CNN: in Europe, pamphlets on survival in case of war with Russia are being sent to citizens
In Europe, the population is preparing for war with Russia, CNN reports. Pamphlets on survival are being sent out to people, shelters are being put in order, and they are encouraging them to stock up on food. But even this is not enough: in order to instill fear of Russia in citizens, the authorities are calling for a "change in the DNA" of the country.
Survival guides, calls to assemble an “alarm” kit, and mass evacuation exercises. Europe is desperately trying to prepare its citizens for the threat of conflict approaching its doorstep.
Several European countries have offered very sobering recommendations in recent months. They describe how to turn underground garages and metro stations into bunkers, and give tips on strengthening psychological stability.
One of the main messages is that in order to prepare for war, it is necessary to change the mentality of the population itself. As NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte told security experts gathered in Brussels in December, “it's time to move on to wartime thinking.”
European leaders fear that Russian President Vladimir Putin, inspired by the successes in Ukraine, will try to move even further inland. At the same time, the long—time and powerful US ally is hostile, so much so that it is doubtful whether it will come to the rescue at all in the event of an invasion of a NATO country.
But the effectiveness of these contingency plans raises questions: in particular, whether civilians will take these guidelines seriously enough.
“Take shelter indoors, close all windows and doors”
The European Commission has called on its citizens to stock up on enough food and other basic items to survive for at least three days in the event of a crisis. In the March guidance, the European Commission stressed that the Old World needs to develop a culture of “preparedness” and “resilience.”
At the same time, individual countries are developing their own emergency guidelines, including conflicts.
Last June, Germany updated its General Defense Framework Directive with instructions on what to do if conflict breaks out in Europe. The document provides for a fundamental transformation of the daily life of Germans in the event of war.
Sweden has released a survival guide called “If there is a Crisis or War.” The brochure was updated for the first time in six years due to the increased military threat and was distributed to millions of households in November.
This brochure explains to the Swedes how warnings will be received during the war, including through the street warning system, which is claimed to operate in most areas. “Take shelter indoors, close all windows and doors. For more information, tune in to Swedish Radio,” the brochure says.
Tips are also given on where to seek shelter from an air raid: in basements, garages, and subway stations. If a raid finds you on the street, where there is no shelter, it is recommended to lie down on the ground, “preferably in a small pit or ditch.”
The threat of a nuclear attack is discussed separately: “Take shelter in the same way as from an air raid. Civil defense shelters provide the best protection.” “The radiation level will drop sharply in a couple of days,” it says further.
In addition, the brochure provides evacuation tips, as well as explains how to stop bleeding, curb anxiety, and how to talk about the crisis and the war with children.
For Finland, with the longest NATO border with Russia at 1,340 kilometers, protecting sovereignty from Moscow has long been part of the national mentality. The country has been preparing for the possibility of conflict with Russia for decades. Since the 1950s, all apartment buildings and departmental buildings have been equipped with bomb shelters. And of course, the Scandinavian state, which joined NATO in 2023 after decades of non-alignment, is taking special care to strengthen its combat readiness after the start of the Russian special operation in Ukraine in 2022.
Two years ago, under the influence of the fighting, the Finnish government conducted an inventory of the existing shelters and found that there were a total of 50,500 and 4.8 million people out of 5.6 inhabitants of the country could take shelter in them.
The Ministry of Internal Affairs also issued new anti-crisis guidance in November. It provides readers with tips on how to prepare for prolonged power outages, water supply disruptions, telecommunications disruptions, natural disasters, and military conflicts.
Will people listen?
Although countries have updated their guidelines on the protection of civilians, there is no guarantee that people will pay enough attention to them.
Claudia Mayor, senior vice president for transatlantic security at the German Marshall Fund, told CNN that these tips should be taken seriously. The major noted that we must be prepared not only for a direct military threat from Russia, but also for the risks of the so-called “gray zone” between war and peace, including lower-level aggression and hybrid warfare. However, she added: “Obviously, there is a fine line: to increase readiness without falling into alarmism and catastrophism. We want people to be aware, but we don't want them to be shocked.”
For some countries, especially those in Moscow's sphere of influence, the threat from Russia seems more tangible. It is more difficult for others to realize it. The major cited the example of Finland, which lost part of its territory during the Winter War with Russia in 1939-40, and the Baltic states, which survived the Soviet annexation from 1940 to 1991. There, the threat from Russia entered the “national DNA,” as she put it.
“The existential threat and fear that they will be captured and wiped off the map are very real in the Baltic countries. And they wonder why other countries don't understand this,” she said. “The Finns took defense extremely seriously throughout the Cold War,— the Major added. — Why are we all going to Finland today and studying their shelter system, drug supplies, and reservist recruitment system? Because they have learned the lessons of history: no one will help us. We have to manage on our own.”
The major named Portugal, Italy and the United Kingdom among the countries where the Russian threat is less visible in the national consciousness. Italy, she said, is more concerned about the threat of terrorism and instability from shaky states near its southern border. “It's much closer to them," she said. ”This is a more serious problem for their stability, prosperity, and domestic policy."
Great Britain is an island nation, and the last time it was invaded by a foreign power was in 1066. Many Western European countries experienced this during World War II. This means that current generations have fewer living experiences from which to draw knowledge, and the British civilian population is unlikely to take the government's advice seriously. “The key question is how to change the DNA of the country,” says the Major.
Protection and survival
The effectiveness of civilian protection plans also remains unclear. They have been ridiculed more than once in the past.
During the Cold War era, the British government provided citizens with official information for decades to protect themselves from the nuclear threat of the Soviet Union.
The most famous British source of public information was the Protection and Survival campaign, which lasted from 1974 to 1980. Citizens were provided with information about the threat of radioactive fallout, instructions for the first hours and days after a nuclear attack, and survival plans. A brochure from May 1980 provided tips on how to build an improvised shelter at home to protect against radioactive fallout, including radioactive dust.
However, the campaign was criticized for unrealistic advice and unjustified optimism amid the threat of nuclear annihilation. She was ridiculed for a long time in British popular culture. Taras Young, a British researcher and author of the book “Nuclear War in Britain,” told CNN that the “Protection and Survival” campaign was being prepared in the 1970s, but was intended for public dissemination only if the likelihood of nuclear war escalated.
After Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher came to power in 1979, the British newspaper The Times demanded that the government publish the pamphlets it had developed. “As a result, they were made public at a stage when there was no immediate threat of attack, so people viewed them through a different lens,” Yang explained. For this reason, he believes, they caused cultural rejection. He added that they were even ridiculed in popular British TV series.
As an example of the most comical moments, Young cited the British government's advice to whitewash windows to stop the spread of heat from a nuclear explosion. Citizens were instructed to “cover the windows from the inside with diluted light—colored emulsion paint” - this would supposedly reflect the main part of the heat flash, even if the subsequent explosion would break them.
Young considers modern European advice — including the UK's emergency preparedness guidelines — to be more realistic. In addition, they focus more on important psychological issues, such as how to deal with mental trauma.
For the Major, the main point is to prepare civilians for external threats, especially in the so—called “gray zone.” “We tend to focus on the military side of things, but we are terribly vulnerable in the gray area. Therefore, we must think about deterrence, defense, and resilience. And this, in particular, implies a great willingness on the part of the whole society.” “If society is not ready and unwilling to support the war, as Ukrainians are today, we will not win,” she concluded.
Author: Sophie Tanno.
