Mauno Jokipii (21 August 1924 – 2 January 2007)
was a
Finnish professor at the
University of Jyväskylä in history
specializing in
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
.
He was a thorough investigator and a prolific author. Among his works were studies of the local history of Jyväskylä and the university
and
historical province of Satakunta.
Jokipii was born in
Helsinki
Helsinki ( or ; ; sv, Helsingfors, ) is the Capital city, capital, primate city, primate, and List of cities and towns in Finland, most populous city of Finland. Located on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, it is the seat of the region of U ...
. Jokipii attended
University of Helsinki
The University of Helsinki ( fi, Helsingin yliopisto, sv, Helsingfors universitet, abbreviated UH) is a public research university located in Helsinki, Finland since 1829, but founded in the city of Turku (in Swedish ''Åbo'') in 1640 as the ...
from 1952 to 1959, and began publishing almost immediately (1954). He received his
doctorate
A doctorate (from Latin ''docere'', "to teach"), doctor's degree (from Latin ''doctor'', "teacher"), or doctoral degree is an academic degree awarded by universities and some other educational institutions, derived from the ancient formalism ''l ...
in Philosophy in 1957.
He was
Dean of the History-Linguistics department from 1960 to 1966.
Although some of his early works had been noted, Jokipii sprung on the world scene with his 900-page study of the Finnish
SS battalion in World War II. This study established a new level of detail in
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
military history. Jokipii's massive work ''The Continuation War: An Investigation of German-Finnish Military Collaboration 1940-1941'' firmly established him as a world scholar and moved the debate about German Finnish relations during World War II to a new level.
In recent years the academic integrity of his work has increasingly been questioned, in particular his work on the Finnish SS battalion has been accused by younger researchers including André Swanström, Marko Tikka, and Oula Silvennoinen of politically motivated
whitewashing in order to conceal war crimes committed by the battalion. The daily newspaper
Helsingin Sanomat
''Helsingin Sanomat'', abbreviated ''HS'' and colloquially known as , is the largest subscription newspaper in Finland and the Nordic countries, owned by Sanoma. Except after certain holidays, it is published daily. Its name derives from that of ...
demonstrated in its related article that Jokipii had falsified soldier diaries in order to obscure references to atrocities.
Jokipii died in
Jyväskylä.
Selected publications
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Notes
{{DEFAULTSORT:Jokipii, Mauno
1924 births
2007 deaths
Writers from Helsinki
20th-century Finnish historians