The resistance manual used during the Soviet Union’s years is being dusted off and updated in Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and Finland.

The iron lock freezes in winter, making it impossible to insert the key to open the door. Also, if you want to go to the bathroom, you have to leave the basement and go up to the nearest subway station. Despite these drawbacks, beneath the landscaped Herman Triers Plads in the heart of Copenhagen lies a relic of the past that may soon need to be dusted off. For a few years now, a 25-year-old has been renting bunker 326, built during the Cold War, as a music rehearsal room. As well as being a good place to make noise without disturbing anyone, shelters like this one are spread throughout the city and for decades were of great importance in building part of what was known as the ‘civil defence’ of Denmark.

In this country, as well as in Norway, Sweden and Finland, when the threat of a nuclear conflict with the USSR was the order of the day, the population was prepared to react in the event of all kinds of emergencies, missile attacks or bombing. 

With the fall of the Berlin Wall, the perception in the Nordic countries that Russia represented a threat was diluted and civil defense plans almost fell into oblivion. But with the invasion of Crimea first, and now the war in Ukraine, it has been confirmed that the countries cannot rule out any possible threat. 

Even less so, given Moscow’s warning that if Sweden and Finland join NATO, all defense systems in the Baltic Sea will be activated and placed on high alert, including the nuclear arsenal.

Finland, which shares more than 1,300 kilometers of border with Russia, is one of the countries in Europe that is best prepared for a war scenario, and Sweden has an extensive network of well-signposted bunkers that are easily accessible to the population, designed to protect its citizens from possible military attacks, radiation or chemical weapons. 

In Denmark, a founding member country of NATO, the last count made in 2002 indicated that it hosted shelters for 4.7 million inhabitants, which represents 80% of the current population. Just over two weeks after Russian tanks rolled into Ukraine, the Danish Emergency Management Agency and the Ministry of Defense have called for a reassessment of the status of these shelters, as the country considers how to upgrade civilian defense systems.

Bunkers and millions of iodine pills

For weeks now, the Danish media have been reporting that iodine pills, used to protect against radiation in the event of a nuclear leak, have run out of pharmacies and drugstores. 

The news was even more surprising when the National Health Council announced in March the purchase of two million of these capsules, which would be distributed in an emergency in schools and among the population under 40 years of age. 

In turn, the Emergency Management Service’s website stated in a statement published in both Ukrainian and Russian that the emergency sirens would be tested on May 4, an exercise that is done on a regular basis to ensure that the warning system is working properly.

From the Ministry of Defense and the Danish Intelligence services, it has been reiterated on numerous occasions that “there is no military threat against Denmark”. However, the perception may be different, since a survey recently published on DR public television indicated that one in three Danes fears that the conflict in Ukraine will end up turning into a Third World War and end up hitting their country.

According to Rasmus Dahlberg, an expert in strategic studies at the Defense Academy, “after the war in Ukraine, there is no increase in threat, but there is an increase in threat perception“. 

“In the last two decades we’ve forgotten about bunkers, like everything else to do with the Cold War, and a lot of new buildings have been built without proper bunkers,” he adds. 

“Some of the shelters are in such a horrible shape that they could no longer be used,” says Lene Sandberg, a crisis management expert at the University of Copenhagen. “But many others are, so it is crucial to know exactly what is available.”

How many are available across the country? There was a law in place until 2003 that required bunker owners to have them operable within 24 hours of receiving notification. However, there is no longer a time limit, and many residents use these shelters as storage rooms beneath their homes.

Beyond the shelters, for Rasmus Dahlberg civil defense systems would have to be updated and put to the test in the current context. “Now we don’t need so many concrete walls, we need more ‘firewalls’ ”, says the expert. Denmark has one of the most digitized public administrations in the world, a highly coordinated and efficient technological system that works really well, “but at the same time makes us much more vulnerable to cyber attacks, so it would make sense from now on to prioritize security cybernetics,” he says.

Following the example of Sweden and Finland

In Sweden, the word ‘skyddsrum’ means ‘safe room’ and refers to shelters and bunkers that are easily recognizable from the outside by an icon of a blue triangle within an orange square. Currently, the country has 65,000 shelters that have the capacity to accommodate nearly seven million citizens. In 2002, the government decided to stop building more bunkers, but in recent years, as grievances with Russia have become more apparent and the country has moved closer to NATO, a plan has been developed to build more. On the website of the Swedish Civil Protection Agency, it is easy to find a map with the location of each shelter, as well as an information brochure for crisis situations that have been distributed since 2018 in every home in the country. There, it is specified how citizens should act in the event of an attack with chemical weapons or a bombing, in addition to detailing what should be included in the emergency kit that everyone should have at home.

But if there is a country in northern Europe that, due to its history and its location, is more prepared for a possible escalation in the conflict with Russia, this is Finland. Beneath Helsinki’s subsoil, an extensive network of tunnels has been built for years. 

And its sports centers, car parks or private storage rooms can quickly be converted into bomb shelters to accommodate up to 900,000 people, more inhabitants than the capital has. 

These bunkers, prepared in case of attacks with chemical and nuclear weapons, are part of the so-called ‘comprehensive security’, a plan developed to guarantee, for example, the supply of food and fuel for five months. 

Furthermore, the country, far from being a militarized society, has maintained compulsory military service for men. Despite being one of the small countries in Europe, in a war situation, it can recruit an army of 280,000 soldiers and 900,000 reservists.

For the expert Lene Sandberg, despite the Danish differences with Sweden and Finland, which until now do not belong to NATO, the two countries are good examples of commitment to civil defense. “In Denmark, we have been a bit afraid to talk about the war so as not to create panic in society, but now is a good time to discuss it. Should we do like our Nordic neighbors?” she wonders.

Image Credit: EFE

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