For Swedish Survivalists

This is an attempt to give Survivalists and Preppers living in Scandinavia and in particular Sweden some advice on literature, equipment, resources and web pages where you can look for further information.


Webpages
The Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency (Myndigheten för Samhällsskydd och Beredskap – MSB) is the Swedish agency that is responsible for civil crisis preparedness. MSB is a new agency that was created when incorporating three different agencies into one new agency. On the agencies homepage you can find information and other resources like the book about first aid “Prehospitalt akut omhändertagande Enligt principen L-ABCDE” by Charlotta Jande-Waldau and Birgitta Windarve.  You can also find MSB:s assessment of the nationwide capacity to deal with crisis situations from 2008 “Samhällets krishanteringsförmåga 2008”.  For regional Risk Assesments I recommend that you try the webpage of your County Administrative Board (Länsstyrelse) for their latest Risk Assessment (Risk och Sårbarhets Analys – ROSA). MSB:s webpage is also available in English for those how would like to learn more.


Crisis Information.se (Krisinformation.se) is a Swedish Webpage that presents information about ongoing crisis situations in Sweden and around the world. If you travel abroad to a country I recommend that you check out the Department of States recommendations for travel to this particular country and make some basic research before you go. A new webpage called “Your Security” (Din Säkerhet) has been launched by the The Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency. This Webpage is similar to the American webpage Ready.gov by FEMA and focuses on what individuals can do to reduce their vulnerability to different kind of threats and crisis situations.  

The Swedish Civil Defense League (Civilförsvarsförbundet) is a Swedish organization that offers education to civilians about how to prepare for different kinds of crisis situations. In many cities they also train teams similar to the Community Emergency Response Teams (CERT) found in the US called Frivilliga Resursgrupper (FRG). They also offer courses in First Aid and CPR. The Red Cross also trains teams of volunteers like Medical Personal (Förstahjälpare) that’s used as a resource in case of extraordinary events and for everyday activities that may call for extra personal.


The Swedish Defense Research Agency (Totalförsvarets Forsknings Institut –FOI) offers an online resource about Weapons of Massdestruction for those how would like to learn more about the subject and the Swedish capacity to deal with this kind of events (Faktasamling CBRN).  The webpage of the agency is also available in English. 

The Swedish Meteorological  and Hydrological Institute (SMHI),  is an government agency that provides online weather forecasts and severe weather warnings.

Books and Swedish Authors
The Swedish Army Survival Handbook is one of the best survival guides there is for the Swedish climate and conditions. It can be hard to find paper copies but it can also be downloaded online.


Lars Fält is a Swedish survival expert that has written many book about survival and wilderness techniques, “Friluftsboken” and ”Uteliv med Överlevnadsteknik” are two examples. Fält has a background as an Army Survival Instructor and has trained with American and British Special Forces. However, none of Fälts books are available in English.


Wilhelm Agrell is a Swedish Proffesor within the field Intelligence Analysis, Agrell is the person how have made this subject into a academical field in Sweden and hold courses on the subject at the University of Lund. Some of the books Agrell has written are "Konsten att Gissa Rätt", "Förvarning och samhällshot" and "Underrätttelseanalysens metoder och problem", all of these books are only available in Swedish. However Agrell has been one of the authors of the book: “National Intelligence Systems”.


“MIMMS: Ett metodiskt sätt att hantera allvarliga händelser” is a book about how triage after mass casualty events should be handled. The book focuses on the Swedish perspective and how the different Swedish first responders are suppose to work together in this type of situations.


Internet Stores
In Scandinavia it can be hard find many of the items that can be accessed easily for those living in the United States. One option is of course to order from internet stores located in States and pay the shipping and taxes for the items. However there is a number of Swedish Internet stores that sell items related to survival and crisis preparedness.


Recon Vildmark sells a number of different products related to survival like knives, flashlights, compasses, watches, gloves etc. They also sell products from Snigel Design that manufactures magazine pouches, first aid bags, backpacks etc. Terräng, Garderoben and D-Gear are stores that offer similar products.There is also a number of internet stores that specializes in flashlights like Ridge and Ficklampsbutiken.


