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A research note is presented which focuses on military medicine in Finland between 1555 and 1945.

Artikkelissa tarkastellaan Sortavalan seminaarin toimintaan Suomen ollessa venäläisen vallan alla vuosina 1880–1917. Erityisesti työssä keskitytään venäläistämiskausien aikaan eli vuosiin 1899–1905 ja 1908–1917 ja siihen, miten ne vaikuttivat seminaarin toimintaan. Artikkeli selvittää, oliko Venäjän luomaa uhkaa havaittavissa Sortavalan seminaarin arjessa ja missä määrin se käytännössä näkyi. Tähän etsitään vastausta kysymällä, kuinka usein Venäjään liittyviä asioita käsiteltiin opettajakokouksissa ja kärjistyivätkö mahdolliset ongelmat nimenomaan venäläistämiskausien aikaan. Lisäksi selvitetään, miten Venäjän mahdolliseen uhkaan käytännössä suhtauduttiin seminaarin opettajien ja oppilaiden keskuudessa. Lähteinä käytetään Sortavalan seminaarin alkuperäisaineistoa, joka on kerätty käyttäen seminaarin opettajakunnan pöytäkirjoja sekä seminaarin matrikkeleita. Lisäksi täydentävänä aineistona hyödynnetään viranomaislähteitä kuten kenraalikuvernöörin asiakirjoja niiden käsitellessä Sortavalan seminaariin liittyviä asioita. Menetelmällisesti tutkimuksessa käytetään teemoittelua, jonka avulla aineisto on jäsennelty ja jonka pohjalta siitä on muodostettu aihekokonaisuuksia. Aineiston pohjalta muodostetut teemat ohjaavat artikkelin rakennetta eli yksi teema muodostaa aina tietyn alaluvun. Työn teoreettisessa keskiössä on nationalismi, jolla tarkoitetaan suomalaissivistyneistön kansallisromanttista käsitystä isänmaahan identifioitumisesta. Nationalistinen käsitys isänmaasta ohjasi myös koulutuksen arvomaailmaa 1800-luvulta lähtien. Artikkelissa osoitetaan, kuinka merkittävästi venäläistämiskaudet vaikuttivat Sortavalan seminaariin sekä toisaalta sen, kuinka seminaarissa pyrittiin erilaisin keinoin torjumaan venäläistämistoimet.

Cholera was the emblematic disease of the nineteenth-century Europe. This article explores the cultural ramifications of cholera by concentrating on the ways in which public discourse participated in circulating information on the disease. It focuses on the reuse of texts about cholera in the Finnish press from 1860 to 1920. The most difficult cholera epidemics in Finland were the first ones in the 1830s and 1850s, and the number of casualties dropped significantly towards the end of the century. At the same time, however, cholera was discussed more than ever, and there was the rising curve of the references to cholera from the 1860s onwards. In Finland, the public discourse on cholera was also entangled with the rising nationalism towards the end of the nineteenth century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

"Imperial Era," this special issue of the Journal of Finnish Studies, presents a selection of articles that describe Finland in the context of the Russian Empire. In this introductory article, "Finland in Imperial Context," the authors sketch the historical background for the specialized articles. They present key features in the history of the Grand Duchy of Finland during its period of Russian rule (1809-1917), that is, after the Napoleonic Wars and before the Russian Revolution, after Swedish rule and before independence. The importance of understanding Finland in imperial context--as a part of the wider context of the Russian Empire-- is highlighted. It is contrasted with a narrower national context. The complexities of studying this era and other aspects of Finnish-Russian history include the need for scholars to be multilingual and grapple with the legacy of Russian imperialism--which still burdens the world today. Multi- and translingual considerations are described, orienting the reader to standardizations employed by the authors for maximum accessibility and comprehensibility of the issue's articles, which are each introduced in summary. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A book review of: Kietäväinen-Sirén, Hanna. Rahvaan rakkaus – Suomalaisen intohimon historia. Jyväskylä: Docendo. 2020. 212 s. ISBN 978-952-291-739-3.

A book review of: Parhi, Katariina. Sopeutumattomat. Psykopatian historia Suomessa. Helsinki: Siltala. 2019. 256 s. ISBN 978-952-234-600-1.

A book review of: Karonen, Petri (toim.). Tiede ja yhteiskunta. Suomen Historiallinen Seura ja historiantutkimus 1800-luvulta 2010-luvulle. Helsinki: Suomalaisen Kirjallisuuden Seura. 2019. 660 s. ISBN 978-951-858-056-3.

