Igor Rogachev’s close personal relationship with China dates back to the 1920s, when his father, Alexey Rogachev, came here while a student of the Communist University of the Toilers of the East, or KUTV, also known as Far East University.

The senior Rogachev served as interpreter and translator for Mikhail Markovich Borodin (1884-1951), adviser to Dr. Sun Yet-sen. During this time Alexey joined in the Northern Expedition (1926-28) and otherwise took part in revolutionary activities around China. Following his graduation, from 1928 through 1934 he served with the former Soviet Union’s consulate general in Urumqi, Xinjiang, China.

In 1932, one month after his birth, Igor Rogachev was brought to Urumqi by his mother for a family reunion. At the age of four, his father was dispatched to the former Soviet Union’s consulate general in Harbin, Heilongjiang. There Igor spent his childhood with his parents and younger sister.

In 1939, with his family Igor returned to Moscow, where his father accepted a teaching assignment at Lomonosov Moscow State University (LMSU). Over the course of the following 41 years, Alexey devoted most of his time to Chinese language teaching, research, and translation, while mentoring many young sinologists. He also translated classic and modern Chinese literary masterpieces, such as Outlaws of the Marsh by Shi Nai’an, the Journey to the West by Wu Cheng’en, the Good Wishes by Lu Xun, and An Account of Heroes of Luliang by Ma Feng and Xi Rong.

Alexey is believed to be the first person to work on cover-to-cover translations of the Chinese classics Outlaws of the Marsh and Journey to the West. Quite influential in the former Soviet Union, his translations won high praise from his native readers.

Fatherly Footsteps

Establishing something of a family tradition, Igor handed down his great interest in the Chinese language, and other aspects of his ongoing fascination with China. In the early 1950s, he majored in the Chinese language at KUTV, during the diplomatic heyday of Sino-Russian relations. During this period, in the course of his work as an interpreter, he made many Chinese friends, particularly national basketball and volleyball players.

In 1956, after graduating from KUTV, Igor worked as an interpreter and translator for the Ministry of Public Health in China. During 1957 and 1958, based in China, he was on staff with the editorial department of the Russian newspaper, Friendly. It was not long before he was assigned to serve with the embassy of the USSR in China.

In April 1992, then President Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin appointed Igor to serve as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Russian Federation to the People’s Republic of China, and he subsequently held the post for 13 years. His term of office witnessed a rapid development of the Sino-Russian relationship, eventually to fully normalize when both State heads agreed to bilateral visits and mutual exchange.

The year 1996 saw the establishment of the Sino-Russia Strategic Partnership of Coordination. In 2005, before Igor departed his chair and returned home, Li Zhaoxing, then minister of Foreign Affairs, remarked that Igor had, after riding out many twists and turns, excelled at strengthening the strategic partnership. Igor’s contribution to the acceleration of the Sino-Russian diplomatic relationship also met with approval in his homeland. In August 1996, Igor was awarded the Badge of Honor by President Yeltsin for his outstanding diplomatic achievements. In 2002, he was recognized with the Order of Honor by the State.

Leader Liaison

Since 1958, as part of his diplomatic service, Igor interpreted for many senior Chinese officials.“In 1960, I accompanied a Russian delegation to southern China to meet with Chairman Mao Zedong. Chairman Mao interviewed us at his outskirts mansion, afterwards inviting us to dinner. I was deeply impressed by Mao, especially his ability to eat chilies. He grasped a handful and ate without hesitation, not batting an eye. My mouth immediately burned when I had my just one!” Igor recalled.

“It was not an easy task, interpreting for Chairman Mao,” Igor continued, “because of his strong Hunan accent. Someone had to help interpret his accent into mandarin Chinese, and then I turned it into Russian.”

