Malik, Yakov Aleksandrovic 

Malik, Yakov (Aleksandrovich) (b. Feb. 11, 1906, Kharkov, Russia [now in Ukraine] - d. Feb. 11, 1980, Moscow), Soviet diplomat. After graduating from the Soviet Institute of Foreign Affairs, he was appointed assistant chief of the press section at the people’s commissariat of foreign affairs in 1937. In 1939 he was sent as counsellor to the Soviet embassy in Tokyo, Japan, where he became ambassador on May 20, 1942. From January 1946 he was political adviser to Gen. Kuzma N. Derevyanko on the Allied Council for Japan, but on Aug. 24, 1946, was appointed deputy minister of foreign affairs in charge of the Far Eastern department. In May 1948 he succeeded Andrey Gromyko as chief Soviet representative to the United Nations. On Aug. 1, 1950, after a seven-month absence from the Security Council in protest at the presence of the Chinese Nationalist delegate, Malik returned to the council and was chairman during that month. He served until 1953 and later again in 1968-76.