The article is devoted to the problem of patriotism in the works of politicians and cultural figures from among the representatives of the “second wave” of emigration from the USSR. The source base for this article was letters, memoirs, works of art by emigrants, including those stored in the Bakhmetev Archive of Columbia University (New York, USA) and the Leeds Russian Archive (Great Britain). In addition, the works of emigrants published in the series “Materials on the history of Russian political emigration” were used.

The author proves that the negative attitude of many emigrants of the “second wave” towards the political regime that existed in the USSR did not exclude the presence of patriotic convictions among these people. Most of them did not support official Soviet campaigns for the rehabilitation of victims of repression, believing that a deeper de-Stalinization of Soviet society was needed. The idea of patriotism was associated in their minds with the image of old Russia, in which these people spent their childhood. The moral foundations of the patriotic sentiments of this part of the emigrants were based on religious values, the Orthodox faith, which some of them managed to preserve despite the persecution of the 1920s and 1930s. Based on the analysis of the poetic works of the “second wave” emigrants, it is concluded that these people have retained the cultural codes that have been formed in their homeland. It is proved that many representatives of the “second wave” of emigration had a negative attitude towards anti-Russian statements made by part of the emigrant and Western public, and were able to carry love for the Motherland throughout their lives.