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What if Joseph Stalin, buoyed by news of recent victories against the Japanese in the Battle of Khalkin Gol, decided to put off his plans for an invasion of Finland, and instead ordered Gen. Zhukov to press into Manchukuo, ignoring Richard Sorge's reports that the Japanese were open to negotiations? What would have been the effects on WW2 if the USSR was drawn into a protracted war with Japan right as Hitler's invasion of Poland began? Because the Kwantung Army, at this time, was larger and better-equipped than it would be in 1945, would the Soviet Union have been capable of anything close to its successes in Operation August Storm years later? And would a Soviet invasion have forced the Japanese to rapidly fix their shortcomings in supply, equipment, and organization?
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