Which Soviet officer signed Japan’s Instrument of Surrender for the Soviet Union?

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

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

Derevyanko was a Soviet military officer who served in intelligence and command roles during World War II. His appearance at the ceremony came shortly after the Soviet Union entered the war against Japan in August 1945. Soviet forces launched operations against Japanese positions in Manchuria, Korea, Sakhalin, and the Kuril Islands.

He is sometimes confused with Georgy Zhukov or Ivan Konev, famous Soviet commanders on the European front. Unlike those better-known generals, Derevyanko was selected to sign the Japanese surrender as the Soviet representative in the Pacific settlement. He later served in Soviet military and diplomatic roles before dying in 1954.