Who represented the Soviet Union at Japan’s surrender ceremony aboard USS Missouri?

Kuzma Derevyanko represented the Soviet Union at Japan’s surrender ceremony aboard USS Missouri.

Lieutenant General Kuzma Derevyanko signed the Japanese Instrument of Surrender for the Soviet Union on September 2, 1945. His signature came after the representatives of the United States, China, and the United Kingdom had signed, and before the representatives of Australia, Canada, France, the Netherlands, and New Zealand.

Derevyanko was a Soviet military officer who had served in the Red Army during World War II. He had recently become associated with the Soviet military presence in the Far East, where Soviet forces had entered the war against Japan in August 1945. The Soviet declaration of war and invasion of Japanese-held territory formed an important part of the final military pressure on Japan.

He is often confused with Vyacheslav Molotov, the Soviet foreign minister who delivered the declaration of war to Japan, or with Georgy Zhukov, the better-known Soviet commander in Europe. Neither signed the Japanese surrender document aboard Missouri.