Finnish Lotta Svärd volunteer

Lotta Svärd member with Lotta hakarisiti badge on collar

Lotta Svärd was a Finnish voluntary auxiliary paramilitary organisation for women, inarguably the most important voluntary organisation for women in Finnish history and was the worlds largest women’s national defence organisation. As with the Suojeluskunta, is a little difficult to describe correctly as there was no similar organisation in the USA, Britain of other Western European countries (again, as with the Suojeluskunta, similar organisations existed in the Baltic States and Scandanavia, but they were modeled on the Finnish organisation). While the USA had women in the military, as well as volunteer womens groups, and the British had women in the military (the Womans Land Army, the Womens Voluntary Service, the Auxilary Territorial Service, the Womens Auxilary Air Force being British examples) there is no easy direct comparison to the Lotta Svärd, which was very much an all-encompassing women’s organisation which was directly connected to the day to day needs of both the Finnish nation and the Finnish military. Members of the Lotta Svärd had a supreme sense of duty to the service of the Finnish nation and the pride in this overriding duty had always been a factor in the internal doctrine of the organization. The ideals of dedication, service, and pride in one’s nation were all important beliefs to Lotta members.
http://www.alternativefinland.com/lotta-svard-yhdistys/

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