Andrei Artizov: The Motherland is home, family and a small railway station

The Head of the Federal Archival Agency and Doctor of Historical Sciences, Andrei Artizov, answered the central question of the National Centre RUSSIA's All-Russian project "What Does the Motherland Begin With?". For the historian and archivist, love for the Motherland stems not only from geography, but also from a sense of time and personal family history, which opens the gateway from one's small homeland to the greater Motherland.

"I am a historian and archivist by profession, and I had a sense of time from childhood. I loved cycling, and there was a railway station near my hometown where I would go simply to walk along the tarred sleepers and breathe in their smell. I understood that it was from this very station that my grandfather left for the war after being called up on 23 June 1941. Trains departed from this station both eastwards and westwards, and this small station was, in a way, a gateway from my small homeland to the greater Motherland. In this sense, the Motherland for me is my home and my family. It is where I was born, where my grandmother and my parents are buried, where everything is close and familiar to me," shared the Head of the Federal Archival Agency and Doctor of Historical Sciences, Andrei Artizov.

The All-Russian project "What Does the Motherland Begin With?" is being implemented by the National Centre RUSSIA with the support of the Government of the Russian Federation. Its first stage was a survey in which more than 700 people from 71 regions of Russia and foreign countries have already taken part, including government officials, opinion leaders, performers and representatives of other professions. Anyone can share where their love for the Motherland begins by leaving a comment or posting a video on the russia.ru website.