Book review of Pajari, Ilona, Jussi Jalonen, Riikka Miettinen & Kirsi Kanerva (eds.). Suomalaisen kuoleman historia. Helsinki: Gaudeamus. 2019. 415 s. ISBN 978-952-345-014-1.

A book review of: Miettinen, Riikka & Ella Viitaniemi (eds.). Reunamailla. Tilattomat Länsi-Suomen maaseudulla 1600–1800. Historiallisia Tutkimuksia 278. Helsinki: Suomalaisen Kirjallisuuden Seura. 2018. 540 s. ISBN 978-951- 858-014-3.

A book review of: Laine, Jaana, Susanna Fellman, Matti Hannikainen & Jari Ojala (eds.). Vaurastumisen vuodet – Suomen taloushistoria teollistumisen jälkeen. Helsinki: Gaudeamus. 2019. 348 s. ISBN 978-952-345-001-1.

Archaeological concepts of prehistory and the Stone Age are rooted in nineteenth-century scientific discoveries, which extended the human past much further back in time than was previously thought. Without this deep past, the disciplines of archaeology and history would not be what they are today. However, when the division of prehistory into the ages of stone, bronze, and iron was introduced in 1836, it was already an old idea. Stone Age artefacts and the initial phase of human history were discussed in the eighteenth-century academic world, even though the periodisation of history was constructed differently. In the philosophy of the Enlightenment several ideas surfaced which were essential to the formation of archaeology as a scientific practice, and which still affect the way the prehistoric past is imagined. This article examines the concept of a prehistoric, furthest past in Finnish scientific texts, within the framework of eighteenth-century Swedish traditions of science and historiography. How did the scholars in the Academy of Turku view Stone Age artefacts that had a multi-faceted nature in the antiquarian tradition? In what way did their visions of the earliest phase of the Nordic past set up later nationalistic narratives about prehistory?

Scandinavism was a political idea in the nineteenth century that strived to unite the Scandinavian countries into one state. In Finland, Scandinavists were few in number but formed networks with Scandinavists in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark, networks that have been largely ignored hitherto in Finnish historiography. This article focuses on the Finnish Scandinavist Emil von Qvanten, who proposed a Nordic federal state including Finland in 1855 in the pamphlet "Fennomania and Scandinavism" (von Qvanten 1855a). Moreover, his correspondence reveals an influential exiled Finnish patriot, who became a Nordic politician and a trusted person to the Swedish King Karl XV. Von Qvanten corresponded extensively with the Finnish architect Nestor Tallgren, European dissidents such as the Russian anarchist Mikhail Bakunin, the Russian socialist Alexandr Herzen, and Polish separatists like Josef Demontovicz and Walerian Kalinka, as well as Swedish and Danish politicians and Scandinavian intelligentsia. An alternative option of Finland having a Scandinavian political dimension during the age of autonomy will be discussed here with a focus on the letters that Nestor Tallgren wrote to Emil von Qvanten. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A book review of: Laaksonen Lasse. Viina hermot ja rangaistukset. Sotilasylijohdon henkilökohtaiset ongelmat. Jyväskylä: Docendo Oy. 2017. 649 s. ISBN: 978-952-291-408-8.

A book review of: Ahonen, Sirkka. Suomen historian monet myytit. Kansallinen katse historian kirjoissa. Gaudeamus. 2017. 247 s. ISBN 978-952-495-430-3.

A book review of: Koskinen, Ulla. Suomessa selviytymisen historiaa kivikaudelta keskiajalle ja 1900-luvun alkuun. Helsinki: Into. 2018. 293 s. ISBN 978-952-264- 948-5

