Sergei Khrushchev to present Hollybush Lecture at Rowan University

Dr. Sergei Khrushchev, senior fellow at the Watson Institute for International Studies at Brown University and son of the late Nikita Khrushchev, will discuss the easing of Cold War tensions between the U.S. and the Soviet Union in the 1960s as part of the Hollybush Lecture Series at Rowan University on Tuesday, Feb. 19.

Khrushchev's lecture, "Johnson and Kosygin at the dawn of détente," begins at 3:30 p.m. in Boyd Recital Hall, Wilson Hall, on Rowan's Glassboro campus.

Free and open to the public, Khrushchev's talk is part of the University's series of events planned for the 2007-2008 academic year to mark the 40th anniversary of the Hollybush Summit at Rowan.

In June of 1967, President Lyndon Johnson and Soviet Premier Alexei Kosygin met at the Hollybush Mansion for two days to discuss their opposing views of the Six-Day Arab-Israeli War. The Summit at Hollybush worked to ease tensions between the two world powers.

An expert in the history of the Cold War, turning points in U.S.-Soviet relations, and Soviet missiles and space development, Khrushchev joined the Watson Institute as a senior fellow in 1996 after serving as a senior visiting fellow at Brown. Before that, he was a fellow at the Institute of Politics at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government.

From 1968-1991, Khrushchev served at the Control Computer Institute in Moscow, rising from section head to first deputy director in charge of research. From 1958-68, he participated in the Soviet missile and space program and worked on cruise missiles for submarines, military and research spacecraft, moon vehicles, and the "Proton," the world's largest space booster.

Khrushchev's father, Nikita, was former general secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. In 1967, Khrushchev began to help his father with his memoirs. The full text of the memoirs, The Time, the People, the Power, was published in Russian in 1999. Khrushchev also produced an English language three-volume set, Memoirs of Nikita Khrushchev, as a joint project between the Watson Institute and Pennsylvania State University.

Author of more than 250 books and articles focusing on engineering, computer science, history and economy, Khrushchev currently is working on his new book, Nikita Khrushchev's Reforms. His books have been published in a dozen languages worldwide.

Khrushchev earned his Soviet doctoral degree from the Ukrainian Academy of Science, a Ph.D. from the Moscow Technical University, and an M.A. with distinction from the Moscow Electric Power Institute.

Khrushchev's lecture is part of a year-long series of events planned at the University to commemorate the summit and to explore issues that faced the world then--and now. Among the upcoming events are:

"40 Years of Space Exploration, presented by Dr. Greg Olsen, the third private citizen to orbit the earth on the International Space Station.

"Soldiers of the Cold War: Political activism of ethic groups in the U.S. during the Cold War," featuring a host of panelists from colleges and universities nationwide.

Symposium on nuclear nonproliferation/panel discussion with moderator Dan Rather, former CBS Evening News anchor, and the following panelists: William Porter, director of the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies and Sam Nunn and Richard Lugar Professor of Nonproliferation Studies at Monterey Institute of International Studies; Joseph Cirincione, senior fellow and director for the Nuclear Policy Center for American Progress; and Rose Gottemoeller, Moscow Centre Director of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

For more information about Hollybush activities, to listen to past lectures in the series, or to view historic video from the Summit, visit www.rowan.edu/hollybush or call 856-256-4240.