After high school, he entered the Law Faculty of the Leningrad State University in 1956. As a student, he became interested in civil and international private law. After graduating from the University in 1961, he was recommended for a postgraduate course. In 1964, V.A. Musin defended his Ph.D. thesis The Legal Entity Concept. After the postgraduate course, he worked for three years at the Central Maritime Research and Development Institute, where he dealt with issues of the international maritime law, maritime trade, and commercial practice.