The project may come as a surprise, when we remember the benevolence with which Hélène Carrère d’Encausse often spoke of Vladimir Poutine: the permanent secretary of the French Academy could soon go to Ukraine for a series of conferences on French culture. . The affair has not yet been concluded, but it has been mentioned both by the person concerned and by Etienne de Poncins, French ambassador in kyiv – who specifies, however, that things are still “fuzzy”. The historian, good foot good eye despite her 93 years, also plans to provide financial aid from the French Academy to the city of Chernihiv, north of kyiv. A way, to hear it, of “show our respect for Ukrainian culture”. And, for her, to treat a change of speech vis-à-vis the master of the Kremlin, initiated since February 24, 2022, the day of the start of the Russian invasion in Ukraine.
When she receives in her office on the quai de Conti, Parisian headquarters of the Institut de France, Hélène Carrère d’Encausse is exactly like the one we see on television sets. Slender in her prairie green suit, the outfit impeccable, she immediately asks you to take off your mask: “I am vaccinated against everything! », she announces with a charming laugh. It is true that, being both “perpetual” et “immortal”, nickname given to academicians, the lady has a very personal relationship with eternity: as if, in short, her reign should have no end. After having held a multitude of positions, including that of MEP on the UDF-RPR list (1994-1999), this woman of power can flatter herself that she is a sort of institution. There are countless academics who had her as a professor or whose thesis she supervised. To the point, moreover, that among the people approached by The worldfriends or detractors, many prefer not to speak about it.
It all starts when she publishes The Shattered Empire (Flammarion), in 1978. Of German-Russian origin by his mother and Georgian by his father (born Zurabishvili in Paris, in 1929, she was the first cousin of the current president of Georgia), the one who then worked as a history professor at Sciences Po caused a sensation. In the middle of the Cold War, at a time when Leonid Brezhnev was leading the USSR, Hélène Carrère d’Encausse announced nothing less than the coming shake-up of the regime. She is mistaken about the causes of these tensions, predicting that the turmoil will arise from the republics of Central Asia, but she has the merit of highlighting the question of nationalities. The book quickly became a bestseller.
You have 77.65% of this article left to read. The following is for subscribers only.