Music and Time Annotation << Back The Patriotic Theme in Russian Music from the Standpoint of Modernity N.A. Myatieva The article elaborates on the problem of contemporary understanding of patriotism in Russian music. The goal was to emphasize the differences between abstract understanding of patriotism and its practical interpretation in music. Taking as an example the Catalog of patriotic music published on the offi cial website of the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation it's demonstrated that nowadays the notion of patriotic music is not clearly defi ned. Its themes and genres are not systemized while expressive and semantic characteristics are not clear. Quality criteria for such music are also not defi ned. It's conceived that at the current stage the treatment of patriotic themes in musical repertoire is both ambiguous and contradictory. Historical and paradigm changes of recent decades in Russia need a thorough refl ection and development of a new, much more balanced scientifi c approach to the phenomenon of patriotic music. The problem was as of yet not conceptualized neither by composers nor by music scholars which emphasizes the relevance of current work. Keywords: Patriotism, Patriotic Music, Catalog of Patriotic Music, Ministry of Culture Russian Federation, contemporary musical culture. Pp. 27-30.