One of the program’s goals was to abolish Finland’s autonomy. This gave
rise to a Finnish resistance which eventually resulted in Finland’s
Declaration of Independence in 1917. Soon after this, in 1918, Finland
faced a great inner conflict, which resulted in the Finnish Civil War. The
relationship with the new post-1917 Soviet Union remained tense after
Finland’s Independence. There was mutual mistrust; for years Finland
feared an attack by the Soviet Union. This tension finally erupted in 1939
when the Winter War (1939-1940) broke out between the two countries. After
the Winter War, there was a short period of peace which ended with the
beginning of the Continuation War (1941-1944).
These years of restlessness affected the whole nation and called forth
a great patriotic feeling in both men and women. Military organizations
were founded, and Finnish women started assisting the men’s military
activities wherever they could. This led to the birth of Lotta Svärd: a
voluntary auxiliary women’s organization which was named after a fictional
character in a poem written by Finland’s national poet, Johan Ludwig
Runeberg. The Lotta Svärd organization operated in the years 1920-1944;
during this time it provided invaluable help to the national defense of
Finland. It eventually included over 232,000 members, and in time gained
recognition all over the world.
This paper reviews the history and achievements of the Lotta Svärd
organization. How did it contribute to the national defense of Finland
during the first half of the 20th century? What did it mean to be a
“Lotta”? What was the significance of the organization for the people of
Finland?
Finnish women first began to take part in patriotic activities during
the turn of the 19th and the 20th centuries, a period of attempted Russian
domination of Finnish nation-building which came to be known as the "years
of oppression"2 . They founded
their own women’s unit to help the Kagal, a Finnish secret society that
opposed the oppressive government of Governor General Nikolai Bobrikov.
The work of the Women’s Kagal consisted mainly of relaying the Kagal’s
secret messages and collecting funds. The women also took part in
supporting the Jaegers3 , who were
Finnish volunteers secretly sent to Germany during World War I to be
trained as elite light infantry in preparation for a war against Russia.
After the Jaegers returned to Finland, a large number of them took part in
the Finnish wars as high-ranking officers. The Finnish women aided the
Jaeger movement by supporting the Jaeger volunteers on their way to
Germany. This patriotic activity among the women was widespread, but
partly unorganized (Kaipainen 94).
In 1917, as the time to declare Finnish national independence grew
closer, women worked as caterers and messengers in the founding meetings
of the Civil Guards4 , a
voluntary civil defense organization for men. Soon after that the
situation in Finland grew more strained as changes in the social structure
divided the people of Finland into two groups, which led to conflicts
between the two opposing sides. Because of this, it became necessary to
prepare the women for wartime duties. Their part was to form the medical
corps and to support the troops. When the Finnish Civil War (also known as
the War of Independence) started in January 1918, women started supplying
their local Civil Guards with equipment. The women’s sewing circles, which
were providing the equipment, soon developed into separate women’s
divisions for the Civil Guards. During the war some of the women went to
the frontlines to take care of food provisions and to tend to the wounded.
They didn’t carry weapons. The rest of the women stayed home making
equipment, collecting funds and baking bread for the soldiers at the
front. Although the activities of these divisions were organized only
regionally and there was no higher organization to control them, their
work was very efficient. The Civil War laid the foundation for the future
activities of Lotta Svärd: supporting the national defense and doing
humanitarian work in war situations (Kaipainen 94).
The sewing circles and women’s divisions started developing into more
established associations in 1918. These associations were formally
founded, and each adopted a name and a set of rules, but as there was no
standard practice, both the names and the rules varied a lot (Lukkarinen
29). As far as is known, the name Lotta Svärd was first used on May 16,
1918, when Lieutenant-General C. G. Mannerheim mentioned it in his thank
you speech to the Finnish women who had helped in the Civil War (Rautio
12-13).
