“
We didn't even sign a contract, she told me: 'we work first, and we will be paid later'.
".
Darius Rochebin
publishes
War and Grace
with Éditions Fayard, his unfinished conversation with Hélène Carrère d'Encausse.
Having died last summer, the Academician did not have the opportunity to read a line of this work where she evokes her childhood, Russia, her country and the war in Ukraine.
“
She died, it was a surprise for everyone unfortunately
,” comments the LCI presenter at the weekend on the “Buzz TV” set.
A project “
interrupted but not darkened
” in the words of the journalist.
“
She is so cheerful and has such optimism about her own life and about the world,
” he believes.
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Hélène Carrère d'Encausse did not believe in the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
She makes amends in the book.
“
She paradoxically underestimated those she knew better than anyone,”
adds Darius Rochebin.
She studied Russian violence very well
,” he recalls.
For the Swiss, “
she was part of this very French genealogy which thinks that we must coexist with Russia
”.
“That
didn't stop him from saying that we have to be tough with the Russians.
She found Obama cowardly with the Russians since he let go of the French when they wanted to strike Bashar El Assad, Putin's ally
.
Also read: “I do and say what I want”, “you are bothering me”: Luc Ferry loses his temper with Darius Rochebin
Probably she would have approved Emmanuel Macron's speech at the beginning of March, who called on “Europeans not to be weak” with the Russians.
“
She was flattering about Emmanuel Macron.
In 2017, when he welcomed Putin to Versailles, he reminded him, with a certain cheek, that during the election campaign, Putin's cyberattacks attacked him and Vladimir Putin decomposed a little
," recalls the 57-year-old man. years.
And added: “
The balance of power works with Russia.
We are only respected if we are strong.
France’s position will sooner or later pay off
.”
“Be careful, don’t fall into the dark, now is not the time”
The last exchange between Hélène Carrère d’Encausse and Darius Rochebin
Darius Rochebin remembered his first meeting with the historian and Academician, 25 years ago,
“in the depths of France
”.
“
We found ourselves in a really filthy station buffet.
I was struck, I come from fairly modest origins but still have comfortable bourgeois tastes and there was a kind of horse steak that was a bit improbable.
I looked at it with a distance and she, who had been really poor during her childhood - living with four people in 24 m2 - ate her steak wholeheartedly.
I figured she had experience that I didn't have.
It was a very small part of the immense human and intellectual experience that she had
.”
The last meeting took place in Hélène Carrère d'Encausse's apartment, at the Palais Mazarin, shortly before summer.
“
I leave it and when I come out, I can never find the timer.
The last words I heard from her were “be careful, don’t fall into the dark, this is not the time”.
She looked forward to the start of the school year and always said: “it’s more fun to work than to play”
.”