ABSTRACT
Stalin’s operations were particularly successful in Asia, where he was able to engage in political intrigues unfettered from the political constraints that obtained in Europe. Stalin was in his element in Asia. By 1945 Stalin could no longer dissimulate his presence in the war against Japan. He justified the war by the self-serving allegation of Tokyo’s violation of the Soviet-Japanese Pact of Neutrality. As far as the events up to 1945 involving China, Japan, and the Soviet Union were concerned, he enjoyed the last laugh, for his accounts of them were accepted in toto, carved in stone in the form of the judgments at the Tokyo War Crimes Trial. Stalin’s accounts are a bespoke story, however. Until 1937, Zhang played an unsung yet far more significant role in Stalin’s quest of supremacy over China than did Mao Zedong or Chiang Kaishek. A “fanatic patriot,” Zhang did Moscow’s bidding of his own accord.
