National Cold War Center to host Mikhail Gorbachev’s English interpreter

The National Cold War Center (NCWC) will host a Cold War Conversation on Nov. 7 with special guest Pavel Palazhchenko, chief English interpreter for the Soviet Union’s former president Mikhail Gorbachev, and foreign minister Eduard Shevardnadze.

Palazhchenko played a pivotal role in Cold War diplomacy, participating in the historic summit negotiations between former U.S. President Ronald Reagan and Gorbachev that helped bring the Cold War to a close, according to the NCWC.

Fundraising efforts are underway for the construction of a museum at the NCWC in Blytheville, which was designated in 2023 by the 118th Congress as the federal museum of the Cold War.

Eaker Air Force Base served as a Strategic Air Command facility during the Cold War, a key element in the U.S. nuclear weapons arsenal as well as the aircraft and missiles that delivered those weapons. The base was closed in 1992.

The Center will be located on the base grounds. Each fall a fundraising gala is held at the base, and this year Palazchenko’s talk will coincide with the gala.

At its peak, the base was one of the five top nuclear targets of the then Soviet Union.