Mannerheim had gotten the name from a poem in the book Vänrikki
Stoolin tarinat [The Tales of Ensign Stål], written by the national
poet of Finland, Johan Ludvig Runeberg (Kaipainen 94). The poem tells
about a woman called Lotta Svärd, who accompanied her husband to war and,
after he was killed, decided to remain there to cook and tend to the
wounded soldiers (Tillotson 103). This name was quickly adopted; the first
association to use it was the Lotta Svärd of Riihimäki, which was founded
on November 19, 1918 (Kaipainen 94).
On January 23, 1919, a women’s association called Lotta Svärd –
Osasto N:o 1 [Lotta Svärd: Division 1] was founded in Helsinki by the
city’s Swedish-speaking women. The rules adopted by this association were
used as a guideline for many other similar associations which were founded
after it (Kaipainen 94). The founding of the Helsinki association gave
spark to founding more women’s divisions for the Civil Guards. The name
Lotta Svärd started turning up more frequently in the associations’ names,
and inquiries about the rules and founding proceedings were sent to the
leaders of the Civil Guards. Finally, on October 29, 1919, Colonel Georg
Didrik von Essen, the Commander-in-chief of the Civil Guards, made an
appeal in his order of the day in favor of founding Lotta Svärd
associations connected with the Civil Guards. In addition, he briefly
listed the tasks of the Lotta Svärd organization. The Colonel’s order of
the day gave a boost to the founding of the associations and established
their status, but the rules of the different associations still varied
(Lukkarinen 29-30).
As the number of the Lotta Svärd associations and the workload caused
by it in the Civil Guards Supreme Staff quickly grew, it became apparent
that some sort of central management had to be established to take care of
the things concerning Lotta Svärd. The decision to establish a national
Lotta Svärd organization was finally made by the Supreme Staff on May 11,
1920. The organization was entered into the register of associations on
September 9 of the same year (Lukkarinen 31).
Operations of Lotta Svärd
As stated in the original rules, the purpose of the Lotta Svärd
organization was to aid the country’s Civil Guards through medical care,
cooking, preparing equipment, collecting funds and other means that would
contribute to the Civil Guards (Lukkarinen 31). Although the organization
was formally independent, in practice it co-operated closely with the
Civil Guards. In the beginning, the work of the Lotta Svärd organization
consisted mainly of aiding and supporting the Civil Guard, but it later
expanded to include many other forms of national defense. Later the
organization started to slowly separate from the Civil Guards, and took
part in helping the army during the war years 1939-44 (Kaipainen 95).
Subdivisions of the Management
The national Lotta Svärd organization was led by a central board which
was under the supervision of the Commander-in-chief of the Civil Guards.
The central board consisted of six members and two vice members, who were
selected in the organization’s annual meetings. The board’s chairperson
was then appointed by the Commander-in-chief of the Civil Guards. The most
well-known chairperson of the organization was Ms. Fanni Luukkonen, who
held the position for 15 years from 1929 until the organization was
abolished in 1944 (Lukkarinen 46, 72).
To ease the management the organization subdivided into district
divisions that corresponded with the Civil Guard district divisions. These
subdivided further into local districts according to the number of Civil
Guard units inside the district. In the countryside the district divisions
could also subdivide into village divisions, which included one or more
villages. The Lotta Svärd organization was closely connected to the
operations of the Civil Guards on all levels. This benefited both parties.
The Civil Guards needed the help and support of the Lotta Svärd
organization in the areas which were best suited towards women and which
most required workers. Similarly, the Lotta Svärd organization was often
able to operate only because of the settings provided by the Civil Guards:
office space and a supply of raw materials for the work of the
provisioning and equipment divisions (Lukkarinen 46-47).
Members of the Organization
Before the founding of the national Lotta Svärd organization the
standard requirements for new members were minimal. The only requirements
in some local divisions were that the applicants be women over the age of
eighteen who had “a good reputation”. Later, when the national
organization was founded in 1920 and new rules were set, the requirements
for new recruits were defined more closely. According to these new
requirements all new applicants were accepted as long as they had a good
reputation and their loyalty towards the legal social order could be
trusted. The requirements did not set an age limit, but applicants under
the age of eighteen needed to have permission from their guardians.
