Oviedo (EFE).- The French historian, writer and politician Hélène Carrère d’Encausse, who predicted the dissolution of the Soviet Union more than a decade in advance, has been recognized this Wednesday with the Princess of Asturias Award for Social Sciences for his contribution in recent decades to the knowledge of the history of Russia.
The jury highlighted that Carrère d’Encausse, permanent secretary (she prefers to say secretary) of the French Academy, is “one of the most brilliant, original and distinguished personalities of French historiography and contemporary European thought”.
The work of Carrère d’Encausse “probably constitutes the most substantial contribution that has been made in recent decades” to the knowledge of the Soviet Union and Russia, “one of the essential issues for understanding the contemporary world”, the jury has remarked of the award
Mother of the famous writer Emmanuel Carrère, Princess of Asturias Award for Letters 2021, was born in Paris on July 6, 1929 and is an international reference in Slavic studies, a specialist in the extinct USSR and in Russia and is also an expert in Central Asia.
Referred to by many as “the Czarina of the Soviets”, she is the daughter of a Georgian aristocrat who was a philosopher and emigrated from Russia to Paris in 1921 after the revolution and of a Russian with Austrian, German and Italian roots, and studied History and Political Science. at the Sorbonne in Paris.
Doctor of History, State Doctor of Letters and Human Sciences and doctor “honoris causa” from the University of Montreal or from Louvain, she is the author of more than thirty titles, full of details and well documented to “find new a collective historical memory” and “to search for the internal logic of all these events”, in his own words.
The publication of “Soviet Policy in the Middle East” was followed by “The Empire Explodes”, written in 1978 and which was a milestone in his career by predicting the end of the Soviet Union as a result of nationalist tensions.
For this work he received the Aujourd’hui prize and is considered by experts his most innovative contribution to the history of the former USSR.
He continued with two biographies on Lenin and Stalin, “Power Confiscated” in 1980, and “Big Brother” in 1983, and is also due a biography on Tsar Nicholas II for which he received the 1997 Ambassadeurs Award.
Also noteworthy among his works from the eighties and nineties are “The Russian Misfortune” (1988), “The Glory of Nations” and “The End of the Soviet Empire”.
First perpetual secretary of the French Academy
His entry into the French Academy on December 13, 1990, whose seats were traditionally reserved for men, marked a new milestone begun in 1980 by the late Margerite Yourcenar and followed in 1988 by Jacqueline de Romilly, the first two women to enter the Academy. that institution, founded in 1635 by Louis XIII.
It was in 1999 when she was elected lifetime secretary of the academy, the first woman to do so, although she is not in favor of feminizing the positions and prefers to call herself secretary and has also spoken out against a gender quota to enter the institution.
A member of the European Parliament from 1994 to 1999 for the right-wing Rally for the Republic party, in recent years she has authored publications such as “Catalina the Great”, “The Russian wall”, “Unfinished Russia”, “Russia between two worlds”, “The General De Gaulle and Russia” (2019) or “Alexandra Kollontai: the Valkyrie of the Revolution” (2021).
Among other recognitions, she has the Grand Cross of the Legion of Honor of France, the National Order of Merit of France, Commander of the Order of Leopold of Belgium, the Order of Friendship of Russia and the Order of Honor of Russia or the Medal Lomonosov from Russia, as well as the 1992 Comenius Prize for his body of work.
He believes that the Russian invasion could be the end of Putin
Carrère D’Encausse, who has met Russian President Vladimir Putin once, did not anticipate the Russian invasion of Ukraine but, according to what he told the newspaper El País, “this could be the beginning of the end” for the Russian president.
In January 2022, he criticized from the French Academy that the new French identity card introduced some words in English. “Who has decided to match French and English in this document? the academic wondered.
Carrère D’Encausse has included the Spanish-Peruvian writer Mario Vargas Llosa in this prestigious institution this year for his contribution to the culture of the French country.
The candidacy of the historian has been proposed by María Sheila Cremaschi, director for Spain of the Hay Festival of Literature and Arts, an entity awarded with the Princess of Asturias Award for Communication and Humanities 2020.
The granting of this recognition to this expert two years after the Literature Award went to her son Emmanuel makes both of them the first mother and son to receive this distinction throughout the 43-year history of the awards. EFE