Page 5 - 100 Reflections that Crafted Geneva International_V-Petrovsky_private special edition

Acknowledgments

T he first, and most important acknowledgment is of course to
Mr. Petrovsky himself, with whom I was fortunate to work and/or
cooperate professionally and personally for almost four decades,
and who I consider my mentor. It was truly a privilege to learn so much from
such an inspiring person. As well as his many great diplomatic achievements,
including the highest UN position held by any representative of the USSR/
Russian Federation*, it was incredibly heartening to see his personal commit-
ment to the highest values and ideals of peace, security and dialogue, and the
incredible passion, creativity, innovation, and humanness he brought to his work.
My deepest thanks are also due to Mr. Petrovksy’s wife, Mira M.
Petrovskaya, and her daughter Helen Petrovskaya, for trusting me with Mr.
Petrovsky’s private archives along with their own personal memoirs’ archives. I
am also grateful for their advice while preparing this book, and on the articles
which preceded it.
I am greatly appreciative of the support I received from the Diva Interna-
tional Diplomat Magazine, for publishing these articles that formed the basis for
this book, as well as for cooperation in the restoration of Mr. Petrovsky’s private
archives.
Gratitude is also due to the NGO “Comprehensive Dialogue among Civi-
lization”, created by Mr. Petrovsky himself, for providing me with the physical
copies of all archives, including missing documents and anything else I needed
while working on this book and for cooperation on the archives project (as
described in Diva International Diplomat, No.2/2021, pp. 16-17), now donated
to the United Nations Archives.
Thanks also to Ash Charlton, a talented writer and editor and UN consultant
for over 20 years, who was a great support to me throughout the book’s prepa-
ration. Finally, my deepest appreciation to my many close colleagues and
friends for their encouragement, and the gift of their time in highly professional
translations of the series of texts for this book.
October 2022

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* Several other Under-Secretaries-General and Directors-General/Secretaries-General of the Conference on
Disarmament positions have or are being held by representatives of the Russian Federation in New York,
Vienna, and Geneva, but Mr. Petrovsky was the first and only Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs of
the United Nations (in 1997 position became Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations, A/RES/
52/12B). Furthermore, while retaining the rank of United Nations Under-Secretary-General, he later also
became the Director-General of the United Nations Office at Geneva (1993), the Special Representative of
the Secretary-General on Disarmament and the Secretary-General of the Conference on Disarmament and a
Personal Representative of the UN Secretary-General to the Conference on Disarmament. At the same time,
he was also Special Envoy of the UN Secretary-General to Lybia (1992-1998) and Special Representative of
the UN Secretary-General in Albania (1998). All the above positions during his last tenure in the United
Nations from 1992 to 2002, give him the distinction of being the highest-ranking official from the Soviet
Union and the Russian Federation to the United Nations since its creation in 1945.