Another regulation added the requirement that acting members who had
committed themselves needed the permission of their husbands to be able to
join the acting group. These requirements were later specified further in
the rules made in 1921.
According to these rules, the local districts could accept any woman
who was loyal to the Finnish Government, and who had the recommendation of
two well-known and trustworthy people (Lukkarinen 48). In the 1930s the
organization started putting new applicants on probation for a period of
3-12 months before they could be accepted as members. During the probation
new applicants were educated in the work of the members and the principles
of the organization. At the end of the probation period the applicants
were given a test; those who passed it were accepted as new members
(Lukkarinen 75). These requirements were followed until 1943, when the
growing need for new recruits forced the management to start accepting new
members on lesser grounds (Rautio 20-21).
Lottas giving their Lotta Promise in a church in Turku
(Image source: Koskimies 111)
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The members of the organization were called “Lottas”, and they were
separated into two groups: Toimen-Lotat [acting Lottas] and
Huolto-Lotat [supply Lottas]. The acting Lottas were accepted under
certain conditions into the medical and provisioning divisions, and it was
their duty after taking the Lotta Promise to be ready to commit themselves
full-time in the event of national mobilization and to serve anywhere in
the country. The supply Lottas consisted of the rest of the active
members, who worked in their divisions under their leaders’ command and
supervision. In addition to these two groups the organization also had
supporting members, who assisted the organization by paying their local
Lotta Svärd divisions an annual fee (Kataja 26).
Lottas chose to take part in the organization’s work out of their own
will. Their only motivation was their sense of duty and the fact that they
wanted to do their own part in order to help their country survive the
trials of war. Their work was both voluntary and largely unpaid; it was
not until December 1939 that the Ministry of Defense decided to start
supplying the acting Lottas with a small daily allowance (Rautio 7, 35).
As stated in the 1921 rules, the acting Lottas and those supply Lottas
who held a position of trust had to take the Lotta Oath, in which they
swore to follow the rules of the organization (Kataja 26). In the
beginning these Oaths were taken in writing, but they were soon changed
into Lotta Promises, which were given orally during a ceremony. Another
important thing connecting the members of Lotta Svärd was their uniforms,
which they always had to wear when they were on duty. The uniform had to
be gray and be made of either cotton or wool. In addition, it included a
Lotta pin, a white collar, shirt cuffs and an armband which showed to
which division the wearer belonged (Kallioniemi 20-21).
The Four Divisions of the Lotta Svärd Organization and the Little
Lottas
As stated in the rules, the Lotta Svärd organization had very specific
subdivisions. New recruits were placed according to their skills in the
division in which they could best serve the organization’s aims during
both war and peace. In addition to the work in their own divisions, Lottas
also had to take part in other duties for the organization. In the
beginning, these divisions were referred to with inconsistent terms until
the central board finally approved names for the Medical, Provisioning,
Equipment, and Fundraising divisions. The Fundraising division was later
renamed the Fundraising and Office division. Later, as the organization
grew larger and the war conditions changed, these four divisions were
improved and also altered a bit (Seila 38).
The Medical Division
During the first few years after the organization was founded, there
was great uncertainty about how the Medical division should operate. At
first the operations of the division were designed to follow the same
lines as during the Finnish Civil War: providing first aid. In the
guidelines for the Medical division made in 1922 it was required that a
certain number of acting Lottas be provided for each Civil Guard
association, company and battalion. These acting Lottas were assigned to
aid in the care and transportation of sick and wounded soldiers in
addition to arranging bandaging stations and sick rooms and preparing the
necessary equipment for them. They were also responsible for replenishing
the Civil Guards’ stock of drugs (Lukkarinen 85).
