Hélène Carrère d'Encausse; born Hélène Zourabichvili; 6 July 1929 – 5 August 2023) was a French political historian of Georgian origin who specialized in Russian history.

From 1999 up until her death in 2023, she served as the Perpetual Secretary of the Académie française, to which she was first elected in 1990.

Carrère d'Encausse was a member of the European Parliament between 1994 and 1999, representing the Gaullist-conservative party RPR. She was awarded the Lomonosov Gold Medal and Grand Cross with Star of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland in 2008 and 2011, respectively. She was a cousin of Salome Zourabichvili, the current President of Georgia. In 2023 she was awarded the Princess of Asturias Award in Social Sciences.

Early life and career

Hélène Zourabichvili was born in the 16th arrondissement of Paris into a family of Georgian émigrés. She was a cousin of Salome Zourabichvili, the current President of Georgia. She graduated from Institut d'Études Politiques de Paris.

Carrère d'Encausse was elected to seat 14 of the Académie française in 1990 and later became the Académie's Perpetual Secretary in 1999 (the first woman to hold the position). Her academician's sword was made by a Franco-Georgian sculptor Goudji.

Russian scholarship

The bulk of Carrère d'Encausse's work was centered on the topics of Russia and the Soviet Union. She had over two dozen books published in French, many of which have been translated into English. Her 1978 work L'empire éclaté: La révolte des nations en U.R.S.S (English version, Decline of an Empire: The Soviet Socialist Republics in Revolt) predicted that the Soviet Union was destined to break up along the lines of its 15 constituent republics. In commenting on current Russian affairs, Carrère d'Encausse warned against applying Western yardsticks to Russian democracy and said she regretted the excessive demonisation of the government of Vladimir Putin.

Personal life and death

Born stateless, Hélène Zourabichvili acquired French citizenship in 1950. 

In 1952 she married Louis Édouard Carrère d'Encausse, with whom she had three children: 

• Emmanuel (born 1957), an author, screenwriter and director;
• Nathalie (1959);  
• Marina (1961), a physician and broadcast journalist.

Hélène Carrère d'Encausse died in Paris on 5 August 2023, at the age of 94.

Honours

• Belgium: Commander of the Order of Leopold (Belgium)
• Brazil: Commander of the Order of the Southern Cross
• France: Grand Cross of the Legion of Honour (2011)
• France: Officer of the National Order of Merit
• France: Commander of the Ordre des Palmes académiques
• France: Commander of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres
• Monaco: Commander of the Order of Cultural Merit (November 1999)
• Poland: Commander's Cross with Star of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland
• Russia: Medal of the Order of Honour (Russia)

Bibliography

• 1963 – Réforme et révolution chez les musulmans de l'Empire russe (Armand Colin)
• 1966 – Le Marxisme et l'Asie (avec Stuart R. Schram), 1853-1964 (Armand Colin)
• 1967 – Central Asia, a century of Russian rule, Columbia Univ., réédition 1990 (Duke Univ. publication)
• 1969 – L'URSS et la Chine devant la révolution des sociétés pré-industrielles (avec Stuart R. Schram) (Armand Colin)
• 1972 – L'Union soviétique de Lénine à Staline (Éd. Richelieu)
• 1975 – La Politique soviétique au Moyen-Orient, 1955-1975 (Presses de la F.N.S.P.)
• 1978 – L'Empire éclaté (Flammarion)
• 1979 – Lénine, la Révolution et le Pouvoir (Flammarion)
• 1979 – Staline, l'ordre par la terreur (Flammarion)
• 1980 – Le Pouvoir confisqué (Flammarion)
• 1982 – Le Grand Frère (Flammarion)
• 1985 – La déstalinisation commence (Complexe)
• 1986 – Ni paix ni guerre (Flammarion)
• 1987 – Le Grand Défi (Flammarion)
• 1988 – Le Malheur russe (Fayard)
• 1990 – La Gloire des Nations (Fayard)
• 1992 – Victorieuse Russie (Fayard)
• 1993 – L'URSS, de la Révolution à la mort de Staline (Le Seuil)
• 1996 – Nicolas II, La transition interrompue (Fayard)
• 1998 – Lénine (Fayard)
• 2000 – La Russie inachevée (Fayard)
• 2002 – Catherine II (Fayard)
• 2003 – L'Impératrice et l'abbé : un duel littéraire inédit (Fayard)
• 2005 – L'Empire d'Eurasie (Fayard)