International collaboration and Finland in the early years of computer-assisted history research : Combining influences from Nordic and Soviet Baltic historians

Abstract

This paper studies Finnish historians’ contact and collaboration with their colleagues in neighboring countries from the late 1960s until the early 1980s, focusing on exchanges concerning the use of computers for historical research. Computers were used by some historians in the Soviet Union, in particular Soviet Estonia, as well as in Sweden and other Nordic countries. With the former, historians in Finland organized regular symposiums starting in 1971; and with the latter, Finnish historians completed joint Nordic research projects during the 1970s. Both forms of collaboration resulted in a stream of publications. Further exchanges took place at seminars and Nordic conferences. The approach in this study is transnational, and the paper argues that this approach helps us understand better the deep roots of Nordic collaboration in the early digital humanities, and more broadly, the spread and circulation of humanities computing internationally.