Until 1929, medical Lottas were trained at regional training centers on
two-week-long basic courses or, if they were unable to attend these
courses, they could receive the same training by taking evening classes
for a longer period of time. Of course, such a short training was not
enough to prepare the Lottas for actual medical care. Although they wanted
to operate near the frontlines, the Civil Guards gave the impression that
they would never be able to do so. However, in a presentation given in
1925 by Professor Hjalmar von Bonsdorff it was proposed that medical
Lottas could work in field hospitals as nurses or their assistants if a
war broke out. It also proposed that the training periods for medical
Lottas should be lengthened to correspond to these tasks.
These guidelines were soon followed when a committee set by the central
board planned six-month-long training periods for nursing assistants. In
addition, the committee commissioned a reform in the regulations for the
Medical division and made a very ambitious plan to build field hospitals.
This plan was set in motion in 1930 with an objective of eight
fully-equipped field hospitals, each of which would have 150 patient beds.
This became the organization’s largest operation of the 1930s; at the same
time it was the first measure of support which was primarily meant to help
the National Defense and not the Civil Guards, which the Lotta Svärd
organization had been firmly supporting up to that point (Lukkarinen
85-86).
Later, during the Winter War and the Continuation War, the Medical
division took part in setting up many more field hospitals, stationary war
hospitals and medical trains. When the Winter War broke out, the main
purpose of the division was to train medical Lottas, who assisted the real
nurses in the stationary and field hospitals and also in first aid
stations and medical trains. Their other responsibilities included civil
defense duties, setting up hospitals and sick rooms for evacuees and
tending to convalescents. In addition they prepared bandaging material and
took care of the medical supplies. Lottas washed and fixed the wounded
soldiers’ clothes, with the aim that every soldier would have clean and
mended clothes or, if needed, an entirely new set of clothes when they
left the hospital. The Medical division also included a special veterinary
division which took care of the horses’ welfare. Some of the Lottas in the
Medical division were called Blood Lottas, because they were responsible
for transporting donated blood. The hardest part fell to those medical
Lottas who had volunteered to work in the evacuation centers for fallen
soldiers, where the bodies were put into caskets and sent to their
families to be buried (Lukkarinen 142-145, Pala).
The Provisioning Division
The work of the Provisioning division was from the beginning the most
extensive and visible form of Lotta work. Provisioning was also a priority
in the organization’s main duty: supporting the Civil Guards. This
division’s Lottas provided for in all of the Civil Guards’ events, which
meant that their work varied from serving coffee in small gatherings to
organizing full provisioning for large camps and exercises. Although the
Provisioning division carried the heaviest workload, on the other hand it
also had by far the largest number of members. In addition, Lottas from
other divisions took part in the work of the Provisioning division during
events which required extensive provisioning. According to the rules set
in 1926, the purpose of the Provisioning division was taking care of the
provisioning for the Civil Guards and training the division’s Lottas
during peace, as well as providing the Civil Guards with a necessary
number of provisioning Lottas in the event of national mobilization
(Lukkarinen 88).
The Equipment Division
The main work of the Equipment division was preparing, maintaining and
keeping a list of the equipment for both Lotta Svärd and the Civil Guards,
preparing materials needed for their sewing circles and organizing rummage
sales. Since its foundation, the Lotta Svärd organization had been aiding
the invalids of the Finnish Civil War, along with their families. This
work was especially the Equipment division’s responsibility. This division
consisted mainly of elder Lottas, who carried out their Lotta duties by
doing handiwork; it also had the smallest number of members (Lukkarinen
92).
Air surveillance Lottas on duty
(Image source: Koskimies 2).
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The Fundraising and Office Division
Accordingly to its original name, the Fundraising division was mainly
responsible for collecting funds for both its own operations and the Civil
Guards. This division was traditionally also responsible for organizing
parties, rummage sales and all sorts of other events. The reference to
“office” was added to the division’s name in 1925 when its operations were
changed to include providing office help for the Civil Guards. As the
Lotta Svärd organization assumed new forms of operating, these were added
to the Fundraising and Office division because the operations of the other
divisions were much more clearly defined, and the Office division had
traditionally taken care of all the leftover tasks. These new forms of
operating included sea and air surveillance and the information service
(Lukkarinen 97).
