2023-08-05 20:18:00
First woman at the head of the French Academy, Hélène Carrère d’Encausse died at the age of 94. The world of culture is losing a historian, a figure of French culture.
By Lise Lacombe for Le Point Helene Carrere d’Encausse passed away “peacefully surrounded by her family” according to her loved ones. © JOEL SAGET / AFP Published on 08/05/2023 at 8:18 p.m.
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First woman elected at the head of the French Academy in 1999, former European deputy, Hélène Carrère d’Encausse, who died on Saturday in Paris at the age of 94, was a historian, a great specialist in Russian questions. “She passed away peacefully surrounded by her family,” the family statement said.
The President of the Republic, Emmanuel Macron, wanted above all to salute her career: “Attached to the homeland which saw her grow up, to her language and her heritage, she will become French at 21. A major historian, she was the first female Permanent Secretary of the French Academy. Like her, her legacy is immortal. »
Former Minister of Culture Jack Lang expressed, at the microphone of BFMTV, his “great sadness” and spoke of an “incomparable personality”. “She was a great lady of letters, of the arts, she gave this French Academy a luster, an incomparable brilliance,” he added. Moved, another former Minister of Culture, Frédéric Mitterrand, remembered a “tremendous” woman. “It was a power that aroused esteem and respect,” he continued.
On the same channel, Roselyne Bachelot paid tribute to “a convinced European activist”. “Two words come to mind: elegance and erudition. And then a third: she was French and a Frenchwoman of choice, of heart”.
His academic colleague Jean-Marie Rouart reacted on LCI by testifying to his “true admiration and affection for her” while recalling her attachment to France: “She was French in her tolerance, in her universalism, in this idea of always wanting achieve through his work a form of excellence. »
READ ALSOHélène Carrère d’Encausse: “The Russians do not want to break with Europe”
“Immortal”
The mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, wanted to salute “the memory of a great historian” and preserves “the memory of a woman of conviction, curious about everything, a convinced European with such a keen intelligence”.
For his part, Pierre Moscovici, first president of the Court of Auditors, hailed on Twitter an “ardent” and “tireless” woman who “seemed (really) immortal”. “It marked studies on the Soviet Union and Russia. She will be missed by the French Academy, which she embodied for so long, ”he insisted.
Isabelle Saporta, CEO of Fayard editions, recalled that the one who “radiated with life” wanted “to be called Madame perpetual Secretary” while Xavier Bertrand believes that she has “made France and the French language a fight. Immortally, perpetually. »
The journalist and director of Le Point, Valérie Toranian, regretted “a great loss”. “Elegance of heart, manners, style. Huge culture. Spirit always alert. She was Immortal and I had come to believe it… Sadness,” she wrote.
Elegance of heart, manners, style. Immense culture. Spirit always alert. It is a great loss. She was Immortal and I had come to believe it…
Sadness.
Hélène Carrère d’Encausse, a great figure in French culture, is dead @LePoint— Valérie Toranian (@valerietoranian) August 5, 2023
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