This T-shirt is a hat tip to Finnish guerrilla-style warfare. It symbolizes the “exploding emptiness” that embodies the cunning and deception needed for guerrilla-style fighting behind enemy lines. What would be a better way to visualize this than an explosive image full of deceptive details that will confuse the enemy? Can you spot them all? 

You cannot fight the emptiness

The term “räjähtävä tyhjyys” (“exploding emptiness” or “exploding wilderness”) is closely linked to the history of guerrilla-style warfare in Finland. First of all, it is the name of the novel manuscript written by Lieutenant General Veikko Koppinen in the early 1950s under the pseudonym Viljami Korpi, which depicts fictional guerrilla warfare in Soviet-occupied Finland. The top state officials and the Defence Command of Finland prevented the publication of the manuscript in the '50s because they considered it too controversial. The novel was finally published in 2012, when finlandization was nothing but a shadow.

It is also the term used to describe the nature of Finnish guerrilla-style warfare behind enemy lines. It depicts the terrifying effect of this type of warfare very well: “You cannot fight the emptiness, you cannot shoot it with artillery or automatic weapons, nor hit it with an airstrike. Exploding emptiness is deception that robs the enemy of courage and nullifies the effect of training that has always been based on the following three words: “Enemy there, go!”

Koppinen also wrote the classic guerrilla-style warfare guidebooks for the Finnish Defence Forces: Sissikoulutusopas (1956) and Sissiohjesääntö (1957). “Räjähtävää tyhjyyttä” is also the name of the PhD thesis on Finnish guerrilla-style warfare by Marko Palokangas, published in 2014.

Manufacturer Pure Waste Textiles

The manufacturer is Pure Waste Textiles, based in Helsinki, Finland. These shirts are made in Tiruppur, India, from recycled materials. This saves, for example, 99% of the water needed to grow new cotton. Additionally, carbon dioxide emissions are about 50% lower when recycled materials are used.