The article describes how the boundary between necessary and unnecessary consumption items was defined in Finland in the years following World War II. On the basis of extensive comparative data, it focuses on the history of two items: the washing machine and the cellular phone. The data consist of press coverage and material published by manufacturers and consumer counseling organizations. The need for household appliances was invented, shaped, normalized, and legitimized through a social interaction process in which the media were a central vehicle. The data suggest that the need for novelties is interpreted though similar types of cultural modes, no matter what the product or type of cultural text. Thus, the entry of technology into the home in the postwar years was accompanied by a discussion flavored not only by technological determinism, but also by a form of social and cultural determinism manifested in deep-grounded conceptual distinctions, such as tools versus toys. The world-record pace at which Finnish consumers took up new technology in the postwar period provides illustrative evidence and new stimuli for evaluating the potential for digitalizing the home in the twenty-first century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There are many similarities between the Nordic countries of Sweden and Finland, but they have made different decisions regarding their teacher-education policies. This article focuses on how the objectives of teacher education, particularly the vision of the ideal teacher, have changed in Sweden and Finland in the period after the Second World War. In Finland, the period since the 1960s can be described as a gradual scientification of teacher education. The image of the ideal teacher has transformed according to a research-based agenda, where teachers are expected to conduct minor-scale research in the classroom. In Sweden since the 1980s, on the other hand, teacher education has oscillated between progressivist and academic orientations, following shifts in government between the Social Democratic Party and the centre-right. Since the turn of the millennium, however, a consensus in favour of a strengthened research base of teacher education has also emerged in Sweden. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article focuses on the collision between the communal-based and individual-based business cultures within the merchant community of Pori. The conflict is analysed by examining divergent petitions, complaints, and statement letters written to and by various authorities at the local, provincial, and national levels during the first half of the 19th century. The case study concentrates on confrontations between a nobleman of Swedish origin, Frans Fredrik Wallenstråle (1771–1857), and members of the local merchant community. The article strives to explain how and why the merchant community and the members of the town council made every possible effort to prevent Wallenstråle from developing his business activities and participating in communal cooperation within the community. In contrast to earlier literature, this article does not concentrate on petitions, their rhetoric, or the interaction between individual and state authorities. It analyses petitions as historical sources that resulted from collisions between the communal, cooperative business culture and vested interests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Women participated actively in the Finnish Civil War in January 1918-April 1918. The radicalization of the Finnish Social Democratic Party and the embracing of a revolutionary discourse sent tremors also to Sweden. In this article, I investigate how the Swedish Social Democratic women's journal Morgonbris addresses women's political violence in the period surrounding the Russian Revolution in March 1917, the October 1917 Bolshevik takeover and the following Civil War in Finland early 1918. Morgonbris did not shun from reporting or debating women's political violence, however, as this article shows there is a great discrepancy between how different acts of violence are understood in the greater discourse. Some violence, and especially some acts of violence committed by women, is clearly framed as more legitimate than others. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article demonstrates empirically how triangulation with other sources can alter the interpretation of oral histories of family strategies. While the interests of oral historians have shifted to postpositivist approaches, basic facts about material context and family events still tend to be drawn from the same narratives. Oral histories of two worker households in early twentieth-century Helsinki are linked with detailed Finnish tax, parish, and poor relief records. The findings point to a number of significant omissions, turn seemingly innocuous factual statements into meaningful strategic representations, and suggest systematic biases in describing livelihoods and sources of income. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Barber-surgeons have existed as a medical profession in multiple countries for centuries. This article outlines the exciting history of the barber-surgeons in Finland, focusing on a time frame covering over 600 years, from the Middle Ages until the last barber-surgeon in Finland finished his practice during the Second World War. The barber-surgeons were the first healthcare professionals who focused on the healthcare of soldiers during times of both peace and war. They were able to treat wounds, conduct minor and even major surgeries and perform amputations. The development of the profession and the education and skills of the barber-surgeons are summed up and illuminated. New genealogical sources are also reviewed to profile the barber-surgeons as men, married and of multinational origin. This review summarizes the history of the profession, who the barber-surgeons in Finland were and where they came from. It concludes by noting that the barber-surgeons had a remarkable impact on the development of the professions of surgeons and physicians as well as on the development of occupational healthcare as a whole. However, these impacts are not sufficiently appreciated today. