Georgy Zhukov

"Zhukov" redirects here. For other uses, see Zhukov (disambiguation).

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Marshal of the Soviet Union Georgy Zhukov

Georgy Konstantinovich Zhukov, GCB (Russian: Гео́ргий Константи́нович Жу́ков) (December 1 [O.S. November 19] 1896–June 18, 1974), Soviet military commander and politician who, in the course of World War II, led the Red Army to liberate the Soviet Union from the Nazi occupation, to overrun much of Eastern Europe, and to capture Hitler's capital, Berlin.

Career before World War II

Born into a peasant family in Strelkovka, Maloyaroslavets Raion, Kaluga Guberniya (now Zhukovo Raion Kaluga Oblast), Zhukov was apprenticed to work in Moscow, and in 1915 was conscripted into the army of the Russian Empire, where he served in a dragoon regiment as a private. During World War I, Zhukov was awarded the Cross of St George twice and promoted to the rank of non-commissioned officer for his bravery in battle. He joined the Bolshevik Party after the October Revolution, and his background of poverty became an asset. After recovering from typhus he fought in the Russian Civil War from 1918 to 1921, receiving the Order of the Battle Red Banner for subduing the Tambov rebellion in 1921.

By 1923 Zhukov was commander of a regiment, and in 1930 of a brigade. He was a keen proponent of the new theory of armoured warfare and was noted for his detailed planning, tough discipline and strictness. He survived Joseph Stalin's Great Purge of the Red Army command in 1937-39.

In 1938 Zhukov was directed to command the First Soviet Mongolian Army Group, and saw action against Japan's Kwantung Army on the border between Mongolia and the Japanese controlled state of Manchukuo in an undeclared war that lasted from 1938 to 1939. What began as a routine border skirmish—the Japanese testing the resolve of the Soviets to defend their territory—rapidly escalated into a full-scale war, the Japanese pushing forward with 80,000 troops, 180 tanks and 450 aircraft.

This led to the decisive Battle of Khalkhin Gol. Zhukov requested major reinforcements and on August 15, 1939 he ordered what seemed at first to be a conventional frontal attack. However, he had held back two tank brigades, which in a daring and successful manoeuver he ordered to advance around both flanks of the battle. Supported by motorized artillery and infantry, the two mobile battle groups encircled the 6th Japanese army and captured their vulnerable supply areas. Within a few days the Japanese troops were defeated.

For this operation Zhukov was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. Outside of the Soviet Union, however, this battle remained little-known as by this time World War II had begun. Zhukov's pioneering use of mobile armour went unheeded by the West, and in consequence the German Blitzkrieg against France in 1940 came as a great surprise.

Promoted to full general in 1940, Zhukov was briefly (January - July 1941) chief of the Red Army General Staff before a disagreement with Stalin led to his being replaced by Marshal Boris Shaposhnikov (who was in turn replaced by Aleksandr Vasilevsky in 1942). Ironically, this led to a relative non-accountablity of Zhukov's military role in the huge territorial losses during the German 1941 invasion of the Soviet Union thus ensuring his presence "in the wings" for Stalingrad. The question of how much he might have prevented had he held command earlier is still much discussed.

World War II

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Georgy Zhukov by Pavel Korin, 1945

According to his book of memoirs (written after the death of Stalin and during the peak of Nikita Khrushchev's Anti-Stalin campaign), Zhukov was fearless in his direct criticisms of Stalin and other commanders after the German invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941 (see Great Patriotic War). Zhukov, according to his own memoirs, alone among Soviet commanders, attempted to convince Stalin that the Kiev region could not be held and would suffer a double envelopement by the Germans. Stalin, who berated Zhukov and dismissed his advice, refused to evacuate the troops in the area. As a result, half a million troops became prisoners when the Germans took Kiev. Zhukov stopped the German advance in Leningrad's southern outskirts in the autumn of 1941.

