Sissi (Finnish light infantry)

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Sissi troops
Active	Reserve unit
Country	Finland
Branch	Finnish Army, Finnish Border Guard, Finnish Navy
Type	Light infantry

Sissi is a Finnish term for light infantry which conducts reconnaissance, sabotage and guerrilla warfare operations behind enemy lines. The word sissi, first attested in the modern meaning "patrolman, partisan, spy" in 1787, comes to Finnish from Slavic and refers either to a forest bandit or his yew bow.^[1]

The Finnish Army trained Sissi units to conduct long range reconnaissance patrols, gather intelligence from concealed observation posts, raid enemy installations (especially supply depots), conduct road side ambushes and pursue and destroy enemy special forces units. In wartime, an unspecified number of reservists were to be assigned to Sissi battalions and would deploy and operate as small groups up to company size. They were meant to either infiltrate through enemy lines to their rear, or stay behind and covertly operate against enemy forces in their area of responsibility even after regular friendly troops had been forced to retreat. Sissi battalions were part of Finnish Army "local troops", unlike the jäger and armored brigades meant for operational use.

In official Finnish military parlance, the word "sissi" has been largely phased out. For example, the Sissi company of the Lappi Border Guard of the Finnish Border Guard was renamed to "Border Jaeger Company" in 1994. The conscripts serving in the unit were concurrently renamed to Border Jaegers.^[2] Similarly, Finnish Army sissi units are now called "reconnaissance" units, and the personnel serving in them called "tiedustelija", "reconnaissance man". A notable exception are the sissiradisti or Sissi signalists.^[3]