Public service

1957–1961:

• Attache, Permanent Mission of the USSR to the United Nations, New York

1961–1964:

• Second Secretary, Office of the Foreign Minister of the USSR

1964–1971:

• Political Affairs Officer, Chief of Unit, United Nations Secretariat, New York

1971–1979:

• Chief Counselor, Head of American Division of the Policy Planning Department, Foreign Ministry of the USSR

1972–1975:

• Secretary-General of the USSR Delegation to the CSCE, Geneva

1979–1986:

• Head of International Organizations' Department, Foreign Ministry of the USSR Member of the USSR Foreign Ministry's Collegium

1986–1991:

• Deputy Foreign Minister of the USSR
• Head of USSR Delegations to the United Nations General Assembly, UNESCO, IAEA, UNEP, and various European fora, including the CSCE

1991:

• First Deputy Foreign Minister of the USSR
• Executive Secretary of the OSCE Conference on the Human Dimension

1992:

• Representative of Russia to the NATO Council of Cooperation

1992–1993:

• Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs, United Nations, New York
• Special Envoy of the UN Secretary-General to Libya

1998:

• Special Envoy of the UN Secretary-General to Libya
• Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General in Albania

1993–2002:

• Under-Secretary-General, Director-General of the United Nations Office at Geneva
• Secretary-General of the Conference on Disarmament
• Personal Representative of the UN Secretary-General to the Conference on Disarmament

2002–2010:

• Senior Research Fellow, UNITAR, Geneva
• Consultant to the Russian Council of Federation, Moscow
• Head of the Center for Politico-Diplomatic, Intercultural and Inter-religious Dialogue, Institute of Europe, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow
• Chairman of the NGO Association 'Comprehensive Dialogue Among Civilizations' (CDaC), Geneva
• Chairman of Maecenas World Patrimony Foundation, Geneva
• Member of the Board International Dialogues Foundation IDF, The Hague
• Member of the Board Museum Geelvinck, Amsterdam

Cuban Missile Crisis

During October 1962 Vladimir Petrovsky worked in the office of Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko. There were long periods of non-stop work in the Foreign Ministry building on Smolenskaya Square in Moscow to attend emergency meetings and action groups to resolve the Cuban Missile Crisis. On 27 October 1962 the USSR Ministry of Foreign Affairs prepared a positive response to the US request for the withdrawal of Soviet missiles from Cuba in exchange for US government's assurances on compliance with the territorial integrity of the island. Vladimir Petrovsky later analyzed this intense period in his memoirs.

The Helsinki Final Act

Vladimir Petrovsky was strongly involved in researching and drafting all the details of the Soviet delegation's position towards the Helsinki Process followed by the Helsinki Final Act (Helsinki Accords). It was signed during July and 1 August 1975 and became at the time a declaration of attempt to improve relations between the Communist bloc and the West. The Helsinki Accords served as the groundwork for the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE).

Perestroika

Before announcing Perestroika in 1987, the Soviet government had done a multi-level research and analytical work accomplished by both the political and academical elite. In 1986 Vladimir Petrovsky was appointment as Deputy Foreign Minister of the USSR and received the task to help promote the process later known as glasnost (openness) with an assignment to supervise the Press Department, while being also in charge of other areas in the Foreign Ministry. Vladimir Petrovsky was among the specialists of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs that were chosen to formulate the progressive concepts for the framework of the New Political Thinking. In 1988 Vladimir Petrovsky was part of the task force preparing the draft for the landmark address that Soviet General Secretary Gorbachev gave at the UN General Assembly on 6 December 1988.

Disarmament

Throughout his long diplomatic career Vladimir Petrovsky strongly stressed the essential role that disarmament should play in the comprehensive approach to security in the world. In 1978, he became a member of the Soviet delegation to the First Special Session of the UN General Assembly on Disarmament. He was involved in working out the details of the multilateral machinery for disarmament and the rules for the Conference on Disarmament (CD). In 1979, after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan the only possibility to communicate with the West on the diplomatic level were consultations on nuclear weapons nonproliferation. In 1993, Vladimir Petrovsky became the Secretary-General of the Conference on Disarmament (CD) in Geneva, the organization for which he had helped to develop the rules of conduct earlier in 1978. Under his chairmanship the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva was able to negotiate the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, signed in 1996. He remained in the position of CD's Secretary-General until his retirement from the United Nations in 2002.