Viktor Sukhodrev

Viktor Mikhaylovich Sukhodrev (12 December 1932 – 16 May 2014) was a Soviet-born Russian personal interpreter of Nikita Khrushchev and Leonid Brezhnev. Sukhodrev also worked with Mikhail Gorbachev and Alexey Kosygin.

In a career of nearly thirty years, Sukhodrev was present at numerous high-profile summits and deal-makings. Henry Kissinger called Sukhodrev a "splendid interpreter". According to International Herald Tribune, "Sukhodrev was present but not present, emptying himself of ego, slipping into the skin of the man who was speaking, feeling his feelings, saying his words".

Life

Sukhodrev was born in the family of an intelligence officer, who worked in the United States. In 1956, Sukhodrev began his career in the translation bureau of the Soviet Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA). Sukhodrev translated Nikita Khrushchev's famous quote "We will bury you". In the 1980s Sukhodrev was the deputy head of the Department for the United States and Canada at the Soviet MFA. In 1999 he penned the memoir book Yazyk moy – drug moy (My Tongue is My Friend).

In 2012, Sukhodrev received the Russian national prize Translator of the Year.

Sukhodrev was married twice. His first wife was actress Inna Kmit and the second wife – Inga Okunevskaya. He died in Moscow at the age of eighty two.