ABSTRACT
In many ways, the images of soldiering offered to young men in Suomen Sotilas corresponded to the military pedagogical agenda outlined by the young nationalist officers who envisioned a 'new' kind of self-disciplined soldier. The part of the 'civic education' in Suomen Sotilas was remarkably similar to nineteenth-century Prussian military propaganda described by Ute Frevert. Prussian military authorities were intent on counteracting socialism among the conscripts and educating them into a particular manliness marked by military virtues such as physical fitness, courage, self-assurance, loyalty, obedience, comradeship, anti-individualism and belief in authorities. Conscription was legitimized by claims that only military training brought youths into full manhood. The Finnish military educationalists writing in Suomen Sotilas could in theory have taken full advantage of the fact that Finland was a democratic republic. Religion intertwined with patriotism as the basis of the Finnish citizen-soldier's morality and virtue.
