It’s Friday night at a military base located in a forest in western Finland. A group of women dressed in camouflage uniforms and wearing matching purple caps sit in a darkened tent talking about how their vision has changed since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022.
“Until that moment I didn’t think that an attack from Russia represented a real threat,” says Sari, 42, who works as a salesperson and lives in a nearby town. But then, he adds: “Russia attacked Ukraine and I realized that we may be next.”
The mother of two, who describes herself as a “down-to-earth” person, signed up for this weekend course to learn how to “survive without electricity” motivated by her patriotic values, but she also wants to be more prepared with practical skills for everyday life. 75 women have enrolled in this course.
A storm could also cause a power outage and, in fact, tens of thousands of people throughout Finland They suffered this situation last week. However, learning to survive without electricity is a skill that could be crucial in the face of a possible Russian invasion or hybrid attack.
The training course, known as Nasta, is one of 40 organized by the National Women’s Association for Emergency Preparedness throughout Finland. The association also organizes courses on cybersecurity, mental resilience, skills in natural environments, snowmobile driving and the ability to influence information. After the invasion of Ukraine, applications for the courses skyrocketed. Finland, a country of 5.6 million inhabitants that decided to join NATO after the invasion, not only has a warlike past with its neighbor, but also shares a land border of nearly 1,400 kilometers.
Tytti, 36, has been so concerned about her country’s hostility toward Russia that she avoids listening to the news. For her, attending the course is her way of “facing her fears.” Both women have attended one-day shooting courses in the past year, but they don’t like handling guns.
In the short term, Hannele, 67, fears more the type of hybrid war Finland is already experiencing, such as cyberwarfare and disinformation, than the prospect of an imminent military offensive. She is surprised by the number of young women who have taken up arms. Even so, he admits that guns make him curious: “What does it feel like to shoot something?”
Until a few hours ago, most of the women in the course—the youngest is 18 and the oldest is 70—did not know each other. But on this snowy night with sub-zero temperatures in Lohtaja, near the town of Kokkola, they have already set up camp in the middle of a lush pine forest by torchlight, lit a wood fire in a burner in the center of the large military tent and have made a plan to decide where each one is going to sleep.
Throughout the weekend, the group will learn to survive in the middle of a hostile situation: they will light and put out a fire, cook outdoors, provide first aid, keep warm and build a toilet. The group will take turns keeping the fire burning throughout the night. Some of the participants use a large tarp to fix a leak in the tent.
Although there is no official military rivalry between the two neighbors, Finnish intelligence services describe Russia as the main threat to the country’s national security and have little doubt that it is already waging a hybrid war with the neighboring country.
Last week, Finnish Foreign Minister Elina Valtonen issued a joint statement with her German counterpart in which she expressed her “deep concern” about the alleged sabotage – one of two that occurred in the Baltic – of an undersea cable. between Finland and Germany. “The fact that an incident of this type immediately raises suspicions of intentional damage says a lot about the volatility we are experiencing today,” he said. Finland has since opened a joint investigation with Sweden, which, like Finland, is a member of NATO in the wake of the invasion of Ukraine.
Helsinki also accuses Russia of using proxies, including asylum seekers, to wrong its neighbor. The country has suffered from suspicious thefts at water treatment facilities and problems with GPS interference.
Nasta was established in 1997. Although the training it offers is non-military, it is partly funded by the Finnish Ministry of Defense and receives substantial support from the Finnish National Defense Training Association. It has about 100,000 members. Following the Russian invasion of February 24, 2022, interest reached unprecedented levels.
Suvi Aksela, head of communication and organization at Nasta, explains that when the courses opened there were so many people queuing to get a place that the system collapsed, and compares getting a place on one of the subsidized courses to getting tickets to a concert from a famous group. “Sometimes courses fill up in a minute,” he explains.
