page_title: Lotta Svärd
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Lotta Svärd / History
caption_attribution_description: Finnish dolls from the 1940's wearing "lotta" uniforms
context_page_description: Lotta Svärd was a Finnish voluntary auxiliary paramilitary organisation for women. Formed originally in 1918, it had a large membership undertaking volunteer social work in the 1920s and 1930s. It was formed to support the White Guard. During the Second World War, it mobilized to replace men conscripted into the army. It served in hospitals, at air raid warning positions, and other auxiliary tasks in close cooperation with the army. The women were officially unarmed except for an antiaircraft battery in 1944. Virtanen argues that, their "accountability to the nation took a masculine and military form in public, but had a private, feminine side to it including features like caring, helping and loving." The organisation was suppressed by the government after the war.
context_section_description: During the Finnish Civil War it was associated with the White Guard. After the war Lotta Svärd was founded as a separate organisation on 9 September 1920. The first known organisation to use the name Lotta Svärd was the Lotta Svärd of Riihimäki, founded on 11 November 1918.
  The organisation expanded during the 1920s and it included 60,000 members in 1930. By 1944 it included 242,000 volunteers, the largest voluntary auxiliary organisation in the world, while the total population of Finland was less than four million.
  During the 1920s and 1930s only Christian Finnish citizens were eligible to join, and two references from persons considered reliable were required. The latter requirement was often ignored after the break of Winter War in 1939. Foreigners could be accepted by special permission. However, in 1940 the first Muslim and Jewish members were accepted, and the first non-denominational member in 1941.
caption: Wartime dolls dressed as Lottas.
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