Russia expert Helen Carrer de Encos, Princess Award for Social Sciences 2023

Madrid, May 10 (EFE). – The French historian, writer and politician Hélène Carrère de Encos was awarded the Princess of Asturias Prize for Social Sciences on Wednesday. She is one of the greatest international specialists in Russian history and is secretary (preferably permanent secretary) of the French Academy.

The mother of the famous writer Emmanuel Carrere, Princess of Asturias Prize for Literature 2021, was born in Paris on July 6, 1929, the daughter of a Georgian aristocrat who was a philosopher and emigrated from Russia to Paris in 1921 after the revolution and his Russian counterpart. Wife is of Austrian, German and Italian descent. Her maiden name was Helen Zurabishvili.

He studied history and political science at the Sorbonne in Paris. She is a Doctor of History, a Doctor of State in Letters and Humanities, an “Honorary” Doctor from the University of Montreal or the University of Leuven, and a board member of the EastWest Institute for Security Studies in New York.

History of Russia and the Soviet Union

She is the author of more than twenty books, mostly on Russia and the former Soviet Union. The aim of his texts, full of detail and well documented, is to “rediscover a collective historical memory, and to search for the inner logic of all these events,” as he puts it.

Soviet Policy in the Middle East was followed by The Empire Explodes, written in 1978 and which made him known to a wider audience by somewhat anticipating the end of the Soviet Union over problems of nationalism. It also earned him the Aujourd’hui Prize.

He followed up with biographies on Lenin and Stalin, “Forfeited Power” in 1980, and “Big Brother” in 1983. He is also indebted to a biography on Tsar Nicholas II for which he won the 1997 Ambassadors Prize.

Many call it “the tsar of Soviet scientists.” She was the president of Radio France’s Radio Sorbonne between 1984 and 1987.

Among his works are “Russian Calamity” (1988), “Glory of Nations”, and “The End of the Soviet Empire”.

His entry into the French Academy on 13 December 1990, whose seats were traditionally reserved for men, marked a new milestone begun in 1980 by the late Marguerite Yourcenar and followed in 1988 by Jacqueline de Romilly, the first of two women to enter the Academy. That institution, founded by Louis XIII in 1635.

In a meeting with journalists at Expo 92 in Seville, Carrère de Encos, in his capacity as director of the French National Institute of Political Science, presented the conference “Russia: Regional Power, Global Power”, and emphasized that Russia’s development is in transition towards democracy without falling into the temptation to rebuild what It was the Soviet empire.

She was a Member of the European Parliament between 1994 and 1999 in the right-wing Agrupcion por la República party.

Figure in the French Academy

In 1999, she was elected Secretary for Life at the French Academy, although she is not in favor of feminizing positions and prefers to call herself Secretary.

His works remained numerous: “Catherine the Great”, “The Russian Wall”, “Unfinished Russia”, “Russia between Two Worlds”, “General de Gaulle and Russia” (2019) or “Alexandra Kollontai: Valkyrie of the Revolution.” (2021).

Married to Louis Edward Carrier, they have three children, Marina, a lawyer; Natalie, journalist; and Emmanuel, a French film director, screenwriter and writer, recipient of the 2021 Prince of Asturias Prize for Literature.

She is the sister of composer Nikola Zurabishvili and cousin of French politician Salome Zurabishvili who was France’s ambassador to Georgia.

Among other awards, she was awarded the Legion of Honor of France, the French National Order of Merit, the Belgian Order of Leopold, the Russian Order of Friendship, and the Russian Legion of Honor or Legion of Merit. Lomonosov from Russia.

He was also awarded the Comenius Prize in 1992 for his collection of works.

Carrer de Encoz, who once met with Russian President Vladimir Putin, did not expect the Russian invasion of Ukraine, but, according to what he told El Pais newspaper, “this may be the beginning of the end” for the Russian president.