Born in Ostroverkhivka village, Kharkov Governorate to a peasant family, Malik was educated at Kharkiv Institute of National Economy (1930).

Then, he worked as an economist and as a Communist Party 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.

At the time of the United Nations Security Council Resolution 82 on 25 June 1950, Malik was boycotting the presence of a Nationalist Chinese representative.

During this time he initiated the covert operation Bukran, which established a spy network in several African countries.