HÉLÈNE CARRÈRE D'ENCAUSSE is a French historian and an expert on Russian history. She is the first woman to hold the position of lifelong secretary of the French Academy, and won awards such as the Grand Cross of the Legion of Honor. She has published more than twenty essays and biographies, among them Lénine (1999) and La Russie inachevée (2001), as well as Six années qui ont changé le monde (2016) about the fall of the Soviet Union.