By Rudy Owens, MA, MPH
As a Finnish-American, I have a clear pro-Finland bias.
I offer zero apologies for my appreciation of this Nordic nation, where two of my great grandparents began their modest lives before leaving for the United States in the early 1900s to start a new life as immigrants. As a U.S. citizen who appreciates national priorities like having a functional, national health system, I especially admire many things about the Finnish people and how they care for their people.
I also respect Finland’s grit and history having navigated its harsh path to independence through extreme events, including an invasion during World War II.
Many media commentators outside of Finland have explained and appropriated the word “sisu,” used to explain this Finnish trait on social media posts and stories explaining Finnish culture and traditions.
Finland and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, NATO, have also weighed in on the word’s meaning, with strategic messaging, aimed at European allies and Russia.
NATO published a short video on January 28, 2025, highlighting the expression and significance of the word sisu and how Finland as a newly admitted NATO member trains its conscripts in its arctic regions, where the notion of sisu is further internalized by its soldiers.
The video features one young Finnish female conscript, training in Lapland, talking to the camera while dressed in her winter fatigues: “Sisu. You cannot understand that word if you haven’t been in Finland,” she says. “You have to come here, and be outside in the point of breaking, when you’ve got so angry you have no other choice than to keep going on.”
The video serves as straightforward NATO messaging. It was released at a time when the decades-old military alliance of European countries, Canada, and the United States is weakening, with the United States under the current administration of President Donald Trump pressuring once-former U.S. allies to absorb NATO costs while also threatening to take over Greenland militarily and tap into its resources.
The video also sends a subtle message to Finland’s larger neighbor, Russia, who know from experience the cost of fighting Finnish soldiers on Finnish soil during winter.
A summary with the video highlights that 21,000 Finnish conscripts each year complete their military training, mostly preparing for the threat across the 830-mile-long border: “Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, this number has increased—the rise largely driven by female volunteers—and Finland made the historic decision to abandon military neutrality and subsequently joined NATO in April 2023.”
Sisu and Finland’s uneasy relation with its Russian neighbor
The new NATO video pays obvious homage to Finland’s past and its conflict with its large neighbor. Sisu is often used to describe how Finland withstood overwhelming odds during the Soviet Union’s invasion, known as the Winter War, between November 30, 1939 and March 13, 1940. It then fought two more conflicts: a second war with the USSR (1941-44) launched by Finland to reclaim lost territory and a final conflict with its former ally Nazi Germany (1944-45).
Carl GE Mannerheim, commander-in-chief in Finland’s military during the years of conflict from 1939-1945, made one of his most famous addresses in March 1940 that best captures this wartime resolve by Finnish forces, who held off vastly superior invading Soviet forces: “When some day the history of this war is written, the world will learn of your efforts.”
That is the sisu known by people who may know little else of Finnish history—brave soldiers fighting against impossible odds and enduring.
However, sisu is more than courage, defined by the terrible years of war.
Finnish people are the experts who can best to explain it, and I borrow from their work. One writer, Joanna Nylund, writes that it can be a “stoic determination, hardiness, courage, bravery, willpower, tenacity, and resilience.” It is also “an action-oriented mindset,” where you “let your actions do the talking.”
Sisu is derived from the word “sisus.” That translates to “interior,” or inside of a thing or a being. It also references the gut or intestines. It can also be used to describe Finns’ individual and national strength and ability “to keep going no matter what.”
It is a product of being an arctic country with a challenging environment, historic famines, and centuries of foreign occupation by the Swedish and then Russian empires, combined with the three costly conflicts during World War II. One Finnish description I found compared it the ability to get through granite. That description sticks the most with me.
Finland responds to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine
The February 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, without provocation, led to historic changes across Europe, including within Finland. A December 2024 estimate widely quoted from Ukraine states 43,000 Ukrainian soldiers have been killed and 370,000 injured since February 2022, compared to 198,000 Russian soldiers killed and 550,000 injured.
After decades of its strategic nonalignment, Finland made its historic pivot to the NATO alliance, formally becoming a member in April 2023. Finland shares the longest land border with Russia than any NATO member nation, at 830 miles, and has centuries of experience with its larger neighbor.
Tensions recently escalated since November 2024 with the cutting of Baltic Sea cables connecting Finland with its Baltic neighboring countries. All told, 11 Baltic Sea cables have been damaged since October 2023. Many commentators have suggested Russia’s “shadow fleet,” including foreign flagged cargo vessels, were tied to the latest provocations and sabotage.
When asked how Finland would respond, Finnish leaders and diplomats cautiously choose their messages that get picked up on YouTube and social media globally.
