Which Soviet general signed Japan’s Instrument of Surrender for the Soviet Union in 1945?

Kuzma Derevyanko signed Japan’s Instrument of Surrender for the Soviet Union in 1945.

Lieutenant General Kuzma Derevyanko represented the Soviet Union at the formal ceremony aboard USS Missouri on September 2, 1945. He signed after representatives of the United States, China, and the United Kingdom, and before representatives of Australia, Canada, France, the Netherlands, and New Zealand.

Derevyanko’s participation reflected the Soviet Union’s entry into the war against Japan in August 1945. Soviet forces invaded Japanese-held Manchuria, attacked Japanese positions in Korea and Sakhalin, and later occupied the Kuril Islands. The campaign sharply changed Japan’s strategic situation during the same week as the atomic bombing of Nagasaki.

He is less widely known than Marshal Georgy Zhukov, who was a major Soviet commander in Europe but did not sign Japan’s surrender. Derevyanko’s role was diplomatic and ceremonial at the signing, although he was a senior military officer.

The Instrument of Surrender included signatures from nine Allied representatives. The Soviet signature was important because the USSR was one of the principal Allied powers participating in the final defeat and occupation arrangements in Northeast Asia.