MagisterCultuum
Great Sage
From what I've looked up, Отечество/Отчизны pretty clearly means Fatherland. The word is grammatically neuter, but it is based on the masculine word отец which means father.
It is apparently seen as very formal and is rarely used except by government leaders.
The common man usually prefers to use the term родина, which means "birth land." It is grammatically feminine, and often personified as "mother Russia."
метрополия apparently means "metropolis," in the older sense of the word. It is the city or state responsible for founding a colony. It seems to be the word that would be used the way that an American might refer to Britain as the mother country, not the way a Russian would ever refer to the land where he has lived all his life.
It is apparently seen as very formal and is rarely used except by government leaders.
The common man usually prefers to use the term родина, which means "birth land." It is grammatically feminine, and often personified as "mother Russia."
метрополия apparently means "metropolis," in the older sense of the word. It is the city or state responsible for founding a colony. It seems to be the word that would be used the way that an American might refer to Britain as the mother country, not the way a Russian would ever refer to the land where he has lived all his life.