Japan in the evaluations of the Soviet leadership and diplomats in 1940-1945 (Based on the materials of the Foreign Policy Archive of the Russian Federation)

Abstract

The article considers the evaluations of Japan and its policy in 1940-1945 by the Soviet leadership and diplomats on the basis of materials from the Foreign Policy Archive of the Russian Federation. The research analyses official and personal sources, in particular, Soviet-Japanese agreements and diplomatic correspondence, as well as the diaries of the Soviet ambassador in Tokyo Yakov Malik. The first part of the article considers the views of the Soviet leadership on Japan in the early 1940s and argues that the evaluation of Japan in the official rhetoric depended on external circumstances and factors: the dynamics of changes of the balance of power in Europe and coordination between the powers of the antiHitler coalition. While, in the beginning, Moscow saw Japan as a friendly country, based on the Soviet-Japanese Neutrality Pact, later, since the denunciation of this pact in 1945, in view of the coming victory over Germany and the declaration of war against Japan, the Soviet Union's official position changed. As a result of these changes, we can see the return of negative connotations of Japan, which was reflected in the contents of the official correspondence and the Soviet press. The second part presents an analysis of the Soviet ambassador in Tokyo Yakov Malik's diaries, which demonstrate private evaluations of Japanese policy. It is noted that the explanation of events through the prism of Marxist-Leninist optics in foreign policy defined Japan as an imperialist power and an enslaver of Asian peoples. In domestic politics, Malik tends to divide the population of Japan by socio-economic characteristics - the “Japanese” and the “Japanese people”, i.e., those who exploit and those who are exploited, respectively. In general, Malik's diaries allow us to trace the dynamics of the changing mood among the Japanese elite during the war. So, with the involvement of new historical materials, it is possible to expand the understanding of Japan in 1940-1945 among the Soviet leadership and diplomats.

Keywords

• ussr
• japan
• far east
• the neutrality pact
• soviet-japanese relations