Background
Tunkin was born in 1906 in the far north of Russia into an Arkhangelsk peasant family.
Tunkin was born in 1906 in the far north of Russia into an Arkhangelsk peasant family.
Like his famous countryman, Mikhail Lomonosov, Tunkin left for Moscow to study sciences. Though, eventually, he became the leading international lawyer in the Soviet Union, Tunkin"s interests were always multi-dimensional. He wrote his first dissertation on the history of law of the ancient world, spoke many languages fluently and was good at mathematics.
Tunkin was a graduate of the Institute of State and Law, Moscow (1935) and conducted post-graduate study at the same Institute from 1935-1938.
From 1939 to 1941, he was the Assistant Chief of the Legal Department of the NKID (Narodnii Komissariat Inostranih Delegate), or People"s Commissariat for Foreign Affairs, the forerunner to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. From 1941 to 1942, he was the Consul of the Union of the Soviet Socialist Republics at Kermanshah, Iran.
He was the Counsellor and Chargé d"Affaires at the Union of the Soviet Socialist Republics Embassy in Ottawa (1942–1944), Chief of the First Far-Eastern Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Union of the Soviet Socialist Republics. Minister-Counsellor at the Union of the Soviet Socialist Republics Embassy at Pyongyang, North of Korea (1949–1950). Chief of the First Far-Eastern Department (1951–1952) and Chief of the Treaty and Legal Department of the Union of the Soviet Socialist Republics Ministry of Foreign Affairs (1952–1965).
While heading the Legal Department of the Foreign Ministry of the Soviet Union from 1957 to 1966, Tunkin was a member, and in 1961 President, of the United Nations International Law Commission.
He led Soviet delegations to international conferences such as the first and second United Nations Conferences on the Law of the Sea (1958, 1960), Union of the Soviet Socialist Republics Delegation at the Antarctic Conference (1959) and the Vienna Conference on Diplomatic Relations (1961). From 1946 to 1965, with several interruptions, Tunkin served as the Chief of the Chair of International Law at the Moscow Institute of Law, the High Diplomatic School (at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs) and taught as professor of international law at the Moscow Institute of International Relations (MGIMO).
From 1965, Tunkin was appointed professor and Chief of the Chair of International Law at Moscow State University"s Faculty of Law. Professor Tunkin also served as the president of the Soviet Association of International Law from its founding in 1957 until his death.
Academy of Sciences of the Union of the Soviet Socialist Republics]
Among Tunkin"s other contributions, he served as a Member of the Curatorium of the Hague Academy of International Law, as an honorary member of the Institut de droit international.