Tikhvinskii, Sergei Leonidovich

Born Sept. 1, 1918, in Petrograd. Soviet historian and diplomat; ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary. Corresponding member of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR (1968). Member of the CPSU from 1941.

Tikhvinskii carried out diplomatic work in China, Great Britain, and Japan between 1939 and 1957. In 1958 he became a professor at the Moscow Institute of International Relations. Tikhvinskii served as director of the Institute of Sinology of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR in 1960. He was assistant director of the Institute of the Peoples of Asia of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR from 1961 to 1963 and of the Institute of the Economics of the World Socialist System of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR in 1963 and 1964. In 1974 he became editor in chief of the journal Novata i noveishaia istoriia (Modern and Contemporary History).

Tikhvinskii’s principal works deal with the modern and contemporary history of the Far East, particularly China, and the history of international relations.

From 1968 to 1974, Tikhvinskii represented the USSR on the executive board of UNESCO. In 1971 he became chairman of the Palestinian Society of Russia of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR. He is a member of the Commission for Publication of Diplomatic Documents under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the USSR.

Tikhvinskii has been awarded the Order of the October Revolution, six other orders, and various medals.