, meaning Friday, is connected with
  the Fridays of other cults (such as the Roman
  Venus and the Scandinavian Freya)

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Mary, Mother of God

• Orthodox Church venerates the Mother and not the
  Virgin, as does the Western Church
• Mary, Mother of God, absorbed properties of the
  more ancient goddess
• The Tree of Life, usually depicted with the
  fertility goddess Mokosh, here appears in
  connection with Mary

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Question

• What are some of the ways in which the feminine
  roots of Russia reemerged?