History of Security of Supply in Finland
Research group information
Unit and faculty
Contact information
Research group leader
- University lecturer
Researchers
Research group description
Our research group focuses on the history of security of supply and consists of four experienced historians. The principal investigator, Dr. Ritva Kylli, specializes in environmental history and the history of northern and Arctic Indigenous peoples. She has conducted extensive research on the history of food in Finland and, in addition to numerous articles, has published two scholarly monographs on the subject. Dr. Riikka Isoaho-Nousiainen has studied the lifestyle of the urban bourgeoisie in nineteenth-century northern Finland. Dr. Matti Mäntylä is an expert in political history and the history of higher education. M.A. Tanja Riekkinen specializes in the history of energy transitions and oil.
We approach the topic from multiple perspectives, with each researcher contributing their own expertise and specialization to the project. We examine how individual northern Finnish families and households prepared for difficult times both during peacetime and in past crises. In addition, we explore security of supply as a broader societal issue. Alongside food and energy security, we also consider informational and social dimensions of security of supply, which allows us to adopt a diverse and wide-ranging approach to the topic. The temporal scope of our research extends from the eighteenth century to the twenty-first century.
Conference presentations
Ritva Kylli: Ruokaturvaa vai -turvattomuutta 1800-luvun maaseudulla? [Food Security or Insecurity in the 19th-Century Countryside?] Session: Mikrohistoriallisia näkökulmia kriisiaikojen ruokahistoriaan 1800-luvun Pohjois-Suomessa [Microhistorical Perspectives on the Food History of Crisis Periods in 19th-Century Northern Finland]. Historiantutkimuksen päivät [The Finnish History Days], University of Jyväskylä, 17.10.2025.
Matti Mäntylä: Ruustinna ruokaturvan airuena [The Pastor’s Wife as a Herald of Food Security]. Session: Session: Mikrohistoriallisia näkökulmia kriisiaikojen ruokahistoriaan 1800-luvun Pohjois-Suomessa [Microhistorical Perspectives on the Food History of Crisis Periods in 19th-Century Northern Finland]. Historiantutkimuksen päivät [The Finnish History Days], University of Jyväskylä, 17.10.2025.
Riikka Isoaho-Nousiainen: Kauppaneuvoksettaren keittiössä [In the Kitchen of the Merchant’s Wife]. Session: Mikrohistoriallisia näkökulmia kriisiaikojen ruokahistoriaan 1800-luvun Pohjois-Suomessa [Microhistorical Perspectives on the Food History of Crisis Periods in 19th-Century Northern Finland]. Historiantutkimuksen päivät [The Finnish History Days], University of Jyväskylä, 17.10.2025.
Other presentations
Ritva Kylli, Jokapäiväinen ruokamme [Our Daily Food]. Presentation at the Kotivara Then and Now summer event on 19 August 2023 (President P. E. Svinhufvud’s Home Museum Kotkaniemi, Luumäki)
Media appearance
Maria Wasström, Marthornas råd har hållit finländarna på fötter [The Martha Organization’s Advice Has Kept Finns on Their Feet]. Martha 12.9.2025.