As now accessible sources reveal, Zhukov and his colleagues had been planning a (pre-emptive) strike against Germany in 1941. A proposal from May 15, 1941 , widely discussed amongst Russian historians, was first revealed by Hero of the Soviet Union V.V.Karpov, who had access to secret archives. He probably intended to show Zhukov as a military genius, who in the decisive moment had suggested a surprise attack on the enemy. True, the paper has signatures of neither Zhukov nor Timoshenko, but at the time, Soviet war plans were unsigned as a rule. It is disputed, whether the invasion plan was rejected by Stalin or even was never presented. Viktor Suvorov has used the plan to support his thesis and Mikhail Meltyukhov et al have studied the background, reaching wider conclusions.

In the first months of the war Stalin insisted that the red army stand and fight or counter attack, when withdrawal to a more defandable line made made greater operational sense. "The Dictators" by Richard Overy p 494</ref>. On June 22, 1941, Zhukov signed the infamous directive of Peoples' Commissariat of Defence No. 3, which ordered an all-out counteroffensive by Red Army forces. This counteroffensive failed, unorganised Red Army units were destroyed by Wehrmacht. Later, Zhukov explained that he was forced to sign the document by Stalin, despite of the reservations that he presented. Zhukov was sacked in early july for suggesting that the red army abandon territory and draw back to dig in and consolidate.

In October 1941, when the Germans closed in on Moscow, Zhukov replaced Semyon Timoshenko in command of the central front and was assigned to direct the defense of Moscow (see Battle of Moscow). He also directed the transfer of troops from the Far East, where a large part of Soviet ground forces had been stationed on the day of Hitler's invasion. A successful Soviet counter-offensive in December 1941 drove the Germans back, out of reach of the Soviet capital. Zhukov's feat of logistics is considered by some to be his greatest achievement.

By now Zhukov was firmly back in favour and Stalin valued him precisely for his outspokenness. Stalin's (eventual) willingness to submit to criticism and listen to his generals was a key element in Russia's victory; Hitler, on the other hand, usually dismissed any general who disagreed with him.

In 1942 Zhukov was made Deputy Commander-in-Chief and sent to the south-western front to be in charge of the defense of Stalingrad. Under the overall command of Vasilievsky, he oversaw the encirclement and capture of the German Sixth Army in 1943 at the cost of perhaps a million dead (see Battle of Stalingrad). During the Stalingrad operation Zhukov spent most of the time in the fruitless attacks in the directions of Rzhev, Sychevka and Vyazma, known as "Rzhev meat grinder" ("Ржевская мясорубка"). Some historians now question the casaulty figures allegedly suffered by the Soviets at Rzhev as being inaccurately high. There is also some new evidence which show the Rzhev operation was a diversion in order to prevent the Germans from successfully breaking the encirclement of Stalingrad.

In January 1943 he orchestrated the first breakthrough of the German blockade of Leningrad. He was a STAVKA coordinator at the Battle of Kursk in July 1943, and, according to the memoirs, playing a central role in the planning of the Soviet defensive battle and the hugely successful offensive operations that followed it. Kursk represented the first major defeat of the Germans in summer campaigning weather and has a good claim to be a battle at least as decisive as Stalingrad. Commander of Central Front Konstantin Rokossovsky, however, says that planning and decisions for the Battle of Kursk were made without Zhukov, that Zhukov only arrived to the Central Front just before the battle, did not make any decisions and left soon after beginning of the battle, and that Zhukov exaggerates his role in the Battle of Kursk (Source: Военно-исторический журнал, 1992 N3 p.31).

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Zhukov riding a white horse during the Moscow Victory Parade of 1945. There is now an equestrian monument to him nearby.

Following the failure of Marshal Kliment Voroshilov, he lifted the Siege of Leningrad in January 1944. Zhukov led the Soviet offensive Operation Bagration (named after Pyotr Bagration, a famous Russian-Georgian general of the Napoleonic Wars), which some military historians believe was the greatest military operation of World War II. Zhukov led the final assault on Germany in 1945, capturing Berlin (see Battle of Berlin) in April. 8 May, shortly before midnight, German officials in Berlin signed a Instrument of Surrender, in the presence of Georgy Zhukov. After the fall of Germany Zhukov became the first commander of the Soviet occupation zone in Germany. As the most prominent Soviet military commander of the Great Patriotic War, Zhukov inspected the Victory Parade on the Red Square in Moscow in 1945 while riding a white stallion.

General Eisenhower, the supreme Allied commander in the West, was a great admirer of Zhukov and the two toured the Soviet Union together in the immediate aftermath of the victory over Germany.

