Born in Visby on 26 January 1933, Hans Björkegren died on 22 July 2017, he was a writer, journalist and translator from Russian, Dr. phil. after Slavic studies, who lived in Stockholm most of his lifetime.
Hans Björkegren made his debut as a writer in 1950, he wrote short stories, historical novels, poetry and essays. In the early 1960's he was a Swedish correspondent in Moscow.
Among others he translated Fjodor Dostoevsky, Boris Pasternak, Ivan Bunin, Alexander Solshenitzyn, Joseph Brodsky, Anna Akhmativa and Osip Mandelstam.
In 1989 he edited together with Lars Erik Blomquist the important anthology of Russian poetry, "Rysk dikt från Derzjavin till Brodsky".
Björkegren was awarded the Swedish Academy's translators prize in 1975, the Elsa Thulin's translators prize in 1985, he became Dr. hc. at Uppsala University and received the Pushkin medal in 2008.