Olga Raevskaya

Olga Raevskaya (Russian: Ольга Владимировна Раевская; born 1956) is a Russian linguist, lexicographer, professor, Doctor of Philology, and specialist in French lexicology and word formation. She served as First Academic Secretary of the Academic Council of Moscow State University (1996—2025)

Biography

Raevskaya was born in Leningrad, Soviet Union, on 10 July 1956. She studied at the Theater of Youth Creativity in Leningrad (1967―1972) under the direction of Matvey Dubrovin. In 1973 she graduated from a secondary school with advanced French-language studies. She began her university education at Leningrad State University, later transferring to Moscow State University, where she graduated from the Faculty of Philology in 1978. She completed postgraduate studies there (1978―1981). In 1982 she received her Candidate of Sciences degree with a dissertation entitled Compound Nouns in Contemporary French. In 1990 she defended her doctoral dissertation entitled Word-Formation Characteristics of Major Parts of Speech in French. She became associate professor in 1992 and full professor in 1993. She served as head of the Department of Romance Linguistics at Moscow State University (1992―1999). She headed the Department of Foreign Languages at the Faculty of History of Moscow State University (2003―2006, 2016―2025). She headed the Department of Psychology of Language and Foreign Language Teaching at the Faculty of Psychology of Moscow State University (2009―2012). She served as chief academic secretary of the Academic Council of Moscow State University (1996―2025). Her son is Alexander Raevsky, a Russian japanologist.

Raevskaya's research focuses on French lexicology, derivational morphology, and Romance linguistics. She is the author of more than forty books and scholarly publications, including Russian–French and French–Russian dictionaries, language textbooks, and monographs on French word formation. Her dictionaries were published in Russia and France, including by Librairie du Globe in Paris.

Raevskaya hosted the educational television program Bienvenue en France devoted to French language instruction (1990―1994). At Moscow State University she taught courses in French language, historical linguistics, translation, and the language of historical sources.

Honors

Raevskaya was awarded the title Honored Worker of Higher Education of the Russian Federation (2005).

Raevskaya was appointed an Officer of the French Ordre des Palmes académiques (2020).