Olaf Kühl, born in 1955. PhD in Slavic literatures; literary translator (Polish, Russian, Ukrainian) and writer. Senior advisor on Russian affairs to the Governing Mayor of Berlin 1996 - 2021. German Youth Literature Award for the translation of Dorota Masłowska’s Snow White and Russian Red in 2005. Karl Dedecius Prize for his translation oeuvre in 2005.

“Border Crossers” grant from the Robert Bosch Stiftung for a research trip in the footsteps of jailed oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky in Siberia in 2008. August Wilhelm von Schlegel Visiting Professor at Freie Universität Berlin in 2011/12. His debut novel, Dead Animals, appeared in 2011; his second novel, The True Son (2013), was nominated for the German Book Prize (both Rowohlt Berlin). Polonicum Prize of the University of Warsaw in 2015 for the dissemination of Polish culture abroad. Brücke Berlin ("Berlin Bridge") Prize for "the exceptional translation into German" of an "important contemporary work of Central and Eastern European literature" - Szczepan Twardochs novel Drach - in 2016. Honoured for his translation of Szczepan Twardochs Król (Der Boxer) and for his own lifetime achievements as a literary translator with the Helmut M. Braem Prize in 2018.In 2019, the political thriller "Last Game Berlin" was published, whose plot draws on the multicultural milieu of the German capital. In 2021/22, Kühl held a guest lectureship at the Technical University of Berlin on the topic of "Literary Translation and Artificial Intelligence". 2023 saw the publication of his book "Z. A Short History of Russia, Seen from its End." In it, the author examines Russia's development since the collapse of the Soviet Union and explores the reasons for the Russian attack on Ukraine. The book was ranked No. 1 in the list of the best non-fiction books of several major newspapers and broadcasters in July 2023.