Vadim Stepanovich Tikunov (; 9 April 1921 – 16 July 1980) was a Soviet politician who served as the minister of internal affairs of the

Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic The Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (Russian SFSR or RSFSR), previously known as the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic and the Russian Soviet Republic, and unofficially as Soviet Russia,Declaration of Rights of the labo ...

between 1961 and 1966. He was also ambassador of the Soviet Union to

Republic of Upper Volta The Republic of Upper Volta () was a landlocked West African country established on 11 December 1958 as a self-governing state within the French Community. Before becoming autonomous, it had been part of the French Union as the French Upper V ...

and

Cameroon Cameroon, officially the Republic of Cameroon, is a country in Central Africa. It shares boundaries with Nigeria to the west and north, Chad to the northeast, the Central African Republic to the east, and Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and the R ...

in the late 1960s and 1970s.

Biography

Tikunov was born in

Simbirsk Ulyanovsk,, , known as Simbirsk until 1924, is a city and the administrative center of Ulyanovsk Oblast, Russia, located on the Volga River east of Moscow. Ulyanovsk has been the only Russian UNESCO City of Literature since 2015. The city wa ...

in April 1921. From 1939 he attended Alma Ata State Law Institute, today part of

Al-Farabi Kazakh National University Al-Farabi Kazakh National University (), also called KazNU or KazGU, is a national research university located in Almaty, Kazakhstan. Named after philosopher and scholar al-Farabi, it is one of the country's largest universities. KazNU is Kaza ...

, and graduated in 1942. He joined the Communist Party in 1942 and from August 1942 he began to serve as the secretary of the

Aktobe Aktobe (, ; ) is a major city located on the Ilek River in western Kazakhstan. It serves as the administrative center of the Aktobe Region and is an important cultural, economic, and industrial hub in the region. As of 2023, the city has a popu ...

regional committee of the

Komsomol The All-Union Leninist Young Communist League, usually known as Komsomol, was a political youth organization in the Soviet Union. It is sometimes described as the youth division of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU), although it w ...

. In 1944 he became the central committee member of the Komsomol and from 1945 he served as the secretary of the central committee of the Komsomol of the

Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic The Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic, (abbreviated Estonian SSR, Soviet Estonia, or simply Estonia ) was an administrative subunit (Republics of the Soviet Union, union republic) of the former Soviet Union (USSR), covering the Occupation o ...

. In 1947 he was appointed the first secretary of the Komsomol's

Vladimir Oblast Vladimir Oblast () is a federal subject of Russia (an oblast). Its administrative center is the city of Vladimir, which is located east of Moscow. As of the 2010 Census, the oblast's population was 1,443,693. The UNESCO World Heritage L ...

committee. In 1951 he was named as the secretary of the Komsomol committee in Vladimir City and then as the secretary of the regional committee of the Communist Party. In June 1952 he was appointed to its central committee. From 1956 Tikunov worked at the department of administrative organizations. Between November 1958 and August 1959 he was made the deputy head of the departments. Then he served as the deputy chairman of the

KGB The Committee for State Security (, ), abbreviated as KGB (, ; ) was the main security agency of the Soviet Union from 1954 to 1991. It was the direct successor of preceding Soviet secret police agencies including the Cheka, Joint State Polit ...

from 28 August 1959 to 21 July 1961. He was the minister of internal affairs of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic in the period between 25 July 1961 and 17 September 1966. He replaced Nikolay Stakhanov in the post who had been removed from the office. During his tenure Tikunov was promoted to the second rank general of internal service on 7 January 1963. His next post was the commission member of the central committee of the Party on travel abroad which he held in the period 1967–1969. In October 1969 Tikunov was named Minister-Counsellor at the embassy in Romania, a post he held until 1974. He was appointed Soviet ambassador to the Republic of Upper Volta on 21 March 1974, replacing Yakov Lazarev in the post. Tikunov's last post was Soviet ambassador to Cameroon to which he was appointed on 28 August 1978. Tikunov died on 16 July 1980 while serving as the Soviet ambassador in

Yaoundé Yaoundé (; , ) is the Capital city, capital city of Cameroon. It has a population of more than 2.8 million which makes it the second-largest city in the country after the port city Douala. It lies in the Centre Region (Cameroon), Centre Region o ...

, Cameroon, and was buried in Moscow at the

Kuntsevo cemetery The Kuntsevo Cemetery () is a cemetery servicing Kuntsevo, Moscow. It is located on the bank of the Setun River, to the south of the Mozhaisk Highway (the continuation of the Kutuzovsky Prospekt). The local five-domed church was commissioned in 16 ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tikunov, Vadim 1921 births 1980 deaths Ambassadors of the Soviet Union to Burkina Faso Ambassadors of the Soviet Union to Cameroon Candidates of the Central Committee of the 22nd Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union Candidates of the Central Committee of the 23rd Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union Cold War diplomats People's commissars and ministers of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic Burials at Kuntsevo Cemetery People from Ulyanovsk Al-Farabi Kazakh National University alumni KGB officers