Vadim Tikunov

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 between 1961 and 1966. He was also ambassador of the Soviet Union to Republic of Upper Volta and Cameroon in the late 1960s and 1970s.

Biography Tikunov was born in Simbirsk in April 1921. From 1939 he attended Alma Ata State Law Institute, today part of Al-Farabi Kazakh National University, and graduated in 1942. 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. 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. 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, Cameroon, and was buried in Moscow at the Kuntsevo cemetery.