ST. PETERSBURG, Russia - The Chinese people's contribution to the victory in World War II has been significantly underestimated until recently, said Nikolay Samoylov, an East Asia expert at St. Petersburg State University.

China bore the brunt of the struggle against imperial Japan, and it deserves to be recognized, along with the Soviet Union, the United States and Britain, as having played a decisive role in the defeat of the Axis aggressors, Samoylov said.

The Chinese people deserve credit for having faced the threat single-handedly in the early years of the war following the beginning of overt Japanese aggression in 1931, Samoylov said on the eve of the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II and the liberation of China from Japanese aggression.

Just as the Soviet Union suffered great losses in the struggle against Nazi Germany, so did the Chinese people in the struggle against Japanese aggression.

He suggested that China and Russia cooperate in the quest for historical truth by producing more accessible scholarly books about World War II.

More detailed information is urgently needed to supplement existing school textbooks on the subject, the expert said as Russian schoolchildren know regrettably little about China's participation in World War II.

The task of historians in the two countries today is to convey historical facts to a broader audience, he said.

Conferences with historians from the United States, Japan and Europe were also necessary to allow for an open discussion of the existing documentation on Chinese and Soviet war experiences, the expert said.