Françoise Thom

Françoise Thom (born 1951) is a French historian and Sovietologist, honorary lecturer in contemporary history at Paris-Sorbonne University. A specialist in post-communist Russia, she is the author of works of political analysis on the country and its leaders.

Françoise Thom
Born	1951 Strasbourg, France
Occupation	Historian
Spouse	Georges Mamoulia ​ (m. 2005)​
Parent	René Thom
Academic background
Alma mater	Paris-Sorbonne University
Thesis	De l'URSS à la Russie (1929-2011). Politique intérieure, politique étrangère, les imbrications (2011)
Doctoral advisor	Olivier Forcade [fr]
Other advisors	Alain Besançon
Academic work
Discipline	Contemporary history
Sub-discipline	Sovietology
Institutions	Paris-Sorbonne University

Early life and education

Françoise Thom was born in Strasbourg, 1951.^[1] Her parents are René Thom, a mathematician known for his theory of catastrophes and winner of the Fields Medal, and of Suzanne Helmlinger. Françoise has two siblings, Elizabeth and Christian.^[2]

Thom has a degree in Russian.^[3]

Career

She lived for three years in the Soviet Union, then taught Russian in secondary schools in Ferney-Voltaire and Calais. She is a research associate at the Institut français de polémologie. In 1983, she defended a thesis entitled La Langue de bois soviétique : description, rôle et fonctionnement, directed by Alain Besançon at the School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences.^[4]

She was then appointed lecturer in contemporary history at Paris-Sorbonne University. In 2011, she presented a dissertation entitled De l'URSS à la Russie (1929-2011). Politique intérieure, politique étrangère, les imbrications, for which Olivier Forcade [fr] was the supervisor, at the Paris-Sorbonne University.^[5]

She published her thesis in a book entitled, La Langue de bois, in 1987.^[6][7] She also published L'École des barbares, with Isabelle Stal, in 1985, Le Moment Gorbatchev (1989),^[8] and Les Fins du communisme (1994).

In 1998, she co-authored, with Jean Foyer, Jacques Julliard, and Jean-Pierre Thiollet, the book, La Pensée unique - Le vrai procès. She collected, translated, prefaced and annotated the memoirs and analyses of Sergo Beria, son of Lavrentiy Beria, published in 1999 under the title Beria, mon père : au cœur du pouvoir stalinien.^[9] In 2013, she finally published a biography of Beria, under the title Beria. le Janus du Kremlin.^[10] In 2018, she published Comprendre le poutinisme (Understanding Putinism), in which she recalls Vladimir Putin's former membership in the KGB and studies the "propaganda of Russian power".^[3]

Personal life

In April 2005, she married historian Georges Mamoulia.^{[citation needed]}

Selected works

Books

• L'École des barbares, with Isabelle Stal, Paris, Julliard, 1985
• La langue de bois, Paris, Julliard, 1987
• Les fins du communisme, Paris, Critérion, 1994
• Le Moment Gorbatchev, Paris, Hachette, 1989
• Beria : Le Janus du Kremlin, Paris, Cerf, 2013 924 p. ISBN 978-2204101585
• Géopolitique de la Russie, with Jean-Sylvestre Mongrenier, Paris, PUF, collection "Que sais-je?", 2016
• Comprendre le poutinisme, Paris/Perpignan, Desclée De Brouwer, 2018, 240 p. ISBN 978-2-220-09426-7
• La Marche à rebours. Regards sur l’histoire soviétique et russe, Paris, Sorbonne Université Presses, collection "Mondes contemporains", 2021, 724 p. ISBN 979-10-231-0686-2
• Poutine ou l'obsession de la puissance, Litos, 2022, 248 p.

Articles

• "Les Occidentaux devant la fin de l’Union soviétique", Commentaire, no 118, February 2007, pp. 373–382
• "Le parti russe en France", Commentaire, February 2016, pp. 432–436

Editor

• Beria, Sergo, Beria, mon père : au cœur du pouvoir stalinien, Plon/Critérion, 1999, 448 p. ISBN 9782259190169