Career after World War II

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Zhukov and Stalin on the tribune of Lenin's Mausoleum

Immediately following the war Zhukov was the supreme Military Commander of the Soviet Occupation Zone in Germany, and became its Military Governor on June 10,1945. A war hero and a leader hugely popular with the military, Zhukov constituted a most serious potential threat to Stalin's dictatorship. As a result, on April 10, 1946 he was replaced by Vasily Sokolovsky. In 1947 he was sent to command the Odessa military district, far away from Moscow and lacking strategic significance and attendant massive troops deployment. After Stalin's death, however, Zhukov was returned to favour and became Deputy Defense Minister (1953), then Defense Minister (1955).

In 1953 Zhukov supported the post-Stalin Communist Party leadership in arresting (and eventually executing) Lavrenty Beria, who at that time was First Deputy Prime Minister and head of the MVD.

Zhukov, as Soviet defence minister, was responsible for the invasion of Hungary following the revolution in October, 1956. Along with the majority of members of the Praesidium, he urged Nikita Khrushchev to send troops in support of the Hungarian authorities, and to secure the border with Austria. However, Zhukov and most of the Praesidium were not eager to see a full-scale intervention in Hungary and Zhukov even recommended the withdrawal of Soviet troops when it seemed that they might have to take extreme measures to suppress the revolution. The mood on the Praesidium changed again when Hungary's new Prime Minister, Imre Nagy, began to talk about Hungarian withdrawal from the Warsaw Pact, and Russia pressed ahead ruthlessly to defeat the revolutionaries and install János Kádár in Nagy's place.

In 1957 Zhukov supported Khrushchev against his conservative enemies, the so-called "Anti-Party Group" led by Vyacheslav Molotov. Zhukov's speech to the plenum of the Central Committee of the Communist Party was the most powerful, directly denouncing the neo-Stalinists for their complicity in Stalin's crimes, though it also carried the threat of force: the very crime he was accusing the others of.

In June that year he was made a full member of the Presidium of the Central Committee. He had, however, significant political disagreements with Khrushchev in matters of army policy. Khruschev scaled down the conventional forces and the navy, while developing the strategic nuclear forces as a primary deterrent force, hence freeing up the manpower and the resources for the civilian economy.

Zhukov supported the interests of the military and disagreed with Khrushchev's policy. Khrushchev, demonstrating the dominance of the Party over the army, relieved Zhukov of his ministry and expelled him from the Central Committee in October 1957. In his memoirs, Khrushchev claimed that he believed that Zhukov was planning a coup against him and that he accused Zhukov of this as grounds for expulsion at the Central Committee meeting.

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A portrait of marshal Zhukov triumphant over Nazi Germany, a part of triptych by Konstantin Vasilyev

After Khrushchev was deposed in October 1964 the new leadership of Leonid Brezhnev and Aleksei Kosygin restored Zhukov to favour, though not to power. Brezhnev was said to be angered when, at a gathering to mark the twentieth of anniversary of victory in the Great Patriotic War, Zhukov was accorded greater acclaim than himself. Brezhnev, a relatively junior political officer in the war, was always concerned to boost his own importance in the victory.

Zhukov remained a popular figure in the Soviet Union until his death in 1974. He was buried with full military honors.

Asteroid 2132 Zhukov was named after him. In 1995, commemorating Zhukov's 100th birthday, the Russian Federation adopted the Zhukov Order and the Zhukov Medal.

Contemporary opinion

In the post-war Soviet Union truth was often sacrificed for the sake of propaganda, and little critical opinion on Soviet commanders and soldiers ever appeared. Zhukov is a unique example of a Soviet commander who was criticized for his tactics even inside the Soviet Union. This, of course, was directly related to his successes on the political scene in the Kremlin. When he was in favor, he was lauded as a great hero, "Georgy the Victory-Bringer" (a pun: in this way Saint George is referred to in Russian). When he fell in disfavor, like with the other four-time-Hero of the Soviet Union Leonid Brezhnev, Zhukov was called a "cannibal marshall" (маршал-людоед). He remains the most controversial Soviet commander to this day, with diametrically opposed opinions published by his peers, military historians, and soldiers and commanders who served under him.