The division raised funds in various ways, including organizing events,
gathering supporting members and selling Lotta publications. Even though
the division mainly worked with financing and fundraising, it also had an
important role in morale building: to spread patriotism and the will to
participate in national defense not only among the Civil Guards but also
the whole nation. Naturally, the whole organization participated in this
work; its sheer number of members made it possible for the organization to
give the people strength simply by setting an example. In practice,
however, the main responsibility fell on the Fundraising and Office
division, which organized parties and educational meetings (Lukkarinen
97-98).
During the war the work of the Fundraising and Office division directly
benefited the defensive forces. The Lottas who were assigned to the
defensive forces were usually in positions where they replaced men
assigned to the same tasks; thus they helped free soldiers for the front
lines. These Lottas worked as typists, cartographers, telephone operators
and weather observers, among other positions. In 1944, a special
searchlight unit was formed from the Lottas because of the shortage of
men. Although the Lotta Svärd organization had a strict rule that all
their members were to work unarmed, this special unit became the
organization’s first and last all-female military unit. The Lottas in this
unit were allowed to carry guns, and were expected to fight if they were
attacked (Lukkarinen 242-243, 248-249).
The Little Lottas
The Little Lottas was the organization’s youth division, which
consisted of girls aged 8 to 16. The main point of the division was to
raise new members for Lotta Svärd. The only requirement for new members
was that they had to be at least 8 years old and have permission from
their parents. As it did not matter whether the girls’ parents were
members of Civil Guards or Lotta Svärd or not, there were many girls
joining the division whose parents belonged to neither group. To make the
division’s operations easier, the girl’s divisions were separated into two
age groups: 8-13-year-olds and 14-16-year-olds. When a member turned 17,
she had the opportunity to request to become a member of Lotta Svärd. By
the end of the 1930s, most of the new members came from the girl’s
divisions (Lukkarinen 103).
The Little Lottas were not separated into divisions like the main
organization, but they took part in nearly all aspects of Lotta work. The
girls took part in work nights and camps where they were taught the basics
of division work (Lukkarinen 105). The aim was to teach the girls to love
their religion, home and home country while at the same time teaching them
the necessary skills and knowledge for national defense. The Little
Lottas’ work mainly consisted of helping acting Lottas in their duties;
often the oldest girls freed acting Lottas to be able to take part in
harder and more dangerous tasks (Pala).
Ideology of the Organization
According to the rules, the purpose of the Lotta Svärd organization was
to invoke and strengthen the ideology of the Civil Guards and to aid the
Civil Guards in protecting religion, home and country. The organization
carried out its purpose by attempting to raise the people’s morale and
will for national defense and also by working for national defense in
various fields of activity. At the same time the organization aimed to
raise Finnish women to be model citizens. A Finnish woman was supposed to
be patriotic, self-sacrificing, brave, enduring, responsible and skilled.
The organization’s ideology was based on Christianity, morality and
patriotism, which was also engraved in the organization’s Golden Words,
which were an essential part in the crystallization of the “Lotta spirit”.
The Golden Words were as follows:
- May the fear of God be the greatest strength in your life!
- Learn to love your country and your people!
- Value your Lotta ideals. Only when you are righteous, pure and
sober can you be a true Lotta!
- Always demand the most from yourself!
- Be good!
- Be loyal even in the smallest things!
- When you encounter misfortune, remember the greatness of our goal!
- Respect your Lotta sisters and aid them in their work, thus you can
strengthen the feeling of unity!
- Remember the work of the past generations. Respect your elders, for
they have done more than us!
- Be modest in the way you behave and dress!
- Submit to self-discipline in order to raise the discipline of the
organization!
