The War Heroine in the Finnish Organization : Lotta Svärd

Abstract

This paper focuses on a Finnish women’s paramilitary organization called ‘Lotta Svärd’ in a wartime context, from 1939 to 1944. During the Second World War, thousands of members of the organization served as volunteers with the Finnish Army. The primary data for this study consist of the organization’s magazine, Lotta Svärd, as well as archival documents stored in the Finnish War Document Archives. This study seeks to explore what kind of war heroine was constructed in Lotta Svärd. We found four representations of the heroine: Mother, Soldier, Body and Holy Sacrifice. While war histories are mainly written by men and for men, this study is intended to contribute to research by presenting women’s part in the war and increasing our knowledge of gender in a specific historical context.