Cold Skills Collection also sell similar items but focuses on a fewer number of items with high quality. They sell some items that can be hard to find at other Swedish Internet retailers and also offers survival courses. The main disadvantage is that they have rather high prices and that the cost for shipping is quite high. Their webpage is also available in English.


Addnature, Get Out and Outnet are three stores that mainly focus on more mainstream hiking, hunting and camping equipment. They have large inventories and the prices are often lower than regular stores. A tip is to try their products, especially clothing in regular stores and before you order it. Förklok and Safety Store are internet store that focuses on preparedness items for your home.


Knivkompaniet, Knivhuset, Knivbutik.se and Knife Nordic are three Swedish internet stores that are specialized in knives. I would once again like to recommend the knives from Fällkniven and the axes from Gränsfors bruk.

SWEMEDIC is an internet store that sells quite comprehensive medical kits and other forms of medical equipment that can be hard to find in other Swedish stores.

Adlibris and Bokus are two cheap internet bookstores where many English titles can be found as well. Low prices and fast delivery makes them a good alternatives to regular bookstores.

Military Surplus can be bought from a number of different stores like the Active Life Equipment, Armyshopen, Billingedalens Hund och Vapen and Desterrat.se.

For buying camping food I recommend the site Utemat.se that sells a number of different meals, including 24 hour rations from DryTech used by the Swedish and Norweigan Military. Dutch Ovens can be hard to find in Sweden, the company Skeppshult makes one model called “Fältugn” with a capacity of 5,5 liters. Imported Dutch Ovens from Camp Chef can be bought from the internet store Essblads.

Swedish Blogs
There quite a few Swedish Survivalist Blogs including ”Blott Sverige Svenska Preppers har”; one of the biggest available that used to be known under the name “Att leva efter 2012 / Innan det sker”. The blog was down for a couple of months but the author has resumed writing it. There are also some other blogs like my favorite Swedish Survivalist Blog "Preppers". The blog is written in Swedish but Google Translate can provide a quite good translation.

Some of the other Blogs that can be found:
· Den Svenska Argus
· Nisse i Torpet
· Bodis - Peak Oil och dess konsekvenser
· BugOut.se
· Eldöga
· Survla
· Upp 19:15
· Svensk Survivalism
· Swedish Prepper
· Tulum
· Ylven
· Southeast
· Off-grid.se
· Kuslingen


”Cornucupia” Is a good Swedish blog that touches many different subjects like Finance, Peak Oil and Sustainable Development. This is one of the largest Swedish blogs on the web. The author has also written a book called "Midvintermörker".

"Survivalist.se" is a Swedish page that works as a hub for a number of different Swedish Survivialist Blogs and also contains a Wiki with information about survival and crisis preparedness.


Peak Oil
Peak Oil is not a subject that have gotten allot of attention in the Swedish media but there are some interesting reports like ”Efter oljetoppen: Hur bygger vi beredskap när hotbilderna går isär” by Hillevi Helmfrid and Andrew Haden. Björn Forsberg has written some interesting books that combines different views on sustainable development and Peak Oil like “Tillväxtens sista dagar – miljökamp om världsbilder” and the new book "Omställningens Tid. There is also a magazine called "Effekt" that has written some interesting articles about Peak Oil in the first number of the magazine in 2010. The Swedish part of the Association for the Study of Peak Oil and Gas (ASPO) has an interesting blog called "ASPO Sverige: Om hur oljetoppen kommer att påverka oss"" where information and articles translated to Swedish can be found.

Media Reports
IDG / Jörgen Städje - Att Överleva Med Stil
SVT – Reportage: Om Survivaliströrelsen
SVT - Preppers: En ny folkrörelse i USA - De väntar på katastrofen
Ordfront - Kollapsen kan komma
Outsiders - Inför Katastrofen