Bring Back the Draft? Finland Never Ended It
Fueled by tinned fish, cigarettes and cinnamon donuts, some 24,000 Finnish conscripts undergo basic training each year.
(L-R) Antti Ritvanen (loader), Jukka Miinalainen (gunner) and Viljami Töhönen (platoon leader and tank commander) with their Leopard 2 tank at the Rovajärvi range, November 2025.
Photographer: Louie Palu/Agence VU
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If I walked into a bar in Midtown Manhattan and shouted, “Who here knows how to use an anti-tank weapon?” I’d almost certainly be met with blank stares from the patrons or, worse, reported to the police. But if I asked the same question at a bar in Helsinki, every single male customer would probably raise his hand. In Finland, they start teaching some of the tactics of 21st-century hybrid warfare in preschool.