Born in Ostroverkhovka village, Kharkov Governorate, Malik was educated at Kharkiv Institute of National Economy (1930). Then, he worked as an economist, as the Communist Party's functionary in Kharkiv, and from 1935 in the Foreign Affairs service in Moscow. He served as Ambassador in Japan from 1942 until 9 August 1945, when the Soviet government declared war on the Japanese Empire. Malik was the Soviet ambassador to the United Nations from 1948 to 1952, and from 1968 to 1976.
