The interpreter who mediated summit diplomacy
He recalled interpreting as searching for the threads connecting two languages.
Pavel Palazhchenko is an interpreter and writer whose work documents the decisive conversational spaces of late Soviet diplomacy. As the English interpreter for Mikhail Gorbachev and Eduard Shevardnadze, he took part in the US-Soviet summits at Geneva, Reykjavik, Malta and elsewhere. His memoir records not only leaders’ words but also the working processes of arms-control negotiations and the growth of trust, offering a Soviet-side account of the peaceful end of the Cold War. He later continued as an international-relations analyst and press official at the Gorbachev Foundation.
Activities and affiliations
Career Timeline
- 1966–1972Studied translation and interpreting at the Maurice Thorez Moscow Institute of Foreign Languages
- 1972–1974Completed the UN interpreter courses, then taught and interpreted at his institute
- 1974–1979Worked in the Russian section of the UN Secretariat interpretation service
- 1980–1985Worked in the USSR Foreign Ministry’s interpretation and US-Canada departments
- 1985–1991Chief English interpreter for Gorbachev and Shevardnadze, participating in US-Soviet summits
- 1991Worked in the office of the President of the USSR
- 1992–현재International-relations and press official and analyst at the Gorbachev Foundation
- 1997Published My Years with Gorbachev and Shevardnadze: The Memoir of a Soviet Interpreter
Related historical events
Summit interpreting and memoir
From 1985 to 1991, Pavel Palazhchenko served as a principal English interpreter for Mikhail Gorbachev and Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze, taking part in US-Soviet summit talks that led toward the end of the Cold War. His memoir also recounts negotiations involving leaders including Presidents Ronald Reagan and George Bush, Secretaries of State George Shultz and James Baker, and Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, as well as the preparatory work of coordinating positions on issues such as arms control. Published in 1997, My Years with Gorbachev and Shevardnadze describes the Reykjavik, Malta, and Moscow summits and offers his eyewitness account and analysis of Soviet-American relations and Soviet domestic politics. Palazhchenko argues that gradually developing trust among major-power leaders helped make the Cold War's end peaceful. This is the interpretation advanced in his memoir and should be distinguished from the documented account of his interpreting work and events he witnessed.