Commonplace image of Japan among the population of the Russian Far East, 1938-1945

Based on documentary evidence and memoirs, the article examines the issue of the evolution of “enemy image” in the minds of the citizens of the Russian Far East, focusing on the case of Japan. The author investigates stereotyped ideas about the Asian country during local conflicts of the late 1930s and the reasons for their change during the “Far Eastern calm” and the Soviet-Japanese war of 1945. Special attention is paid to the comparison of official and commonplace stereotypes, opinions, impressions of Japan and the Japanese among Soviet servicemen, frontier guards, customs officers, workers and the representatives of the Soviet diplomatic mission in Japan on the eve and during the Second World War.