Swedes prepare for possibility of war

After centuries of non-alignment, officials urge ‘peace damaged’ public to be ‘mentally’ ready

STOCKHOLM: Tinned food, a portable water filter and medicine: survival expert Harry Sepp shows his Stockholm neighbor the supplies she would need to get through the first days of a war. “Everything you see here is something the state recommends everyone should have to manage on their own for at least 10 days,” Sepp, a pensioner who gave prepper courses for more than 20 years, explains.

On the cusp of the country’s NATO membership, and faced with an increasingly belligerent Russia, Sweden’s army chief Micael Byden alarmed many of his compatriots in January when he urged them to consider their own preparedness. “Swedes have to mentally prepare for war,” he said. Sepp tells AFP the remarks were “necessary”. “Remember the situation at the time of the pandemic,” he says, recalling supply shortages. At his neighbor’s apartment, he insists on the need for a wind-up radio.

“Most important is the radio, because if you don’t get any information about what’s happening ... you’ll wonder all the time how long this situation will go on.” His neighbor Rebecca, a mother of three who didn’t want to give her last name, tries to take in his advice. “You can prepare all that stuff but that doesn’t mean you will be mentally prepared for a war,” she says.

Sweden’s military has been boosting its preparedness since Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea. The country reintroduced limited conscription in 2017, reopened a garrison on the Baltic Sea island of Gotland in 2018, and has massively increased defense spending after slashing it during the post-Cold War period.

Most significantly, Sweden dropped two centuries of military non-alignment to join NATO. Swedish authorities also reactivated the country’s so-called “total defense” — comprising civilian and military defense — in 2015, bolstering efforts further after Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

Among other things, it appointed a minister of civil defense. “The underpinning value is that everybody can contribute and has a duty to contribute” to the country’s defense, says Charlotte Petri Gornitzka, director of the Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency (MSB).

Water for three days

“If you are healthy, you are obliged to care for yourself for a week,” she says, noting that the state would help the weakest first. The brochure “If Crisis or War Comes” was sent to 4.9 million households in 2018 and translated into 14 languages. It will be updated by the end of the year.

Sweden has not gone to war in more than two centuries, leaving the population so poorly prepared for the possibility that there is even a Swedish term for it: “fredsskadad”, or peace damaged.

For the generations born after the end of the Cold War, the prospect of conflict is entirely new. As with its military defense, Sweden maintained its civil defense throughout the Cold War, but scaled both back after the break-up of the Soviet Union.

A poll commissioned by MSB after Byden’s remarks showed that a third of the 1,000 people surveyed were now more worried about the possibility of war, especially young people. One in three also said they had begun to consider how to prepare at home. Home preparedness for war is however “a very long process to change”, says Herman Andersson, a researcher at the Swedish Defence Research Agency.

He cited a study he conducted which showed that more than half of Swedes only have enough drinking water at home for three days in case of a power outage, a level that remained unchanged between 2018 and 2022.

Martin Svennberg, a 52-year-old IT engineer, has been a “prepper” for five years. “We’ve been living in peace for so long that we have forgotten all the bad things with war,” he tells AFP. He was “really happy that finally someone in politics dared to say that we could be in trouble”.

Svennberg contributes to a website about “prepping” and makes YouTube videos and podcasts, which have grown increasingly popular since Byden’s remarks. “Taking the step to actually be prepared is huge,” he says.

Since the concept of war is daunting, he suggests people start by considering what they would need if their home were ravaged by fire. “We call that a ‘personal apocalypse’ and that’s a good start to get prepared.”

Svennberg considers MSB’s recommendation to have enough food to last seven to 10 days insufficient. “One week is a good start but I recommend one month or even three months of storage.” “Take it in small steps. Every time you buy groceries, buy something extra,” he suggests. — AFP