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    Comprehensive

    Dialogue

    Among

    Civilizations

    Vladimir Petrovsky: 
    A life in pictures

    The Deputy Foreign Minister of the USSR, Vasily Kuznetsov, confers with a young Vladimir Petrovsky in 1960.

    Standing behind Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev as he is introduced before a press conference in 1960

    With UN Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld and Valerian Zorin, Soviet diplomat and statesman, in New York in 1959

    With Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev and Israel’s Foreign Minister (later Prime Minister), Golda Meir

    The Soviet delegation to the UN in 1960, headed by Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko

    Cuban Prime Minister Fidel Castro meeting Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev in New York in 1960. On the right in the second row is Vladimir Petrovsky, who served as Chief of Protocol ad interim for the meeting.

    In discussions at Dartmouth College, December 1977

    With David Rockefeller (centre), 1977. Rockefeller at times served as an unofficial U.S. emissary on high-level diplomatic missions, acting as a bridge to Prime Minister Fidel Castro, Premier Nikita Khrushchev and President Mikhail Gorbachev. The supportive atmosphere of the Dartmouth meetings allowed for informal exchanges between the U.S. and the Soviet Union, lessening tensions between the two superpowers during the Cold War.

    With UN Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim, reading The Moscow News coverage on a flight from the USSR’s capital, 1981

    Meeting with Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in 1987

    With Margaret Thatcher, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, during her visit to the UN General Assembly in New York, 1989

    UN Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali is flanked by Marie Heuzé, Director of the United Nations Information Service in Geneva, and Vladimir Petrovsky, Director-General of the United Nations Office at Geneva, 1 July 1993.

    In 1992 Vladimir Petrovsky met with Libyan leader Muammar al-Gaddafi as the Special Envoy of the UN Secretary-General.

    Receiving South African President and Nobel Peace Prize winner Nelson Mandela at the UN Office at Geneva during the 1995 Telecom organized by the International Telecomunication Union

    Meeting with Yasser Arafat, first President of the Palestinian National Authority, at the United Nations Office at Geneva.

    With Pope John Paul II in an audience at the Vatican

    In front of the Celestial Sphere in the park of the UN Office at Geneva with Jiang Zémín, Chairman of the Communist Party of China, 26 March 1999

    With Shimon Peres, Israeli Minister of Foreign Affairs (later Prime Minister and President), on 8 March 1993

    Pierre Argillet, renowned art collector, publisher and long-time friend of Salvador Dali, presents some of Dali’s prints in Moscow with the hope of arranging an exhibit, 1987.

    A warm handshake with UN Secretary-General Javier Pérez de Cuéllar

    Discussing international affairs with President Gorbachev during a meeting in Geneva in 1996

    With President Gorbachev, First Lady Raisa Maximovna and leaders of city and state governments in Geneva, 1995

    With President Gorbachev. At the time, Vladimir Petrovsky was Deputy Foreign Minister of the USSR.

    With Flavio Cotti, Federal Councillor and former President of Switzerland, in March 1996. The two enjoyed a warm friendship even after their professional paths separated.

    With all in good spirits, Vladimir and Mira Petrovsky greet UN Secretary- General Kofi Annan and Mrs. Nane Annan at an official reception in New York.

    At President Gorbachev’s official residence in Moscow, November 1991. The President is speaking with artist Mikhail Chemiakin.

    Mira Petrovsky with Nane Annan, wife of then UN Secretary- General Kofi Annan

    Vladimir Petrovsky at the Tsereteli studio in Moscow in November 1990 with Zurab Tsereteli, a famous Russian sculptor; Andrei Voznesensky, Soviet poet and architect; President Eduard Shevardnadze of Georgia, formerly the Soviet Minister of Foreign Affairs; UN Secretary-General Javier Pérez de Cuéllar; and high-level interpreter Pavel Palazhchenko.

    With Ms. Aminata Djermakoye, Chef de Cabinet

    Vladimir Petrovsky, 2002.

    Vladimir F. Petrovsky, the founder of Comprehensive Dialogue among Civilizations, with Shashanka M. Karlen, Secretary-General of CDAC.

    With Ambassador François Nordmann, head of the Permanent Mission of Switzerland to the United Nations Office at Geneva

    On 4 May 2006 the inauguration ceremony for Vladimir Petrovsky's Non-Governmental Organization “Comprehensive Dialogue among Civilizations” (CDAC) took place at Palais Eynard, the town hall of Geneva. Pictured (left) is the logo of the organization.

    With Adolf Ogi, former President of Switzerland

    Christian Grobet, President of the state council of Geneva; Vladimir Petrovsky, Director-General of the United Nations Office at Geneva; and Micheline Calmy-Rey, President of the state parliament, hold the torch of the Sri Chinmoy Oneness-Home Peace Run at a ceremony at the cour d’honneur of the Palais des Nations in 1993.

    In deep conversation with Sri Chinmoy, leader of the Peace Meditation at the United Nations. The two enjoyed a close friendship from 1991 until Sri Chinmoy's passing in 2007.

    Recieving Nursultan Nazarbajev, President of Kazakhstan at the Palais des Nations of the UN in Geneva

    The Petrovskys at their official residence in Geneva in 1995

    Vladimir Petrovsky with his daughter, Lena, in a private moment, early 1990s.

    Mira and Vladimir in New York in 1958, in the early days of their relationship, full of hopes and dreams