He explains that, in the days after the invasion of Ukraine, the phone calls “didn’t stop coming.” The first question used to be “what can I do to prepare?” And the second was “where can I learn to shoot?” The third was “how can I know where the bunker that corresponds to me by area is?” A recent Interior Ministry inventory revealed that Finland has 50,500 bunkers, part of the legacy of an attempt by the Soviet Union to invade the country during World War II. “That the second most frequently asked question was how to learn to shoot surprised me,” says Aksela: “Finland has its own professional military personnel and also a huge number of reservists. If I find myself in the situation of having to take a weapon, it is because the situation is extreme,” he adds.
The popularity of shooting in Finland has skyrocketed in the last two years. Earlier this year the Government announced a plan to open more than 300 new shooting ranges in order to encourage people to practice it as a hobby to strengthen national defense. The number of Finns applying for gun licenses has also increased considerably.
Aksela advises those interested to start by taking precautions at home. In an emergency, Finns are advised to have enough provisions to survive without help for at least 72 hours: food, water, medicine and access to a battery-powered radio.
Aksela points out that the courses are most popular among middle-aged, university-educated women in the Helsinki area. In addition to Russia’s proximity to Finland, the collective memory of the fight against the Soviet Union during World War II also plays an important role in how seriously Finns take the Russian threat.
“It’s because of our past. Obviously, because of our location. The neighbor is not very friendly, he hasn’t been, not even before [2022]. So we are very aware of the risks. Many countries have abolished compulsory military service, Finland has never done so. So for us it is a matter of mere common sense,” says Aksela.
The Finnish Constitution establishes the obligation of all citizens to contribute to national defense, and all men are obliged to perform military service (women can request it, but on a voluntary basis).
The Finnish Security and Intelligence Service (SUPO) has warned that Russia treats Finland as a hostile state and a target for espionage and “malign influence activities.” SUPO Deputy Director Teemu Turunen says hybrid warfare comes in multiple forms, including through proxies, cyberattacks, threats to critical infrastructure, disinformation and espionage.
According to Turunen, Russia is using asylum seekers as “tools for its own purposes” by inadequately policing the Russian-Finnish border. This is why the eastern border remains closed and has been for most of the past year. “The modus operandi of the Russian intelligence services is more aggressive, it is a more serious threat and they are using other means,” explained the head of the agency. Among the means, the expert cites the threat to critical infrastructure and sabotage.
“It is very clear that Russian state actors are the main threat to Finnish national security. And even blurring the lines between the use of criminal organizations by proxy or other types of intermediaries,” he points out.
However, it is important not to assume that Russia is behind every possible incident, he says. “It is important to understand that Russia is not omnipotent. “They try to exaggerate their capabilities,” he says. In his opinion, Russia has more urgent priorities than Finland, such as its own stability and the war in Ukraine. “So it’s not like Russia can do anything, anywhere, anytime. They try to make us think that they have that capacity and we are afraid of them, but that is not the case,” he says.
Asked how Donald Trump’s victory affects Finland’s security and preparedness, he warns that “the threat from the Russian side is not going to disappear” and that, as the United States increasingly focuses on China, Europe must “ intensify and improve preparation.”
In his opinion, the Finns are “quite calm about the threat”, but he points out that preparation is the key: “Both preparing intelligently and the resistance of society. “This is all part of the comprehensive approach to society that Finland has and that we have had for a long time.”
The truth is that it has been the events of the last two years that have pushed many people to enroll in training such as those offered by Nasta.
Returning to camp after breakfast, with the ground covered in freshly fallen snow, Aija Kuukkanen tells me that the first time she tried to register for a course was in the spring of 2022. “I had seen these types of courses before, I knew they existed. , but after the invasion of Ukraine I decided,” explains this 58-year-old woman, who works in a tractor factory. “I wanted to be better informed and prepare in some way,” she adds.
Merja Majanen, 67, a retired former bank manager from Rovaniemi, who has taught disinformation courses in her hometown, says the fact that hundreds of women have traveled from all over Finland to take these courses is proof of her degree of anxiety.
She takes comfort in not living near the Russian border: “If I lived in the eastern parts of Lapland I would be even more worried.”
Translation by Emma Reverter
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