Which Soviet general represented the USSR at Japan’s surrender ceremony aboard the USS Missouri?

Kuzma Derevyanko represented the USSR at Japan’s surrender ceremony aboard the USS Missouri. The Soviet lieutenant general signed the Instrument of Surrender in Tokyo Bay on 2 September 1945.

Derevyanko was a Ukrainian-born Soviet military officer who served in intelligence and diplomatic roles during World War II. He had experience in the Far East and was selected to represent the Soviet Union when Japan formally capitulated.

The Soviet Union entered the war against Japan in August 1945, attacking Japanese forces in Manchuria and other areas. That timing explains why the Soviet representative appeared at the surrender ceremony even though the Soviet Union had not signed the Potsdam Declaration in July. Derevyanko signed after the representatives of the United States, China, and the United Kingdom.

He is sometimes mistaken for a more famous Soviet commander such as Georgy Zhukov. Zhukov was a leading European-front commander, but Derevyanko was the Soviet signatory at the Japanese surrender.