Often the stories about Finland’s response to the current tensions are combined with banter on light topics, like Finnish sauna culture. But they also take on the reality of Russian hostility to Finland.
The Finnish Ambassador to Australia, Arto Haapea, on December 10, 2024, responded to a question from the Australian broadcast show called The Project with clearly selected talking points how Finland deals with hostile acts tied to Russia and Russian President Vladimir Putin. “Finns tend to sleep their nights pretty well,” he said, with a smile, to convey that Finland is calm and that the country and its residents would not be goaded by hostile acts.
Viewers in Australia or others who saw this lighthearted chatter likely did not know that Finland has mandatory military service for all men, starting at age 18. Military conscription is optional for women.
“According to the Constitution of Finland every Finnish citizen is obligated to participate in national [defense],” notes the Finnish Defense Forces. “Every male Finnish citizen aged 18-60 is liable for military service, and women can apply for military service on a voluntary basis.”
Conscription ensures Finland projects a strong deterrent against Russia, who have unleashed the largest war on the European continent since the destructive World War II.
The Finnish Defense Forces outlines the strategic role of this legal provision this way: “Finnish conscription meets the requirements of the security environment and generates sufficient resources for the Army, Navy, and Air Force to act effectively in a crisis or war situation. Conscription is a cost-effective way of generating a large and capable reserve.”
Men remain available for future service. According to the Finnish Defense Forces:
- After military service, men are entered into the reserve.
- Rank and file remain in the reserve until they turn 50, and they receive a maximum of 80 or 150 days of refresher training during their reservist time.
- Officers and non-commissioned officers stay in the reserve until they turn 60.
- During this time, they will receive a maximum of 200 days of refresher training.
- Each male aged 18-60 belongs to the auxiliary reserve.
This means that able-bodied men in Finland all have military training, and many of them have their own personal collection of firearms. (I can personally attest to seeing some of those personal firearm collections in Finland.) Social media accounts by Finnish men will inevitably show them in their fatigues doing training. It’s very Finnish and not comparable to the U.S. subculture of “prepping.”
Finland’s leadership has also chosen its words carefully describing the hostilities in Europe and living next to an aggressor nation, Russia. During a defense speech on December 11, 2024, in Helsinki, Finnish President Alexander Stubb said: “We aim to create deterrence that would guarantee territorial stability. However, we must bear in mind that, ultimately, it is the enemy that decides how deterrence works. Every day, we must make it clear to the enemy that today is not the day when they should venture out to test Finland’s will, unity, and power.”
Deterrence—a family and societal affair
Deterrence in Finland is best understood as its large reserve of civilians, who are also trained soldiers. They include my “distal” male relatives, who I only found starting in 2023. All have worn a Finnish military uniform.
I recently met my male relatives in 2023 and 2024, during my separate trips to Finland. Two of them proudly showed me their video recordings on their cell phones of them shooting Finland’s famous machine gun used during its wars with the USSR, called the Suomi-konepistooli M31. They are comfortable with guns, mostly for hunting. Another one of my male relatives has a living room display of two decommissioned Suomi KP/31s. (He was appreciative I understood what they represented and why they are iconic for many Finnish men.)
Today, as the NATO video showed, conscripts include Finnish women. During my winter trip to Finland, in February 2024, I spotted at least one young female conscript in her military fatigues and traveling by train, but most young people in uniform were men.
Finland recently launched a women’s training initiative called Nasta, organized by the Women’s National Emergency Preparedness Association in Finland. Other courses include cybersecurity, mental resilience, wilderness skills, snowmobile use, and information influencing. According to a November 23, 2024 Guardian news story on Finnish women taking these training courses, applications by women have “soared.”
Teemu Turunen, deputy director for the Finnish intelligence and security service, Supo, told the Guardian that Finland was taking a “whole-of-society approach,” among men and women. He said Finns were “quite cool-headed about the threat,” noting the country had been preparing “a long time already.”
After seeing the latest NATO sisu video, I went back to my journal I kept during my trip to Finland in February 2024 and re-read my passages. In describing my meeting with two of my relatives last winter, I wrote, “I have two male cousins comfortable with machine guns, including vintage weapons from World War II. So, to answer a proverbial question: What happens when the bear crosses the border? The bear is badly wounded, I think. That’s my best guess about current affairs.”
Published February 2, 2025
Keywords/Meta Tags: Sisu, Finland, Finnish History, Nasta, Suomi-konepistooli, Winter War, Continuation War, Lapland War, World War II, Baltic Sea Cables, Finnish Deterrence, Carl GE Mannerheim, Mannerheim, NATO, North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Russia, Vladimir Putin, Putin, Ukraine, Ukraine War, Ukraine Invasion