The Tunkin Diary and Lectures

Grigorii Ivanovich Tunkin was a Soviet jurist and diplomat who became a leading international lawyer in the Soviet Union. His interests were always multi-dimensional. From 1957 to 1966, Tunkin led the Soviet Union's Legal Department of the Foreign Ministry. In 1961, he was President of the United Nations International Law Commission. Tunkin was professor and Chief of the Chair of International Law at Moscow State University's Faculty of Law. He also served as President of the Soviet Association of International Law, from its founding in 1957 until his death. Tunkin's textbooks on international law formed the core of the international law curriculum in the USSR for over 40 years. His works continued to have a lasting influence following the dissolution of the USSR. The present volume brings together a set of materials unique to the Tunkin family and of considerable interest to historians of international law, legal doctrine, and international diplomacy. The book opens with recollections of Tunkin by his youngest son, Vladimir Grigorevich Tunkin, prompted by the discovery that Tunkin kept a diary when he traveled abroad. These are followed by the texts of Tunkin's lectures at The Hague Academy of International Law, delivered on four occasions between 1958 and 1986.