Tomi Huttunen

Born Februrary 4, 1971, Kuusankoski

Master of Arts 1997, Licentiate 1999, PhD 2007 (Russian language and literature), University of Helsinki
Docent in Russian literature and culture 2010–, University of Helsinki

Professor of Russian literature and culture 2014–, University of Helsinki
Acting professor of Russian literature 2012–2014, acting lecturer 2011–2012 and postdoctoral researcher 2008–2010, University of Helsinki
Coordinator 2003–2007, Academy of Finland research project: Pietari/Leningrad: kertomus – historia – nykyisyys (‘St Petersburg / Leningrad: the story – the history – the present’)
Editor 2002–2012, the journal Idäntutkimus (‘East Studies’)
Doctoral student, 1997–2002, Alexanteri Institute and University of Helsinki

Publications, research projects and other academic activity

Research themes:
The Russian avant-garde, Russian Imaginism (Anatoly Marienhof), montage in Russian culture (cultural semiotics), Russian post-modernism (Lev Rubinstein), Russian rock music and poetry

Research projects:
Autogenetic Russian Avantgarde (Kone Foundation, 2013–2015) and Mötet mellan den ryska och den finlandssvenska modernismen (The Swedish Cultural Foundation in Finland, 2015–2017)

Awards and special achievements:
National Library of Finland Customer of the Year 2014
Finnish Academy of Science and Letters scholarship for an outstanding doctoral dissertation 2008
Society of Finnish Slavists MA Thesis Award 1997
University of Helsinki Alumni Association student prize 1996

Tomi Huttunen’s motto: “The University of Helsinki is better as a band than a brand. If we play well together, we can make some hits.”

Photo: Kirill Reznik
Written by Tomi Huttunen (Riitta-llona Hurmerinta ed.)
Translated by Matthew Billington

My best memories from the University of Helsinki

My treasure trove is the Slavica collection, the Slavonic Library of the National Library. Back when Slavica was still on Neitsytpolku, in southern Helsinki, I learned to know its ways, and there I found the best tools for my study of Russian literature. Slavica is an inexhaustible source and wellspring for fresh inspiration for the study of Russian literature and culture. It is also a vital learning environment. Taking a group of students to Slavica means exposing them to a new world where a strange language of books, journals, newspapers, microfilms, and card files is spoken. When the modern student needs to find the first contemporary edition of Oblomov by Ivan Goncharov, they find it with their smartphone and snap a picture of the cover page.

Technological innovations meet our expectations, such as consumer demand for new phones with more features. In that sense they are predictable. Artistic innovations are unpredictable, unanticipated; they always surprise us. My treasure trove in Slavica is full of the avant-garde and the unexpected. It is a collection of experimental Futurist literature comprised of unique rarities. When I was a student, it was a mysterious resource in the Special Reading Room, known only to a few specialists. Now it has been conserved and digitised for a wider use, also for fruitful study material.

This text was published in the Minun aarteeni (“My Treasure”) series of the National Library on 4 November 2014