Until a few weeks ago, Ludmila Rafalska went about her life in Sopot, on Poland’s Baltic Coast, immersed in her career as a technology consultant and thinking little about self-defence or the military.
Everything changed for her on Sept. 9 when 21 Russian drones flew into Poland, causing NATO jets to scramble and briefly closing the country’s main airports. Suddenly, the threat of war felt a lot more real and Ms. Rafalska realized she was woefully unprepared.
So, on a brisk Saturday morning last month, she headed to a nearby naval base in Gdynia and joined more than 100 other novices for a daylong session called “Train with the Army.”
Soldiers led the group – ranging from teenagers to senior citizens – through a series of drills and offered instructions on handling machine guns, throwing grenades, putting someone in a choke hold and jumping from a sinking ship.
“The situation is getting more and more tense. And I think that this is quite important to have these skills,” said the 38-year-old Ms. Rafalska as she headed to the canteen for a bare-bones military breakfast. “This is one step forward for our own safety, so why not?”
The training program, which is offered at around a dozen military bases, is just one way that Poles have started preparing for a possible showdown with Russia.
The country has been on edge ever since Moscow’s full-scale invasion of neighbouring Ukraine in February, 2022, and September’s drone attack only heightened public concern.
“This situation brings us the closest we have been to open conflict since World War II,” Prime Minister Donald Tusk said after North Atlantic Treaty Organization jets shot down four of the drones while the others slammed into fields and villages, causing minor damage.
Poland already has the third-largest army among NATO members with 216,000 soldiers, behind only the United States and Turkey. And it will soon become the first NATO country to spend 5 per cent of its gross domestic product on defence.
The focus now is on civil defence and many Poles have taken matters into their own hands. Gun ownership has soared, shooting ranges are packed and self-defence courses can barely keep up with demand.
Trainees at Gdynia will not have live ammunition at target practice, but the goal is to make shooting feel real.
“Five years ago, we had something like around 10,000 new registrations for guns in a year. Now, it’s almost 50,000,” said Andrzej Gross who runs dozens of courses around Warsaw in Krav Maga, a self-defence program developed by the Israeli army. Mr. Gross said the Warsaw Krav Maga group has grown to 500 members and he’s added “combat shooting” to the training. On a recent Tuesday evening, he put around 20 members through their paces in a school gym, teaching them how to fend off attacks from assailants wielding clubs, knives and handguns.
Monika Strempel, a data engineer, joined the group a few months ago. At first, she just wanted to get fit and learn how to stay safe on the streets. But Russia’s drone incursion has given her a new motivation. “It’s definitely in my mind,” she said as she warmed up. “I’ve started to feel more confident over all and maybe if the time comes, I’ll be ready.”
Piotr Czuryllo has seen attitudes about safety and survival change dramatically since the war in Ukraine began. He’s one of the founders of the Polish Preppers Network, a collection of hundreds of survivalists who share tips on how to live in the wild and were once considered by many as crackpots.
Now, Mr. Czuryllo has been flooded with inquiries about “prepping” and he’s giving weekly survival courses to families, corporate executives and municipal employees. He’s also written a handbook titled: How to Survive Cataclysm, Disaster, and Conflict. “We teach people how to stay calm, act effectively and support others during crises,” he said in an interview from his home in northern Poland. “More and more families are joining together. It’s a shift in mindset: people want to be prepared, not afraid.”
The government and the military have joined the civilian defence effort. Mr. Tusk has announced plans to create a 500,000-strong reserve force, and around 40,000 people are expected to enroll in voluntary military training this year.
Every Polish household has also been sent a 54-page “Safety Handbook” that offers tips on how to respond to everything from a natural disaster to an air raid, a chemical attack or a nuclear strike. The handbook encourages families to keep “evacuation backpacks” and to load up on water-purification tablets, windup radios and dried food.
Mr. Fedyna says he plans to expand his business to keep up with growing demand.
In a suburb on the outskirts of the capital, Marcin Fedyna has been nearly run off his feet trying to keep up with the number of gun enthusiasts coming to his shooting range called PM Shooter. It’s not uncommon for 100 people – some as young as 10 years old – to be firing off rounds on a weekday and up to 1,000 people drop by on Saturdays and Sundays. Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine “we’re making, double, triple the numbers,” he said. And after events like the drone attack in September, “everybody comes in and asks me if there’s going to be a war.”
For the price of around $13, plus the cost of ammunition, just about anyone can be teamed with an instructor and try one of the range’s more than 400 weapons – from an assortment of handguns to AK-47 assault rifles and replicas of guns featured in James Bond films. There’s even a Gatling gun and a small cannon.
Mr. Fedyna, who is co-owner, also runs a number of courses including one on how to shoot down drones: “It’s not for everyone, but there’s still people who want to do it.”
Business has been so good that he’s planning to increase the size of the range by 50 per cent, and add a gun store and a gunsmith service.
Magdalena Witczak got her first taste of shooting a machine gun last month during the Train with the Army session at the naval base in Gdynia. There was no live ammunition and shots were registered electronically. But the experience felt real enough for the 27-year-old office worker. “I feel like the self-defence issue is very important,” she said during a break in the training. “Let’s be honest, the times that we are currently living in can be tough and we don’t know what will happen.”
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