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Norwegian ethnonym Kven and the Finnish ethnonym Kainulainen occurred at latest in the first millennium AD. A tacit truth held today is that the ethnonyms represent the same ancient Finnish-speaking group, only named differently by Norwegians and Finns. The aim of the article is to find out whether the ethnonyms have been used to designate different groups of people. The Finnish-speakers in the nearby Tornedalen has called the lower part of the Kalix River in northernmost Sweden the Kainuu River and the upper part Kaalas River after the original Sámi name of the river. According to theories on ethnicity they called the lower part the Kainuu River [Fin. Kainuunväylä] because they wanted to mark out the Swedish speakers of different ethnicity, who they called Kainulaiset. The latter mainly settled the lower part of the river in the Middle Ages and Finnish-speakers the upper part. The article reveals that the Sámi variety Gainolâš was used by the Sámi for depicting dominant majority populations of different ethnicity, especially Scandinavians, but sometimes also Finns. It also argues that Finnish settlers in southern Finland and the northernmost Gulf of Bothnia used Kainulainen for depicting Swedish settlers when the two language groups first encountered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This inquiry into the history of boarding schools for indigenous and quasi-indigenous, tundra-connected children in the Soviet part of Lapland tries to answer why children were sent to a boarding school despite their parents living in the same village, and also why an additional school for mentally disabled children, a school half as big as the boarding school for “regular” children, was opened. Data from oral history interviews among former pupils and teachers, both indigenous and incomers, are combined with archival materials. Using the concepts of cynical knowledge as well as the Bourdieuan notions of social exclusion and reproduction, concealed functions of the boarding school system are identified, among which are the attenuation of housing shortage and the operation of the school out of economic interests, alongside with ethnocentric and paternalist patterns. The stigmatization of mostly Sámi children from relocated families as mentally disabled is set in a frame of individualization of the negative, which sought to present failures of the state’s social engineering as personal fallibility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a newly constructed database on foreign trade of Sweden-Finland 1738-1805, consisting of all exports and imports that were recorded by the custom houses in this period, and is made available at www.historia.se/Swedish foreign trade 1738_1805.xlsx. The traditional view as presented by Eli Heckscher, who was very critical of the mercantilist policies of the time, was that the overseas trade of Sweden-Finland saw a trend of secular stagnation during the course of the eighteenth century. By contrast, we show that in conjunction with a substantial expansion of the population, total trade nearly increased twofold during the period of study. Despite that, there was a small decrease in the value of exports in relation to GDP, mostly explained by a drop in the relative price of bar iron. The degree of specialisation of Swedish exports saw a declining tendency in this period. While exports from Sweden had a higher degree of specialisation than Finnish exports, imported goods to Finland were more concentrated than Swedish imports. Lastly, the composition of imports did not markedly alter, meaning that a consumer revolution did not take place in either Sweden or Finland. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For centuries, the Club War, a popular uprising on Finnish territory in the 1590s, constituted a minor side story in Swedish royal historiography. After the Napoleonic Wars, it was quickly appropriated as one of the most canonical historical events in the emerging Finnish national history. This article argues that, in order to understand the role of the Club War in early 19th-century Finnish historical culture, it is necessary to trace its interpretive tradition backwards in time, across established borders of national historiographies, in a thematic, transtemporal, and comparative framework. The paper will discuss eight pieces of Swedish and Finnish history writing from 1620 to 1860, focusing on the storylines, attributes attached to the protagonists, and historical agency allocated to different social groups against a backdrop of sources available within each context of writing, in order to pinpoint and analyse moments when the story space of the event altered. The article will demonstrate that textual traditions of regions that formerly belonged to multi-ethnic or conglomerate states provide particularly interesting material for transtemporal historiography. Through this case study, the article also argues that Swedish and Finnish historiography of the early 19th century should be studied as one, entangled, textual culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The political public sphere is at one and the same time both public, and private and religion operates in both the public and the private spheres in the modern way of life. This article approaches the dynamics between the cultural and the political public sphere from the point of view of religion; how the cultural intelligentsia developed its worldview fuelled with attitudes towards religion in times of political turmoil. The case study, based on the empirical analysis of cultural periodicals and societies around them, concerns the Finnish liberal intelligentsia in the early twentieth century. The first decade of the 1900s was a particularly important period of formation for the Finnish public sphere; the societal turmoil highlighted the importance of cultural periodicals in defining what was important for the national public sphere. The case of religion is an illustrative example of it, particularly from the point of view of the liberal intelligentsia of the era. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

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The article focuses on commemorations of the October Revolution in Finland in 2017. Topics discussed include the link between the Russian revolution and the commemorations of the independent nation, the role of the Finnish Broadcasting Company, Yle, in informing and debating the meaning of 1917, and the academic contributions of the Centre of Excellence Rethinking Finland to the debates in Finland during 2017.

Observing a case of transnational migration between Estonia and Finland, this article investigates how the experience of living in a Western democracy alters discourses of citizenship amongst people who have been socialised into the concept while living in a post-communist country. Through a discursive approach, the article demonstrates that, notwithstanding 25 years of democratic transformation, the norms of post-communist citizenship remain different from the Western liberal and republican norms. However, European Union citizenship plays an important transforming role on the discursive level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]