Another Chinese leader who deeply impressed Igor was Deng Xiaoping, the chief architect of China’s reform and opening-up policies, he believes, and, one of the wisest statesmen of the 20th Century. He fondly recalls the day in the late 1950s, when the Russian and Chinese national basketball teams met at Worker’s Gymnasium in Beijing, with Deng Xiaoping in attendance and Igor providing the interpretation.

In 1989, China and Russia resumed normal relations after a period of cooling. Igor, then vice foreign minister, flew to Beijing along with then Minister Eduard Shevardnadze of Foreign Affairs, in advance of then President Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev. According to standard protocol, the minister should have first been introduced to Deng Xiaoping, who shook hands with Igor as soon as they met: “I remember you,” Deng exclaimed. “You interpreted for me in the late 1950s, right?”

In May of 1989, Deng Xiaoping hosted a lengthy meeting with President Gorbachev at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing. Igor still recalls Deng’s final sentence before the end of the talk: “Let’s put an end to the past and open up the future.”

Advancing Alliances

July 21, 2008, was a special day for Igor. It was then that he witnessed the signing of the Joint Statement and the Supplementary Agreement on the Eastern Section of the China-Russia Boundary Line and the additional protocol between Yang Jiechi, Chinese foreign minister, and Sergei Lavrov, Russian foreign minister.

It’s been more than four decades since the first negotiation on border issues began in 1964, and Igor participated in many such meetings, playing an important role in the final delimitation of the China-Russia border.

In 1969, Igor took part in a historic meeting in Beijing on border issues between then Chinese premier Zhou Enlai and then Premier Aleksey Nikolayevich Kosygin of the former Soviet Union, ultimately reaching an important agreement. During the period extending from 1987 to 1991, he served as USSR’s representative for talks regarding Sino-Russian border issues.

The year 1991 brought a pivotal turning point. During that May the foreign ministers from both sides formerly ratified an agreement on the eastern section of the boundary, when then Chinese President Jiang Zemin visited the USSR, agreeing to establish a joint committee on the matters of the eastern border between the two nations. The agreement was the first international document concerning Sino-Russian border issues, settling territorial disputes along 97 percent of the eastern border between the two countries, thus laying a solid groundwork for improved regional relations. During former President Putin’s 2004 visit to China, Igor also witnessed the declaration of the complete definition of the direction of the China-Russia boundary line by the heads of the two countries.

Igor experienced this encouraging development and was greatly heartened by the sides working together to strengthen the Sino-Russian relationship. “For a time, there were complications in the relationship between the two countries due to emotional views on both sides. Some in Russia believed that China had tendencies of domination, while in China some held that Russia was an aggressive nation. It was a huge achievement to successfully lessen such sentiments,” he explained.

Cause Continuous

As a member of the Russian Federation Council, Igor continues his efforts to build upon the friendship between the peoples of China and Russia, while bolstering strategic cooperation between the two countries.

In 2005, Igor accepted an invitation to serve as an adviser to China, a Russian language magazine published by China Pictorial Publications, contributing greatly to the publication’s quality of content and its scope of distribution.

“It was in 2006 when the magazine celebrated its first anniversary of the publication,” recalled Huang Huizhu, executive editor-in-chief of China magazine. “We had a symposium in Moscow, and it was snowing that day, and traffic was bad. Igor arrived at 2 o’clock in the afternoon and he didn’t leave until 9 p.m., after all the participants were gone.”

Igor is a true believer in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). “I still remember that day in 1992. During my service in Beijing, the British ambassador dropped by, and he told me that there were 190 Chinese clinics in London,” Igor recalled. “Later, the US ambassador to China said that one-fifth of US citizens to some degree used traditional Chinese medical treatment.”

However, there were comparatively few people in Russia who had any knowledge of TCM. So Igor has devoted much effort to establishing a traditional Chinese clinic in Moscow.

“I myself prefer traditional Chinese medicine over Western medicine,” said Igor. “Over the last 15 years, I have rarely taken Western medicine. I do hope that I can do something to promote traditional Chinese medicine in my country.”