Which Soviet representative signed Japan’s 1945 surrender instrument aboard USS Missouri?

Lieutenant General Kuzma Derevyanko signed Japan’s 1945 surrender instrument for the Soviet Union aboard USS Missouri.

Derevyanko represented the Soviet Union at the formal ceremony in Tokyo Bay on 2 September 1945. He signed after General Douglas MacArthur, representing the Allied powers, and Fleet Admiral Chester Nimitz, representing the United States. The sequence reflected the order in which the Allied governments signed the document.

The Soviet Union had declared war on Japan on 8 August 1945, entering the conflict against Japan shortly after the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. Soviet forces then launched the Manchurian Strategic Offensive Operation against Japan’s Kwantung Army in August 1945.

Derevyanko is sometimes confused with better-known Soviet commanders such as Georgy Zhukov, but Zhukov did not sign Japan’s surrender instrument. The ceremony included nine Allied signatories: representatives of the United States, China, the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union, Australia, Canada, France, the Netherlands, and New Zealand.