Hannes Sköld

Who was Hannes Sköld?

Johannes Sköld was a Swedish socialist and anti-militarist. Sköld was also a linguist, a writer and a poet. He also wrote songs.

Johannes Sköld was born in China as the son of a Swedish missionary there. He grew up in the city of Norrköping, Sweden, and was a childhood friend of Ture Nerman. After Gymnasia high school he moved to Gothenburg to study at the University. In Gothenburg, Hannes Sköld got to know Zeth Höglund and became active with him in the left wing of the workers’ movement.

As a young bohemian, Hannes Sköld traveled a lot in Europe and lived in Paris and Copenhagen. He published his first poetry book in 1911. The same year, he was put in the Långholmen prison for spreading antimilitarist propaganda. In 1912 he released his second book that he had written in prison.

Sköld became Communist in 1917 after the Russian Revolution. He moved to the Soviet Union, learned Russian and translated some of the works by the Bolshevik leaders to Swedish.