Zhukov's actual career is as diverse as those opinions. Brutal disregard for the lives of his soldiers often changes to the complete opposite. Zhukov spent more time than most Soviet commanders training his troops for battle, and preparing the battle plans, which often led to significantly lower casualty numbers compared to other Soviet commanders; for example at the Soviet counteroffensive during Battle of Moscow in the winter of 1941 Zhukov lost 139,586 men, or 13.6% of his total strength - while a comparable operation under General Kozlov lost about 40% of his men (estimates ranging between 150,000 and 175,000 killed) near Kerch. As the war went on, Zhukov's casualties were becoming even lower; while often incredibly high by any other country's standards, for the Soviet Union they were below average. At the Battle of Berlin Zhukov lost only 4.1% of his men, while Konev's forces, that faced weaker German opposition, lost 5% and at the same time Rodion Malinovsky lost almost 8% at the Battle of Budapest.

However Zhukov's brutality and his desire to achieve success at any cost is undeniable. One of the most often quoted examples is Zhukov's actions during the defense of Istra Reservoir (Истринское водохранилище). General Rokossovsky, who commanded one of the Armies under Zhukov's command, requested to withdraw to more advantageous positions on November 18th, 1941. Zhukov categorically refused. Rokossovsky then went for help over Zhukov's head, and spoke directly to Marshal Boris Shaposhnikov, Chief of the General Staff, and reviewing the situation Shaposhnikov immediately ordered a withdrawal. Zhukov reacted at once. He revoked the order of the superior officer, and ordered Rokossovsky to hold the position. In the immediate aftermath, Rokossovsky's army was annihilated and the Germans took hold of the strategically important Eastern bank.

Zhukov's proponents often explain his brutality by the incredible pressure he was under. While pride was certainly a factor in many of Zhukov's decisions, he may well not have been as careless with the lives of his men had he not also been led by fear. Throughout the war Zhukov was put under more scrutiny than any other Soviet commander. The orders of his first major appointment, the defense of Moscow in 1941, were printed in all newspapers accompanied by a large portait of Zhukov - something unprecedented until then. Stalin was making himself very clear. This was the man who'd be held responsible for the outcome. The precarious position occupied by Zhukov is easy to appreciate even for a modern reader. Zhukov's subsequent high-profile appointments left him equally little room for failure. Winning at all costs was not optional.

Some historians consider Zhukov as a brilliant strategist, defining him as "the most brilliant of all generals who so conclusively defeated the armies of Nazi Germany" and a man "whose brilliant military successes had earned him tremendous public admiration and popularity". Indeed, many of his battles were examples of some of the most lopsided victories of the Second World War, ending with complete annihilation of his opponent (for instance Operation Uranus). Evidence exists that Zhukov did more to prepare himself and his troops for battle than most other Soviet commanders, thus giving them more of an edge in a fight. However once the battle began, Zhukov's focus was on nothing but victory. As such, he was a typical Soviet commander. His brutality, while more publicized than most, was not at all uncommon. And many Russian historians continue to claim to this day that the outcome is all that matters.

However, there is also evidence of dissimulation of his military defeats. For instance, the Battle of Rzhev, which can be considered as his biggest military defeat, was deemed secret and was not mentionned even in military literature till the 1970s. It is also important to notice that Zhukov did not leave any theoretical works on military strategy or tactics. Therefore, several post-Soviet era historians no longer regard Zhukov as an outstanding strategist .

In the popular belief and legends of the front-line soldiers, however, Zhukov is a fatherly figure who cares about his rank and file. He knows the day in and day out hardships of his troops, deeply loves Russia and all the Ivans that rose to its defense. In one anecdote, he dresses as a simple soldier and tries to get a hitch-hike to the front line from passing cars. Officers who did not stop their cars are later reprimanded for their lack of care toward the average Ivan.

Controversies

On 28 September 1941 Zhukov sent ciphered telegram No. 4976 to commanders of Leningrad Front and Baltic Navy ordering to announce that families of soldiers captured by Germans would be shot and returned prisoners would also be shot. This order was published for the first time in 1991 in the Russian magazine Начало (Beginning) No. 3. Also, in 1946, seven rail carriages with furniture which Zhukov was bringing to Russia from Germany were impounded. In 1948 searches were made in Zhukov's apartments and house in Moscow where many valuables looted in Germany were kept .

