Grigorii Ivanovich Tunkin (1906-1993), Russian diplomat, academic, member of the International Law Commission, and author of the influential handbook Theory of International Law (1st ed. 1974, first Russian edition 1970) is the most renowned Soviet scholar. His intellectual work explains international law from a modified Marxist-Leninist point of view. His approach of international law became discernable in 1956. Tunkin was widely accepted in the western world as an international law scholar because of the subtle way in which he advocated a peaceful coexistence. He often published under pseudonyms and his writings became available in many western languages. He lectured several times at the Hague Academy of International Law and his text 'International Law in the International System' is to be found in the Recueil des Cours 147 (1975 IV), 1-218.

Ideology in a nutshell. An extract from The October Revolution and Proletarian Internationalism.

The communist view on international law Soviet law comprises, generally speaking, a system of norms set by the state. The state is made up of the dictatorship of the ruling working class. International law is the set of rules operating between states and regulating the international relations. It is, therefore, a reflection of the relations between the ruling classes of the various countries. Positive acts of a state make international legal norms and treaties and customs constitute sources of international law. General principles of law and natural law are excluded in the Soviet philosophy of international law. Outside the communist world international law, reflecting the will of the ruling class, was identical to interests of the world bourgeoisie.

Feldbrugge's Encyclopedia of Soviet Law is graciously dedicated to Zsolt Szirmai.

After the 1917 October Revolution an annexationist war was considered, in the then prevalent communist view on international law, as aggressive and classified as an international crime. In this early Soviet period Evgenij Aleksandrovic Korovin's International Law of the Transitional Period (1923) was a leading text. Another publicist was Andrei I. Vyshinsky. A prominent element in the early Soviet ideology was the right of national liberation movements to seek self-determination and to refute colonialism. The principles of peaceful coexistence between the West and the Soviet Union and of the peaceful settlement of disputes were central and most obvious in Tunkin's international legal thinking. His specific attitude towards international law was aimed for unity in the world through unity in international law ruling inter-state relations. This normative optimism was rather academic in comparison with the actual Soviet foreign politics.

Dutch interest The Leiden University based Institute for East European Law and Russian Studies, established by Professor Z. Szirmai in 1953, is a centre of unique research in the field of Soviet theory. Its findings are published in The Review of Central and Eastern European Law. Indefatigable advocate of the discipline of East European Studies is Prof. F.J.M. Feldbrugge.

Zsolt Szirmai and F.J.M. Feldbrugge (images reproduced by kind permission of F.J.M. Feldbrugge).

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