Frioux, Claude

Claude Frioux (12 January 1932 – April 17, 2017) was a French academic specializing in Russia. A Normalien, agrégé de russe, sovietologist, he was a lecturer at the faculté de lettres de Rennes before becoming professor emeritus at the Université de Paris VIII (« Vincennes à Saint-Denis ») which he chaired from its inception in 1971 until 1976 and from 1981 to 1986. He has often led translation projects, especially with Elsa Triolet on Anton Chekhov and his wife Irène Sokologorsky. As a translator, he has worked on about thirty books and is best known as the reference translator for the poet Vladimir Mayakovsky.