Russia’s invasion of Ukraine did not find her Finland unprepared.
Even the Santa Claus theme park, in his “birthplace” in the snowy north, is ready to put aside its elves and return to its original function: an emergency shelter in the event of an attack.
Tens of thousands of tourists visit the Santa Claus theme park in the city every year Rovaniemi in Lapland and are photographed with his tenant.
In its cavernous underground corridors are the Santa Claus post office, the elf school, craft shops, Christmas trees and reindeer.
However, the main purpose of the space is not only festive.
Carved into a 50-meter-high hill, the shelter is equipped to withstand bombardment or chemical or nuclear weapons attacks and can accommodate 3,600 people.
It has campaign beds, first aid kits, and even tunneling equipment that brings you back to the surface in the event of a building collapse.
A well provides water although those who take refuge there will have to bring their own food.
Although most Santa Claus items will need to be removed in case the space needs to be used as a shelter, some toys from the souvenir shop will remain there for the children to be accommodated.
“In the event of a crisis, Rovaniemi residents will be protected here,” said Rovaniemi’s 54-year-old security chief, Tapio Hietakangas.
“And if families come here and need to stay for a long time, it’s a good place to think about comfort for the kids,” he continues.
The Santa Claus Shelter is just one of about 50,000 built after the two wars with the former Soviet Union (STS) in 1939, when the three-month “winter war” broke out and in 1941-1944 with the so-called “War of Continuity”).
In peacetime it hosts swimming pools, sports centers or indoor parking lots: this giant network is part of everyday life all over Finland.
It could be turned into an emergency space that could house about 80% of the country’s 5.5 million inhabitants in a matter of hours if a military conflict spreads beyond the 1,300-kilometer Finland-Russia border or even destruction of a nuclear plant in Russia.
Private suppliers are paid by the government to maintain a surplus of food, fuel and medicine.
The suspicious Finns
Military readiness is another issue. Although the number of salaried soldiers in Finland was 19,000 last year, the country’s defense is based on compulsory military service, which in the event of a war requires 285,000 men.
Following the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February, Finland decided to end its long-standing policy of military neutrality and apply to join NATO.
Moscow has called it a hostile move that threatens its own security, although it has not yet announced what measures – and if so – it will take in response.
Independent Finland fought two wars with Russia between 1939 and 1944, thwarting invasion attempts.
However, Finland’s suspicion of Russia dates back to the “Isoviha” or “Great Rage”, a period of Russian occupation that devastated the region between 1713 and 1721, when the country was still part of Sweden.
More than 800 kilometers south of Rovaniemi in the capital Helsinki, town planner Tommy Rusk has spent 25 years preparing and training people for a possible military strike.
Helsinki has an underground administration center built in the 1980s to protect the city’s management from a possible nuclear explosion, as well as some 5,500 civilian shelters.
Most shelters in Finland are private, as it has been required by law to build a shelter under each apartment building since 1940. Only those located in Helsinki have room for about 900,000 people, for a population of about 650,000 living in city.
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