Transbaikal Front
After the German surrender in May 1945, Malinovsky was transferred to the Russian Far East, where he was placed in command of the Transbaikal Front. In August 1945, led his forces during the last Soviet offensive of the war under the overall command of Aleksandr Vasilevsky. Vasilevsky's forces invaded Manchuria, which was under the occupation of the 700,000 strong Japanese Kwantung Army ("see Soviet invasion of Manchuria") and crushed the Japanese in ten days. Malinovsky was awarded the Soviet Union's greatest honor, the order of a Hero of the Soviet Union.