Georgi Zhukov was born 2 December, 1896, in Strelkovka, Kaluga Province, central European Russia. The author of my source material, the noted writer Blaine Taylor states ‘…he was arguably the most successful soldier in the annals of recorded military history.’
Zhukov spent three years in primary school before being sent to a Moscow cobbler as an apprentice. In 1913 he took an exam for a whole year’s courses at a city school. In 1915 he was drafted into the Tsarist cavalry as a private. During this period, leading up to the Communist Revolution, as Russian soldiers fought the Central Powers, the soldiers did not respect their officers. They only fought for those they trusted.
Operating as a spy behind enemy lines, Zhukov captured a German officer, for which he was awarded his second St. George’s Cross.
In 1918 he joined the Soviet Red Guards and fought at Tsaritsyn, soon renamed Stalingrad, where he was wounded. He ended the Civil War as a cavalry commander. He was awarded the Order of the Red Banner in August 1922.
He attended Leningrad’s Higher Cavalry School in 1924, where he became known as a ‘tough taskmaster.’ By 1928, as a brigade commander, he took a secret course in armored warfare in the Weimar Republic. Afterward he was a student in Moscow from 1929 to 1930, and was then assigned to Rokossovsky’s Second Cavalry Brigade. Later he served under Timoshenko, and under Cavalry Inspector Semyon M. Budenny, a hero of the Civil War.
During his three years at the Frunze Military Academy he studied the use of armored and airborne formations, and in 1936 he advised Republican Communist troops fighting Nationalist, Fascist, and Nazi troops in Spain. He returned to Russia to command the Sixth Cavalry Corp.
Surviving Stalin’s purges, he became the commander of the First Soviet Mongolian Army, where he defeated the Japanese Kwantung Army at the Battle of Khalkin Gol in August 1939.
During the 1939-1940 Russo-Finnish War he pierced the Mannerheim line resulting in a victory over the Finland. Promoted to general, Zhukov took command of the Kiev Military District in the Ukraine in June 1940. During this period, he participated in wargames as the ‘enemy force’ commander against the Red Army. He was victorious. Stalin named him Chief of Staff in February 1941.
The opening moves of Hitler’s Operation Barbarossa against the Soviets in June, 1941 resulted in disaster for the Soviets. In six months the Germans thrust toward Leningrad, Moscow, and into the Ukraine. Zhukov was appointed to direct the defense of Leningrad where he was able to bring the Germans to a stop, though Leningrad was cut off from supplies.
At the same time German forces were nearing Moscow. Zhukov was moved there where he used Siberian troops to stall the German attack in the suburbs. This was the first Russian victory of World War II.
From there Stalin sent Zhukov to Stalingrad as German forces thrust toward the Volga in the summer of 1942. Together Zhukov and Stalin planned Operation Uranus which, in November 1942, achieved the surrounding of von Paulus’ Sixth Army.
Promoted to marshal in early 1943, Zhukov planned the defenses of the Kursk Salient, resulting in the defeat of the Germans in the greatest tank and air battle of the war.
In January 1944 Stalin made him deputy commander-in-chief with Stalin. After the war Zhukov was the Soviet representative on the Allied Control Counsel in Berlin. When he returned to Moscow he was made commander of the Odessa Military District, but he was so popular that Stalin transferred him to the Urals in Soviet Asia.
Upon the passing of Stalin in 1953, Khruschev named him minister of defense. In that role he deposed the NKVD Secret Police Chief Lavrenti P. Beria solidifying Khruschev’s hold on power. He was then demoted and sent into exile.
Georgi Zhukov was reinstated after Khruschev’s overthrow.
He died 18 June, 1974, at the age of 77, was cremated and his ashes were buried in the Kremlin wall.
Source: ‘Marshal Geogi Zhukov, Hero of the Soviet Union, Led the Red Army to Victory Against the Nazis,’ Blaine Taylor, Military Heritage Presents: WWII History Magazine, Sovereign Media, July 2003
Jack Kruse, Author 