In 1954 Georgy Zhukov was in command of a nuclear weapon test at Totskoye range 130 miles off Orenburg. A Soviet Tu-4 bomber dropped a 40 kiloton atomic weapon from 25,000 feet, Zhukov witnessed the blast from an underground nuclear bunker while about 5,000 of Soviet military staged a mocked battle and about 40,000 troops were stationed about 8 miles away from the epicentre. The number of people suffered is unknown because of the secrecy surrounding the event, see "Totskoye range" for details.

In popular culture and trivia

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Equestrian statue of Georgy Zhukov on Manege Square in Moscow.

• Nobel laureat Joseph Brodsky's poem На смерть Жукова (On the Death of Zhukov) is regarded by critics as one of the best poems on the war written by an author of the post-Second World War generation. It is a clever stylisation of The Bullfinch, Derzhavin's elegy on the death of Generalissimo Suvorov in 1800. Brodsky obviously draws a parallel between the careers of these commanders.
• In Tom Clancy's novel, Red Storm Rising, a plan for rapid mobilization and attack into Western Europe was named "Zhukov-4."
• An Ambassador class starship USS Zhukov (NCC-62136) was mentioned in the American science fiction television series Star Trek: The Next Generation.
• In the Russian campaign of the computer strategy game Empire Earth there is a character named Vassili Zhukov. Because there is another character with the name Molotov, it seems likely that this character was named after the Russian commander.
• Popular culture in Russia traditionally contends that Zhukov himself participated in Beria's arrest at the Kremlin - with one version having him exclaiming "in the name of the Soviet People, you are under arrest, you son of a bitch". Though psychologically gratifying to Russians in the post Stalin/Beria era, the historical accuracy of these accounts remain in doubt. Nikita Khrushchev's memoirs confirms this story, if not the use of colourful language.

• In his book of recollections , Zhukov was critical of the role Soviet leadership played during the war. The first of edition Воспоминания и размышления was published during Brezhnev's reign, only on conditions that criticism on Stalin was removed and Zhukov had to add an (invented) episode of his visit to Leonid Brezhnev, politruk at Southern Front, with the purpose of having consultations on military strategy.

Awards

Zhukov was a recipient of numerous awards. In particular, he was four times Hero of the Soviet Union; besides him, only Leonid Brezhnev was a four-time hero. Zhukov was one of three double recipients of the Order of Victory. He was also awarded the Polish Virtuti Militari with the Grand Cross and Star and the Chief Commander grade of the American Legion of Merit, and was created a Knight Grand Cross of the Military Division of the Most Honourable Order of the Bath. The presentation of such foreign awards, and the generally warm reception Zhukov earned amongst the Western Powers contributed in part to Stalin's later distrust and jealousy of him.

Memories

The very first monument to Georgy Zhukov was installed in Mongolia, in memory of the Battle of Halhin Gol. After the collapse of the Soviet Union this monument was one of the very few which did not suffer from the backlash of anti-Sovietism in the former Communist states.

External links

• Template:Ru icon Воспоминания и размышления The Memoirs of Georgy Zhukov
• Template:Ru icon Zhukov's Awards
• Template:Ru icon Shadow of Victory and Take Words Back , books by Viktor Suvorov, highly critical of Zhukov
• Template:Ru icon Соколов Б.В. Неизвестный Жуков: портрет без ретуши в зеркале эпохи, Мн.: Родиола-плюс, 2000. (B.V.Sokolov. Unknown Zhukov)
• Template:Ru icon Иосиф Бродский. На смерть Жукова (On the Death of Zhukov by Joseph Brodsky), 1974

Additional reading

• Suworow, Viktor. Marschall Schukow - Lebensweg über Leichen, Pour-le-Mérite, Selent, Germany, 2002, 350 pp.

Reference

• Template:Ru icon Zhukov, Georgy. Жуков Г К. ‘’Воспоминания и размышления’’. В 2 т. — М.: Олма-Пресс, 2002. Zhukov's memoirs online in Russian.
• Pavel N. Bobylev, Otechesvennaya istoriya, no. 1, 2000, pp. 41-64