Europeans Prepare for a More Dangerous World in a Time of Economic Upheaval

By 8 a.m. on a Saturday, nearly every seat in the room was filled. There were families and office colleagues, couples holding hands, grandmothers and teenage boys. A group of eight, mothers and their teen daughters, passed around snacks, drinks and hand cream.

They had gathered at the headquarters of the 133 Light Infantry Battalion of the 13th Silesian Territorial Defense Brigade in Cieszyn in southern Poland for emergency preparedness training.

The civilian training sessions are part of a new and ambitious plan by Poland’s government to ready its 38 million or so people for the possibility of a military attack from Russia. The program, wGotowosci, or Readiness, is “the largest defense training in Polish history,” the country’s defense minister, Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz, said when announcing it in November. He hopes 400,000 citizens will complete the training by the end of this year.

As the Ukraine war grinds on in its fifth year, the threat of a belligerent Russia hangs heavy. President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia has repeatedly provoked European leaders with hybrid or “gray zone” warfare, testing the resolve of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization with disinformation campaigns, sabotage and cyberattacks.

The challenge for Poland — and every other country in Europe — is how to battle-harden a peacetime economy while preparing for war. And it is one that has gained urgency as the U.S.-Israeli war in Iran has further strained relations between President Trump and Europe’s leaders, who declined to join in the bombing campaign or in the American blockade of the Strait of Hormuz. On Friday, the U.S. Defense Department said it would withdraw 5,000 American troops from Germany and cancel a plan to put a missile-equipped artillery unit in Europe.

Poland has responded faster and harder than any other European nation, increasing its defense spending to 5 percent of its gross domestic product, and buying tanks, jet fighters, drones, missiles, guns and ammunition as if on a Black Friday spending spree. It is also enlarging its 215,000-member professional armed forces, the third largest in the North Atlantic alliance after the United States and Turkey.

But preparing civilians without panicking them presents a different kind of logistic, economic and psychological challenge. Training has to be integrated into lives already full with responsibilities at home, work, school and more.

Poles have seen firsthand the impact of invasion. Millions of Ukrainians, mostly women and children, have crossed their border since Russia’s first surprise dawn attacks in February 2022.

“Security begins in the heads of society,” Lt. Col. Dariusz Pawlik told the group at the start of the Saturday session. “I hope this training will be useful to you, and I wish you never to need to use it.”

Several countries near or bordering Russia — including Finland, Sweden, Norway, Estonia and Lithuania — are also doing some form of civilian defense preparation.

In Poland, the army command recognized “that our civil defense was practically nonexistent,” said Lt. Tomasz Dzierga, the battalion’s spokesman.

This daylong course, with sections on cybersecurity, crisis preparation and emergency first aid, is open to schoolchildren, stay-at-home parents, full-time workers and seniors.

For Natalia Szoltysek, 25, it is a first step toward possibly joining the army as a professional soldier.

“I feel a drive, I want to help,” Ms. Szoltysek said during the lunch break, when the canteen doled out vegetable soup in white bowls. She quit her job in December to start fitness training. “I’ve already lost a lot of weight,” she said proudly, pulling at the waistband of her denim and lace jeans.

On her right arm is a red and black tattoo of a bullet blasting through a skull, inspired, she said with a giggle, by the video game Call of Duty. On her upper chest, the word “chaos” is tattooed in gothic script surrounded by a bed of red roses.

To Ms. Szoltysek, the atmosphere these days feels more like a cold war than peacetime. “There’s something in the air,” she said.

The survivalist session offered instructions on how to use everyday items around the house in emergencies. Dryer lint is good kindling for a fire. A big garbage bag can keep out the rain. A bucket with a lid can be used as a makeshift toilet.

There were long discussions about how to find and purify water, and what to include in an emergency escape backpack: a lighter, a flashlight, tape, string, medicines, a knife, a radio, rechargeable batteries, a blanket, food.

“Always take spare socks,” the instructor advised. And you might want earplugs, he added. There are always lots of snorers in emergency shelters.

He offered other tips. If you have to evacuate, leave a message for a family member on a wall — not a slip of paper — with a durable signal marker. And write important contact information for young children on their skin in case they get lost.

Jacek Gluchowski, 52, and Tomasz Cios, 51, who work together as project managers for a furniture company, signed up for a series of training sessions. For more than a year, they have been discussing what supplies to have on hand in case of an attack. Now, Mr. Gluchowski said he planned to prepare an emergency backpack for every member of his family.

The pressure to increase defense readiness comes when European governments are under enormous economic strain. Many countries are struggling with slow growth and heavy debt loads while having to budget more for security.

And now, the economic outlook has darkened considerably given the spike in costs for fuel, fertilizer and other goods caused by the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz.

Magdalena Biskup, part of the group of mothers and daughters, said it was the arrival of a 48-page emergency preparation guide recently sent by the government to every household that, for the first time, brought home the reality of the threat.

Several participants, though, said friends and family did not necessarily share their level of concern. “They don’t want to hear about it,” said Krystian Kucharski, 33, who came to the training with his girlfriend. “They pretend not to notice.”

The government offers different types of preparedness and military training to the public. Prime Minister Donald Tusk said last year that he wanted every adult male to undergo military training.

One selling point of becoming a part-time soldier in a territorial brigade — the equivalent of a national guard — is that you can keep your job. Lieutenant Dzierga mentioned other perks, like 75 percent off rail tickets.

Beata Brance-Gorgosz, 54, a mediator, said she had considered joining the professional army but did not want to quit working. So she has signed up to join the brigade as a part-time soldier and has already completed a 27-day military training course.

The other participants at the course, mostly young men, called her “Mother,” she said. “I was teaching them how to march,” said Ms. Brance-Gorgosz, who has worked as a mountain guide.

For emergency first-aid training, everyone returned to the lunchroom to practice pulmonary resuscitation on a dummy. The instructor reminded rescuers to spend no more than 10 seconds checking for breathing before starting chest compressions.

“Because what’s most important?” he asked the group.

“Time,” they responded in unison.

“Once again,” he commanded.

“Time.”

“Once again,” he repeated for emphasis.

“Time.”

Magdalena Szalonik, another mother in the group, said a friend had suggested they all do the daylong training together.

Her daughter and her schoolmates said they were just happy to spend the day together.

Ms. Szalonik agreed to attend but was skeptical.

“I wasn’t convinced it would be very useful,” she said at the end of the day, “but I was totally surprised.” The information, she added, was precise and useful, not only for war but for any crisis.

“I became more aware of the danger we may face,” she said. “I think I was a bit reckless about it before.”