Finale of World War II in the Far East (debating points of contemporary Russian historiography)
The paper deals with contemporary Russian historiography at the closing stage of World War II, the war between USSR and Japan of 1945. Emphasizing the major changes occurring in the Russian discipline, the author underlines that they could not but ripple effect on studies of such an important and urgent topic as World War II. But archive disclosure, source base expansion, ideological control elimination, and intensification of contacts between scholars inspired formation of diverse, sometimes diametrically opposed, viewpoints on the events of the Soviet-Japanese War of 1945. The author sees some issues causing most high-pitched arguments between scholars in the contemporary Russian historiography on this war. The author pays close attention to, in particular, the Neutrality Pact between Japan and Soviet Union dated April 13, 1941, the lawfulness of denouncing which by the Soviet party is interpreted controversially. Historians evaluate USSR entering the war with Japan differently: some see it as fulfilling a duty to allies (UK and USA), others, as an unlawful neutrality violation. The question about the USSR's role in the war and achieving Japan's unconditional surrender provokes numerous discussions. The arguments about territorial outcomes of the Soviet-Japanese War and transfer of South Sakhalin and Kuril Islands to the Soviet Union are sharp. Finishing her analysis, the author concludes that rethinking the conventional evaluations and concepts, emergence of new methodological approaches and viewpoints, and intensification of the topic's information richness build a basis for writing a true-to-life non-ideology-driven history of World War II.