- Lotta, remember that you represent a great, patriotic
organization. Be wary of doing anything that may hurt it or damage its
reputation!5 (Rautio 14-16)
The Lotta Svärd disciplinary regulations and the Golden Words obliged
every Lotta to remember that they represented the whole organization. The
discipline was absolute concerning the use of alcohol and tobacco: the
organization forbade the Lottas from using alcohol while on duty and while
wearing the Lotta uniform, and smoking was not allowed in public. Lottas
were also not allowed to use make-up while wearing their uniforms, and the
use of jewelry was restricted so that only wristwatches and wedding and
engagement rings could be used (Rautio 39). Improper behavior could result
in disciplinary measures or in the worst case expulsion from the
organization (Lukkarinen 222).
Although the rules were usually strictly followed, some problems did
emerge. The tense wartime atmosphere gave rise to all sorts of negative
rumors about the behavior of Lottas on the front lines. There were of
course some actual cases of rule-breaking, for example drinking or smoking
in public, but in most cases the rumors proved to be baseless.
Additionally, most of the rule-breakers were young women who had only
recently been accepted into the organization during a time of great need
for new recruits, and who had not had time to adopt the organization’s
ideals (Kataja 122). All in all, only 346 Lottas, comprising only 0.38% of
the 232,000 members, were ever expelled from the organization for breaking
the code of behavior (Lukkarinen 222).
Abolition of Lotta Svärd and the Years That Followed
The Continuation War ended on September 19th, 1944, when Finland signed
an interim peace treaty with the Soviet Union. The 21st article of the
treaty required Finland to abolish all “Hitler-minded (fascistic)
political, military and military-oriented organizations as well as other
organizations which practiced propaganda against the United Nations and
especially the Soviet Union.” Although the Finnish government and the
leaders of the defensive forces felt that the Civil Guards
could not be considered to be a “Hitler-minded” organization, the treaty’s
reference to military organizations gave reason to assume that the
article’s main purpose was the abolition of the Civil Guards. As the Lotta
Svärd organization was closely connected with the Civil Guards in its
operations, the Lottas could also feel the same foreboding (Lukkarinen
303).
At that point, the main concern of the organization’s management was
the future of its members who had suffered because of the war. In
addition, the management worried about the families of the war invalids
and the war orphans whom the organization was committed to aid. In order
to make sure that this welfare work would continue, even if the
organization was abolished, the management set up Suomen Naisten
Huoltosäätiö [the Foundation of Finnish Women] to which it donated a
large part of the organization’s properties and funds (Lukkarinen 303).
This foundation still exists to this day, though its name was changed in
2004 to Lotta Svärd Säätiö [the Lotta Svärd Foundation].
Under the terms of the interim peace treaty, the Civil Guards
organization was abolished on November 7, 1944. Soon afterwards, on
November 23 of the same year, the Lotta Svärd organization was also
abolished (Lukkarinen 300, 305). At the time of the abolition, the Lotta
Svärd organization consisted of 232,000 members, of whom 150,000 were
active members, 30,000 supporting members and 52,000 Little Lottas.
Approximately 300 Lottas had been killed in the line of duty during the
years the organization had operated (Rautio 28-29).
The establishment of the peace treaty drastically changed the
atmosphere in Finland. Thousands of organizations were abolished in
accordance with the 21st article of the treaty, and the ideals the members
had lived by were labeled as “criminal” by many politicians who wanted to
avoid further conflict with the Soviet Union. Many former members of these
abolished organizations had to either deny or keep quiet about their pasts
for many decades (Uola 221). As a result of this, the Lotta Svärd
organization was hardly even discussed for almost 50 years.
Although the 1980s saw a national restoration which returned its honor
to Lotta Svärd, the restoration could not fully erase the negative images
that the peace treaty and its interpretations had left behind (Uola 261).
This situation finally improved in 1991 with the fall of the Soviet Union,
which changed the operating environment of Finland’s foreign policy, and
thus also influenced the Finns’ interpretation of their own recent
history.
