Pavel Palazhchenko or Palazchenko[1] (Russian: Па́вел Русла́нович Пала́жченко, born 17 March 1949) is a former high-level Soviet conference interpreter who was the chief English interpreter for Mikhail Gorbachev and Soviet foreign minister Eduard Shevardnadze from 1985 and 1991.

[2]Palazhchenko also wrote the Moi Nesistematichesky Slovar or My Unsystematic Dictionary which was published in Russia by R. Valent publications in May 2002.

The 1999 English-Russian dictionary dealt with trends in the political, diplomatic and journalistic usage in the English language.

In his book, My Unsystematic Dictionary, Palazhchenko writes: This very occupation, to imbibe the air of a foreign (and your own) language, to rake through the throng of words and, having found the right one, feel its texture, its size and then grope for the threads connecting the two languages, has always been my favorite thing to do… – from “Book Tackles Those Hard Words”, The Moscow Times, June 3, 2002.

[6] After becoming a long-time associate and aide to Mikhail Gorbachev for several years, Palazhchenko eventually became the head of the International Department of the International Non-governmental Foundation for Socio-Economic and Political Studies (or The Gorbachev Foundation), where he also functioned as an analyst, spokesperson, interpreter and translator.