 He entered undergraduate studies at Orel Pedagogical Institute, but in 1979 moved to Leningrad and in 1981 graduated from the Department of History of Leningrad State Pedagogical University.In 1990 Ken defended his Kandidat nauk thesis "Great Britain and European security (1933-1935)".Since 1994 he had worked at European University at Saint Petersburg, where he was Secretary for Academic Affairs and earned his Doktor nauk degree.