Background
Pavel Palazhchenko was born on March 17, 1949 in Monino, Soviet Union (now Monino, Shchyolkovsky District, Moscow Oblast, Russian Federation).
1988
New York, United States
Mikhail Gorbachev (2nd L front), General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, his interpreter Pavel Palazhchenko (L), United States President George H.W. Bush (R front) and his predecessor Ronald Reagan (2nd R front) pose for a group photo on Governors Island in Manhattan during an official visit. Photo by Valery Khristoforov; Valery Zufarov/TASS.
1986
Hofdi House, Reykjavík, Iceland
Ronald Reagan, Pavel Palazhchenko and Mikhail Gorbachev
1988
New York, United States
Mikhail Gorbachev (2nd L front), General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, his interpreter Pavel Palazhchenko (L), United States President George H.W. Bush (R front) and his predecessor Ronald Reagan (2nd R front) pose for a group photo on Governors Island in Manhattan during an official visit. Photo by Valery Khristoforov; Valery Zufarov/TASS.
2007
Dallas, Texas, United States
Mikhail Gorbachev, former president of the Soviet Union, with the help of his translator Pavel Palazhchenko answers question during a Q&A at the University of Dallas on Monday, October 8, 2007. Photo by Richard W. Rodriguez.
Moscow, Russian Federation
In 1972 Pavel Palazchenko graduated from the Maurice Thorez Moscow State Pedagogical Institute of Foreign Languages (now Moscow State Linguistic University).
(As the principal English interpreter for Mikhail Gorbache...)
As the principal English interpreter for Mikhail Gorbachev and his foreign minister, Eduard Shevardnadze, in the critical period of 1985 – 1991, Pavel Palazchenko participated in all United States-Soviet summit talks leading to the end of the Cold War. This personal and political memoir sheds new light on Soviet/American relations and personalities during that time. Palazchenko focuses on what he saw with his own eyes during important negotiating sessions with world leaders such as Presidents Ronald Reagan and George Bush, Secretaries of State George Shultz and James Baker, and Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. He shares his impressions and opinions about these leaders as well as their Soviet counterparts and gives a firsthand account of the phase of preparation leading up to important international events, including the process of hammering out positions on sensitive arms control issues. Palazchenko describes the events themselves, such as the summits in Reykjavik, Malta, and Moscow, adding many fascinating details to previous accounts.
https://www.amazon.com/My-Years-Gorbachev-Shevardnadze-Interpreter/dp/027103548X/?tag=2022091-20
1997
Pavel Palazhchenko was born on March 17, 1949 in Monino, Soviet Union (now Monino, Shchyolkovsky District, Moscow Oblast, Russian Federation).
In 1972 Pavel Palazchenko graduated from the Maurice Thorez Moscow State Pedagogical Institute of Foreign Languages (now Moscow State Linguistic University). In 1973 he attended the United Nations Language Training Course at the same university.
Pavel Palazhchenko first worked for the United Nations, where over the years he was to interpret for such world figures as Henry Kissinger, Anwar Sadat, and Archbishop Makarios of Cyprus. In 1980 he went to work in the Soviet foreign ministry, where he interpreted for the influential liberal foreign minister, Eduard Shevardnadze, who later became the head of state of the post-Soviet nation of Georgia. From 1985 to 1991 he was the chief English interpreter for Mikhail Gorbachev and Soviet foreign minister Eduard Shevardnadze. Over the years, he was to interpret public and private conversation between Gorbachev and such world leaders as Ronald Reagan, George Bush, Margaret Thatcher, John Major, and Rajiv Gandhi.
Since 1987, Palazchenko has consistently published articles on international politics, United States-Russian relations, arms control, and related topics in multiple Russian and international newspapers. The author of multiple books on the value of language, he published Learn by Comparing: An Unsystematic Dictionary of English Compared to Russian in 1999, in which he addresses trends in the political, diplomatic, and journalistic usage of the English language. His second book in the triad, My Unsystematic Dictionary: Russian-English, English-Russian, was published in 2001 and provides information, insight, and cultural observations on the linguistic twists and turns that lie between the English and Russian languages. Finally, Unsystematic Dictionary – 2005, was published that titular year and expands upon the previous book.
Since 1992, he has served as head of international and media relations for the International Foundation Socioeconomic and Political Studies, a non-governmental organization more commonly known as The Gorbachev Foundation. He also serves as an analyst, spokesperson, interpreter and translator, as well as the president of the Russian Translation Company.
Today, he continues to do freelance interpretation work at international conferences and for various clients including the United Nations, the Council of Europe, the Marshall Center, the Russian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and the Renaissance Capital.
(As the principal English interpreter for Mikhail Gorbache...)
1997