Career
Oleg Ken was born in Orsk, Orenburg Oblast, where his family lived in exile owing to their ethnic German origin. 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. Since 1994 he had worked at European University at Saint St. Petersburg, where he was Secretary for Academic Affairs and earned his Doktor nauk degree.
In 2005 he was appointed Full Professor at Herzen University.
He died from heart failure in his sleep in his apartment on October 28, 2007.