Georgy Konstantinovich Zhukov (1 December [O.S. 19 November] 1896 – 18 June 1974) was a Soviet military leader who served as a top commander during World War II and achieved the rank of Marshal of the Soviet Union. During World War II, Zhukov served as deputy commander-in-chief of the armed forces under leader Joseph Stalin, and oversaw some of the Red Army's most decisive victories. He also served at various points as Chief of the General Staff, Minister of Defence, and a member of the Presidium of the Central Committee of the Communist Party (Politburo).
Born to a poor peasant family near Moscow, Zhukov was conscripted into the Imperial Russian Army and fought in World War I. He served in the Red Army during the Russian Civil War, after which he quickly rose through the ranks. In summer 1939, Zhukov commanded a Soviet army group to a decisive victory over Japanese forces at the Battles of Khalkhin Gol, for which he won the first of his four Hero of the Soviet Union awards. In February 1941, Stalin appointed Zhukov as chief of the General Staff of the Red Army.
Following the German invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941, Zhukov lost his post as chief of staff after disagreeing with Stalin over the defense of Kiev. Zhukov, often in collaboration with Aleksandr Vasilevsky, was subsequently involved in the Soviet actions at Leningrad, Moscow, Stalingrad, and Kursk. He held the title of deputy commander-in-chief of the armed forces from August 1942, and was promoted to Marshal of the Soviet Union in January 1943. He participated in the planning of Operation Bagration in 1944, and in 1945 commanded the 1st Belorussian Front as it led the Vistula–Oder Offensive into Germany, where he oversaw the Soviet victory at the Battle of Berlin. In recognition of Zhukov's key role in the war, he was chosen to accept the German Instrument of Surrender and to inspect the 1945 Moscow Victory Parade. He also served as the first military governor of the Soviet occupation zone in Germany from 1945 to 1946.
After the war, Zhukov's popularity caused Stalin to see him as a potential threat. Stalin stripped him of his positions and relegated him to military commands of little strategic significance. After Stalin's death in 1953, Zhukov supported Nikita Khrushchev's bid for leadership, and in 1955, he was appointed Defence Minister and made a member of the Presidium. In 1957, Zhukov fell out of favour again and was forced to retire. He never returned to a top post, and died in 1974. Zhukov is remembered as one of the greatest Russian and Soviet military leaders of all time, along with Alexander Suvorov, Mikhail Barclay de Tolly, and Mikhail Kutuzov.
Georgy Konstantinovich Zhukov was born into a poor Russian peasant family on 1 December [O.S. 19 November] 1896 in Strelkovka, a town then in the Maloyaroslavetsky Uyezd of the Kaluga Governorate of the Russian Empire and now in Kaluga Oblast, about 62 miles (100 km) east of Moscow. According to Geoffrey Roberts, Zhukov's mother, Ustin'ya, worked as a peasant labourer, while his father, Konstantin, was a cobbler who had been orphaned as a child and later adopted by Anuska Zhukova. Zhukov completed a three-year primary education course and was then apprenticed to his maternal uncle as a furrier in Moscow.
While working in Moscow, Zhukov continued his education through reading and night-school classes as his work schedule allowed. He completed his apprenticeship in 1912 and continued to work for his uncle and master, a role which included three young employees under his leadership.
In 1915, Zhukov was conscripted into the Imperial Russian Army and served in the 10th Dragoon Novgorod Regiment; in October 1916 he was wounded by a land mine explosion. During World War I, he received the Cross of St. George twice and was promoted to non-commissioned officer ranks.
After the 1917 October Revolution, he joined the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks). Following a severe bout of typhus, he fought in the Russian Civil War, serving in a cavalry formation commanded by Semyon Timoshenko that was later absorbed into the 1st Cavalry Army led by Semyon Budyonny. He completed an officers' cavalry training course in 1920 and was commissioned. In 1921, he was awarded the Order of the Red Banner in connection with operations against the Tambov Rebellion.
Zhukov advanced through cavalry command positions in the 1920s, including troop and squadron command and deputy regimental command. In late May 1923, he was appointed commander of the 39th Cavalry Regiment. He entered the Higher School of Cavalry in 1924 and graduated in 1925, returning to command the same regiment.
He began studies at the Frunze Military Academy in 1929 and graduated in 1930. In May 1930, he became commander of the 2nd Cavalry Brigade of the 7th Cavalry Division. In February 1931, he was appointed Assistant Inspector of Cavalry for the Red Army. In May 1933, he was appointed commander of the 4th Cavalry Division. He later commanded the 3rd Cavalry Corps and the 6th Cavalry Corps. In 1938, he became deputy cavalry commander of the Belorussian Military District.
Some accounts alleged that Zhukov received training in Germany during the 1920s as part of Soviet–German military cooperation; this claim has appeared in later memoir and intelligence-report literature and remains dependent on the reliability of those sources.
In 1938, Zhukov was assigned to command Soviet forces operating with the Mongolian People's Army against Japan’s Kwantung Army along the border between the Mongolian People's Republic and Japanese-controlled Manchukuo, during the Soviet–Japanese border conflicts of 1938–1939. The fighting culminated in the Battle of Khalkhin Gol (1939). On 20 August 1939, Zhukov launched a major offensive supported by armour and air power; by the end of August, Japanese forces had been pushed from the contested area and the Soviet–Mongolian side secured control of the disputed border zone.
Coox notes that the campaign involved large-scale combined-arms manoeuvre, including encirclement operations using armoured formations and supporting artillery and infantry. The fighting also exposed technical and operational problems with Soviet armoured vehicles, including issues affecting the BT-5 and BT-7 series, and subsequent assessments informed later Soviet armoured development and training practices. For his role in the victory, Zhukov was named a Hero of the Soviet Union. In May 1940, he was promoted to general of the army.
In the autumn of 1940, Zhukov started preparing plans for the military exercise concerning the defence of the Western border of the Soviet Union. It had been pushed further to the west after the Soviet Union annexed eastern Poland and the Baltic republics. In his memoirs, Zhukov reports that in this exercise, he commanded the Western or Blue forces—the supposed invasion troops—and his opponent was Colonel General Dmitry Pavlov, the commander of the Eastern or Red forces—the supposed Soviet troops. He noted that Blue had 60 divisions, while Red had 50 divisions. Zhukov describes the exercise as being similar to events that later took place during the German invasion.
In this military exercise, I commanded Blue forces representing the Germans, while Pavlov, the commander of Western Military District, commanded the Red forces representing our army [...] After knowing the original documents and the real amount of German forces, when commanding the Blue Forces, I had the attacks developed into three directions, that in the following event the Germans also attacked us in the same manners. The main strikes of us that time was also similar to the main strikes of the Germans later. The army groups built was also nearly similar to the army groups that the Germans formed during the war. [...] Comrade [Stalin] asked why the Blue forces were so powerful, why the original documents of the military exercise allocated too many large forces for the German. He was replied that such forces corresponded to the German capability and the real calculation about the potential forces that the German could unleash after they managed to achieve great superiority on the main axes. That sufficiently showed why the Blue forces could make strong advances during the military exercise.