Grigory Mikhailovich Shtern was a Soviet officer in the Red Army and military advisor during the Spanish Civil War. He also served with distinction during the Soviet-Japanese Border Wars and the Winter War. The Soviet authorities accused him of treason and had him shot during Stalin's military purge of 1941.

The Soviet–Japanese border conflicts, also known as the Soviet-Japanese Border War, the First Soviet-Japanese War, the Russo-Mongolian-Japanese Border Wars or the Soviet-Mongolian-Japanese Border Wars, were a series of minor and major conflicts fought between the Soviet Union, Mongolia and Japan in Northeast Asia from 1932 to 1939.