On September 13, 1991, a committee led by the Minister for
Defense organized an event in celebration of the 70th anniversary of the
founding of the Lotta Svärd organization. The purpose of this event was to
give Lottas official recognition from the State for their work during the
war years for the first time since 1944. The Finns’ attitude towards the
Lotta Svärd organization had been getting steadily more respectful since
the 1980s, but it was this event which encouraged former Lottas to start
talking in public about their experiences as members of the organization.
Since then, many associations which aim to uphold the memory and spiritual
heritage of the Lotta Svärd organization have been set up all over
Finland. Additionally, in recent years researchers have become more
interested in the Lotta Svärd organization, and this has led to many
research papers and memoirs being written (Kinnunen 220-221, 233). After
almost 50 years of silence, the Lotta Svärd organization is finally
gaining the attention it deserves.
The Organization’s Influence in Finland and Abroad
Lotta Svärd was an unequalled women’s organization, with
achievements of which Finland can be proud. It was the biggest voluntary
civil defense organization in Finnish history, and had more members than
any other women’s voluntary civil defense organization in the world
(Rautio 28). At the time of its founding, the organization had no real
predecessor. Instead, it became an inspiring example to other countries,
including Sweden, Estonia, Norway and Denmark, who soon set up similar
women’s organizations of their own (Lukkarinen 114).
Finland has always been one of the forerunners of women’s rights. The
roots of this slowly developing movement can be traced back to the 19th
century, long before the founding of Lotta Svärd, but the organization in
question did have an influence on the position of women in Finland. This
subject has recently been studied by Annika Latva-Äijö at the University
of Turku. According to Latva-Äijö, the prevailing gender system in the
predominantly rural Finland of the period was opposed to women working
independently in society. Thus, this prevailing gender system was changed
by the development of Lotta Svärd, which was driven by the small nation’s
need for national defense. The society slowly became more accepting of
working women. At the same time, women started to get more chances to
participate in activities outside the home.
The Significance of Lotta Svärd for Finland
In addition to having a positive influence on the position of women in
Finland, the Lotta Svärd organization also played an important role in
supporting the national defense both materially and spiritually during the
war years. Besides supporting the troops, the Lottas helped free
soldiers for the front lines or other national defense duties by taking on
tasks that would otherwise have belonged to men. One of the organization’s
most important achievements during the war years was creating and
upholding the nation’s will for national defense. The sheer number of
members in the organization made it possible for the organization to
influence both homes and the whole society by simply setting an example.
Thus, it is greatly thanks to Lotta Svärd that Finland’s home front
managed to mentally endure the war years so well. Although Finland had
suffered greatly in the Continuation War, the results of the war could
have been much more devastating for Finland without Lotta Svärd’s help.
One can only speculate whether the Finland today would still exist as it
is now if Lotta Svärd had never existed.
Notes
- To find out more about the topic, see The Evolution of
Finnish Autonomy (Väliaho, 2005).
- The "years of oppression" (1899-1905,
1908-1917) were a period of time in Finland’s history when Russia
attempted to terminate Finland’s autonomy with a governmental policy
called Russification. The policy included giving the imperial government
the right to rule Finland without the consent of local legislative bodies,
incorporating the Finnish army into the imperial army, and making Russian
the state language of Finland. This policy resulted in Finnish resistance,
which escalated from petitions into strikes, passive and active resistance
and finally into the assassination of the Russian governor-general Nikolai
Bobrikov in June 1904 (Solsten and Meditz).
- The Jaeger troops took part in the Finnish
Civil War on the White side and contributed greatly to its victory. They
later had an important role in establishing and developing the national
defence force of independent Finland. They also took part in the Winter
War and the Continuation War (Nuppola and Viitala).
- The Civil Guards is one translation of the
Finnish military organization Suojeluskunnat, but many other
translations have been used. The Wikipedia
page on the White Guards, for example, mentions these possible
translations: White Guards, Security Guard, National Guard, White Militia,
Defence Corps, Protection Guard, Protection Corps and Protection Militia.
- The Golden Words were translated from the
Finnish by Mari Uola.
Works Cited
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