In Helsinki in the 1930s, the School of Social Sciences was known as Ruutu School. Yrjö Ruutu led the institution for almost twenty of its first thirty years of operation, and his terms as rector extended to four different decades.

Ruutu’s goal was to strengthen social knowledge and social sciences in both the institution and society. At the School of Social Sciences, Ruutu taught political science and history. At the time, political science was a new discipline without any textbooks, so Ruutu had to write them himself.

Ruutu had many different careers. He had the time to serve as a member of many political parties and even found a few himself. Ruutu was a political theoretician who actively kept up with international politics and the development of society.