Kansanlaina on maamme varmuusvahti! (The People's Loan Is Our Country's Safeguard!): Finnish loan board on a truck
A hand-painted board carried on a truck bed through Helsinki, in Finnish and Swedish, with a helmeted soldier holding a rifle with fixed bayonet beside a shadow group of a woman and children before a faint map of Finland. The slogan names the People's Loan 'our country's safeguard', so the soldier's protective role is borrowed for a loan subscription; no interest rate, term or amount appears on the board.
- Date
- 1939
- Period
- Second World War
- Made by
- Finnish People's Loan (Kansanlaina) campaign, Helsinki; maker of the board not named
- Country
- Finland
- Medium
- Signs and banners
- Issuer type
- State
- Regime
- Ryti Government
- Leader
- Risto Ryti
- Audience
- Domestic public
- Purpose
- Fundraise
- Themes
- Economy and finance, Home front
- Event
- Winter War
- Techniques
- Transfer
- Source
- Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
- Source
- SA-kuva (Finnish Defence Forces wartime photograph archive, Sotamuseo), via Finna, retrieved October 2, 2026
- Rights
- CC BY 4.0 (SA-kuva licence statement on the Finna record)
SA-kuva (Finnish Wartime Photograph Archive), record sa-kuva.sa-kuva/111949, photographer unknown, CC BY 4.0.
Text on the object
KANSANLAINA ON MAAMME VARMUUSVAHTI! VÅR GENERATION ÄR NU I TUREN!
THE PEOPLE'S LOAN IS OUR COUNTRY'S SAFEGUARD! OUR GENERATION IS NOW IN ITS TURN!
The SA-kuva title gives the Finnish line as 'Kansanlaina on maamme varmuusvahti' and the Swedish line as 'vår generation är nu i turen'. 'Varmuusvahti' is rendered 'safeguard' (literally a guard that gives certainty). Translation is machine translation by Claude, not fluent-reader verified.
