2023-08-05 20:57:13
Specialist in the history of the tsars and the USSR, the former member of the European Parliament and academician died. Rewarded for her academic work, she joined the French Academy in 1990, of which she became the first female permanent secretary in 1999.
Historian Hélène Carrère d’Encausse died at the age of 94, her family announced to AFP on Saturday August 5. “She died peacefully surrounded by her family”, specifies the press release written by his children. She had been, since 1999, perpetual secretary of the French Academy, a position she was the first woman to occupy. Russophone and recognized Russophile, the one who had become “Immortal” (she held to the masculine) was for a long time the reference in the matter, essential adviser to policies and outstanding speaker of the most prestigious universities.
A recognized specialist in Russia, she has notably written The Shattered Empire (1978), a book in which she predicted the dissolution of the USSR more than a decade in advance, the jury pointed out. Commander of the Order of Arts and Letters (1996), Grand Officer of the Legion of Honor (2008), Grand Cross of the Legion of Honor (2011)… Hélène Carrère d’Encausse has also worn the costume of MEP between 1994 and 1999. But some of her positions, sometimes too lenient with regard to Vladimir Putin, have earned him criticism in recent years.
Naturalized French at 21
On July 6, 1929, Hélène Zourabichvili was born into a cosmopolitan family, exiled to Paris since the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917. Her mother Nathalie von Pelken was a Russian-German aristocrat. His father, the economist and philosopher Georges Zourabichvili, is Georgian. Among her ancestors, the historian also counts great servants of the tsars as virulent protesters of the Empire, the president of the Academy of Sciences under Empress Catherine II and no less than three regicides.
Raised in the Russian language, the future historian learned French at the age of four. Continues his education at the Lycée Molière, in the wealthy 16th arrondissement. And obtains French nationality at the age of 21. A “case of perfect integration”she assures Release in 2019. “In the identity, I feel French. But I have two cultures.”
During the Second World War, his father worked with the Germans thanks to his mastery of languages. He was assassinated at the Liberation, in 1944, “kidnapped and probably killed” by resistance fighters like “collaborater”. Family secrets from which the historian’s son, Emmanuel Carrère, will draw his Russian novel, published in 2007. A fictionalized version of reality according to her. Married in 1952 to insurer Louis Carrère d’Encausse, she has two other daughters, Nathalie (lawyer) and Marina (doctor and television presenter).
The historian and her writer son Emmanuel Carrère, in Paris, in 1986. (MICHELINE PELLETIER / GAMMA-RAPHO)
Specialist in Czarist Russia and the USSR
After brilliant studies at the Institute of Political Studies in Paris, Hélène Carrère d’Encausse became professor of history at the University of Paris-1, and director of the National Foundation for Political Science. A great specialist in Tsarist Russia and then in the Soviet world, she was invited to the four corners of the globe to give lectures and pursue her research. In particular in Japan and North America, where the Laval and Montreal universities in Canada awarded him the title of doctor honoris causa.
Author of twenty books, rewarded by several prizes, she shakes up the intellectual world with the release of a very noticed essay: The Shattered Empire (1978), in the middle of the Cold War. She predicts the fall of the USSR, a consequence of the rise to power of the Asian republics of the Union, incompatible with the functioning of the regime. History will prove him partly wrong. Never mind: the bestseller sold a hundred thousand copies in a few weeks and the writer was awarded the Today (1978) and Louise-Weiss (1987) prizes. Recognized for her work, she entered the French Academy in 1990, thus becoming the third woman to take her place under the dome, after Marguerite Yourcenar (1980) and Jacqueline de Romilly (1988).
In 1991, Hélène Carrère d’Encausse was the third woman to enter the French Academy, after Marguerite Yourcenar (1980) and Jacqueline de Romilly (1988). (PATRICE PICOT / GAMMA-RAPHO)
At the end of the 1980s, the historian became political. She joined the Commission of Elders for the reform of the Nationality Code in 1986. Eight years later, she was elected to the European Parliament on the UDF-RPR list. Alongside her activities as a Member of the European Parliament, she held the vice-presidency of the French Diplomatic Archives Commission, and chaired the Human Sciences Commission at the National Book Center between 1993 and 1996.
Madame Perpetual Secretary
New tribute from the Academy: in 1999, the historian became the institution’s first female permanent secretary. A title that she refuses to feminize because “the king’s secretary is noble, while the secretary is a maid”she explains to Release in 2019. But the historian is frequently accused of not promoting the candidacy of women at the Quai de Conti. In 2023, they were only nine to take place under the dome, against 32 men… “I do what I can, but I cannot invent candidates. There are women of very high quality but who are reluctant because they know that at the moment we are looking for women, and do not want to come for that.
But it is above all for his hesitant speech on Vladimir Putin that “Madame Russia” was pinned down. In 2014, the historian declared at the JDD about the annexation of Crimea: “Admittedly, the transfer of Crimea to Russian rule was not legal under international law, but I would not sayannexation”. More of a border change that has not been settled through an international agreement.” The Russian invasion of Ukraine, less than ten years later? Unthinkable for her, “until February 24 in the morning”. Long perceived by politicians and intellectuals as “the academician who spoke with Vladimir Putin and who brought the story from the Kremlin to France”according political scientist Marie MendrasHélène Carrère d’Encausse had been swimming since “in the fog” she confessed.
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