page_title: Kantokuen
section_title: Soviet response
hierarchical_section_title: Kantokuen / Soviet response
caption_attribution_description: English: Main guns of the Soviet battleship Parizhskaia Kommuna. Русский: Главный калибр линейного корабля Парижская Коммуна.
context_page_description: KANTOKUEN was an operational plan created by the General Staff of the Imperial Japanese Army for an invasion and occupation of the far eastern region of the Soviet Union, capitalizing on the outbreak of the Soviet-German War in June 1941. Involving seven Japanese armies as well as a major portion of the empire's naval and air forces, it would have been the largest single combined arms operation in Japanese history, and one of the largest of all time.
  The plan was approved in part by Emperor Hirohito on July 7 and involved a three-step readiness phase followed by a three-phase offensive to isolate and destroy the Soviet defenders in no more than six months. It envisioned heavy use of chemical and biological weapons. After growing conflict with simultaneous preparations for an offensive in Southeast Asia, together with the demands of the Second Sino-Japanese War and dimming prospects for a swift German victory in Europe, Kantokuen began to fall out of favor at Imperial General Headquarters and was eventually abandoned following increased sanctions by the United States and its allies in late July and early August 1941.
context_section_description: In the late 1930s through 1941, the USSR's strategic planning against Japan was fundamentally defensive in nature, intended primarily to preserve the sovereignty of its Far Eastern territories and the Mongolian People's Republic. The means to this end, however, would not be completely passive. Even after the German invasion and well into 1942, STAVKA advocated for an all-out defense of the border zone and heavy counterattacks all along the front, with the objective of preventing the IJA from seizing any Soviet territory and throwing them back into Manchuria. While the aggressive language used by Boris Shaposhnikov in 1938 concerning "decisive action" in northern Manchuria after a 45-day period was by 1941 moderated to simply "destroying the first echelon" of invaders and "creating a situation of stability," the Red Army never totally gave up limited offensive goals. The Japanese assessed that the dearth of traversible terrain between the Manchurian border and the Pacific Ocean combined with the vulnerability of the Trans-Siberian Railway in the Amur and Primorye regions was what compelled them to take such a stance, despite investing considerable resources to fortify the area for defensive warfare.
  The primary entities responsible for protecting the USSR from Japanese aggression in 1941 were the Far Eastern and Trans-Baikal Fronts, under the command of Generals Iosif Apanasenko and Mikhail Kovalyov, respectively. The Trans-Baikal Front, with nine divisions (including two armored), a mechanized brigade, and a fortified region was tasked with defending the area west of the Oldoy River near Skovorodino, while the Far Eastern Front, with 23 divisions (including three armored), four brigades (excluding antiaircraft), and 11 fortified regions guarded the land to the east, including the crucial seaport of Vladivostok. Combined, the two fronts accounted for some 650,000 men, 5,400 tanks, 3,000 aircraft, 57,000 motor vehicles, 15,000 artillery pieces, and 95,000 horses. The distribution of manpower and equipment in prewar FER was as follows
  By 1942 the Vladivostok Defense Sector also possessed some 150 artillery pieces of 75 mm to 356 mm caliber, organized into 50 batteries. Of these, the most numerous was the 130 mm B-13, which made up 20 batteries (90 guns). After the German invasion, Soviet forces in the Far East underwent a radical transformation. Even before the opening of Barbarossa, the Red Army began a steady transfer of men and materiel westward to Europe. Prior to 22 June 1941 the above figures had already been reduced by 57,000 men, 670 artillery pieces, and 1,070 tanks from five divisions; between 22 June and 1 December a further 2,209 machines were sent to the front to stem the Nazi tide. Additionally, during the same period 13 other divisions with 122,000 men, 2,000 guns and mortars, 1,500 tractors, and nearly 12,000 automobiles were also detached from the Far East, along with a Japanese estimate of 1,800 aircraft. On the whole, between June 22, 1941 and May 9, 1945 an aggregate total of 344,676 men, 2,286 tanks, 4,757 guns and mortars, 11,903 motor vehicles, and 77,929 horses were removed from the Far Eastern and Trans-Baikal Fronts to bolster the desperate fighting against the Wehrmacht, the vast majority of whom arrived before early 1943.
  In spite of a marked reduction in materiel power, the Soviets undertook herculean efforts to increase their troop levees in an expansion paralleling the massive Japanese build up in Manchuria, which was easily tracked by Soviet and Chinese observers thanks to its sheer size. In accordance with the general mobilization ordered by the GKO on 22 July 1941, the combined strength of the Far Eastern and Trans-Baikal Fronts was to be raised to more than 1 million by 2 August. By 20 December actual manpower levels totalled 1,161,202, of whom 1,129,630 were regular officers or enlisted men and the remainder were cadets or course attendees. Additionally, the number of horses increased from 94,607 to 139,150. This expansion of active personnel was achieved in spite of the Far East's limite
caption: Two emplacements similar to these 12-inch (305 mm) guns of the Soviet battleship Parizhskaya Kommuna were erected to protect Vladivostok harbor in 1934.
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