Back in 1788, when the Finns were helping Sweden to fight the Russians, a Finnish woman named Lotta Svärd went to war along with her husband, and, after he was killed, stayed with the Army, cooking for the soldiers and nursing the wounded. What made Lotta a two-time Molly Pitcher was the fact that in 1808, when Russia overran Finland, she volunteered again and served throughout the war.
In 1921 Finland organized a women's auxiliary corps and named it for Lotta Svärd. Finland's tough and brawny Lottas, 100,000 strong, not only nurse and cook. In wartime they take the places of the...
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