Kuzma Derevianko - Ukrainian Soviet general who accepted the surrender of Japan in World War II
70 years ago, World War II ended with the signing of the Japanese surrender in Tokyo Bay on the battleship Missouri. The world is tired of war. For five minutes, the delegations of the allied states looked reproachfully into the eyes of the delegation of the aggressor country - these were five minutes of shame for Japan, endless minutes that lasted an eternity. At the end of the ceremony, the US representative in his closing speech offered to pray for no more wars. The Soviet delegation was headed by Lieutenant General, a native of Ukraine Kuzma Nikolaevich Derevyanko, who with his signature removed the USSR from the list of warring countries.
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A journey of forty years
Commander-in-Chief Joseph Stalin stated on September 2, 1945: “Japan began its aggression against our country back in 1904 during the Russo-Japanese War. <…> We, the people of the old generation, have been waiting for forty years for this day. And now, this day has come. Today Japan admitted itself defeated and signed an act of unconditional surrender. This means that southern Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands will go to the Soviet Union, and from now on they will serve not as a means of separating the Soviet Union from the ocean and as a base for a Japanese attack on our Far East, but as a means of direct communication between the Soviet Union and the ocean <...>.”
The Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905 ended on the battleship Missouri
In the year the war began, in 1904, on the holiday of the unmercenary Kozma and Damian, celebrated on November 14, not the epic hero Alyosha Popovich was born in the village of Kosenovka, Uman district, but a son of the twentieth century, who was destined to fight the fire-breathing dragon of Nazism. Folk tales about snakes, battles on shaky bridges, tales of the glorious Haidamak past complemented the stories of fellow villagers and veterans of the Russian-Japanese War about samurai. One way or another, the boy had a dream, a dream so big and strong that he could not stay in his native village.
In October 1936, in Kazakhstan, he managed the Sary-Ozek transshipment base for the delivery of weapons to China, which was at war with Japan. By this time, Kuzma Nikolaevich was an excellent intelligence officer, a connoisseur of several languages, including Japanese. Such was the strength of his childhood impression and the determination of the son of a stonemason, who was eager to revive the desecrated glory of the Fatherland in the Far East. But before the table with the green cloth on the battleship Missouri, he still had to look into the underworld itself.
With the rank of major and with the Order of Lenin on his chest in 1938, Kuzma Derevyanko found himself in the “sanatorium-resort” position of head of the economic and administrative department of the Red Army intelligence department. However, bureaucratic undercover games turned out to be more dangerous than a thousand evil Basques. Repressions from relatives accused of class unreliability threaten Kuzma Nikolaevich himself. The ring of gloomy accusations is tightening around him, the air is becoming heavier, friends and acquaintances are turning away as if from a leper. However, it is not so easy to defeat a scout with field experience.
Having understood the situation and learned “where the wind is blowing,” Derevianko takes a risk and writes a letter to Klim Voroshilov: “The RU command does not demand anything and does not promise anything; does not praise or scold; does not deduct and does not give work; He doesn’t reveal suspicions or doubts, but he doesn’t show trust either... I consider such a situation unacceptable and mocking. It oppresses, deprives me of all rights and insults me, as a commander, as a party member, as a citizen of a Great Country... Being a living corpse for about 5 months and realizing this is not as easy as some soulless, still living corpses who find themselves in the leadership of the Republic of Uzbekistan imagine...».
The appeal had an effect, and Kuzma Nikolaevich managed to escape from the jaws of repression. He asks, begs to be sent away from this “sanatorium-resort” hell, and ends up on the Soviet-Finnish front.
On the fronts of Finland
In the Soviet-Finnish campaign, Kuzma Nikolaevich Derevyanko was able to fully show himself as a scout. He not only brilliantly organizes reconnaissance and sabotage activities, but also directly participates in combat operations. For example, he, at the head of a squad of skiers, rescues another squad that was ambushed. The Order of the Red Star and the extraordinary rank of colonel are added to the Order of Lenin. Kuzma Nikolaevich also showed unparalleled courage and resourcefulness in the war with the Nazis. In August 1941, he organized a raid deep behind German lines and freed about two thousand prisoners of the concentration camp near Staraya Russa. Kuzma Nikolaevich was also lucky enough to liberate his native village of Kosenovka.
But he was able to make the greatest contribution to the victory as chief of staff. For this work, Derevyanok was nominated to all three “commander” orders: Suvorov, Kutuzov and Bogdan Khmelnitsky. If the commander makes decisions, then the chief of staff must not only provide the information on the basis of which decisions are made, but also organize the work of the headquarters so that it is a fail-safe clockwork mechanism. In addition to taking into account the operational situation at the front, he must also take into account the peculiarities of the very difficult characters of his subordinates. According to the recollections of his colleagues, Kuzma Nikolaevich never raised his voice, was emphatically polite, and, in turn, knew how to inspire respect for himself.
When he approached the table to sign the act of surrender of Japan on the battleship Missouri, the American sailors who saw him for the first time, the same ones who a minute ago laughed at Douglas MacArthur’s “children’s” uniform shorts, applauded the representative of the Soviet Union in admiration.
Dream of peace
Many historians, and Kuzma Derevyanko himself, asked themselves the question: why Joseph Vissarionovich chose an inconspicuous lieutenant general from dozens of candidates to end the Second World War, including Marshal Zhukov and Marshal Vasilevsky, who fought with the Japanese... The answer lies on the surface. The country victoriously ended the war together with its allies, therefore, diplomats were needed, not generals. It doesn't take much intelligence or effort to start a war. But how much time, patience, endurance, intelligence is needed to achieve peace. And in this matter, Stalin could only rely on Kuzma Derevyanok, who knew languages, people, and showed himself brilliantly during diplomatic work in Vienna...
Kuzma Derevianko has always been the soul of any company
Kuzma Derevianko not only fulfilled his childhood dream, restoring the good name of the Fatherland, for which his fellow Ukrainians died on the hills of Manchuria in 1904. By remaining in Japan until 1952 to enforce the surrender, he was able to become a bridge between very different peoples.
Kuzma Nikolaevich lived a little over fifty years. Although not directly, the Americans killed him... In the ruins of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, he was stricken with radiation sickness, from which he died on December 30, 1954...
In Kosenovka, his native village, near the estate-museum, a viburnum bush and a sakura tree were planted nearby as symbols of the unity of the two peoples. Sakura, a decorative cherry tree with very beautiful, soft pink flowers that fall very quickly, gives a person inspiration to live beautifully. Viburnum, even in the most severe winters, tenaciously holds onto its clusters of bright berries. The Ukrainian boy clung to his dream so tightly that he lived his entire life truly beautifully.
Today, our dream of peace in Ukraine is also a dream of people like Kuzma Nikolaevich Derevyanko.
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