There have been few leaders in all of human history with more blood on their hands
than Joseph Stalin, tyrant of the Soviet Union and architect of the Great Purges.
But there was one man, and one man alone, that Stalin couldn’t kill. This man was one of the
few who had, at times, openly criticized Stalin’s policies and was seen by many as the driving force
behind the downfall of the Third Reich. His name was Georgy Zhukov, and this is his story.
Zhukov’s
birth and upbringing was perfectly suited to the communist narrative.
Born in 1896 to a dirt-poor peasant family in the tiny settlement of Strelkovka,
Zhukov’s early life was one of hardship. His mother spent her days toiling in the
vegetable fields, while his father, a cobbler, spent much time away in Moscow
hunting for work. This helped Zhukov senior make connections, and in 1908 he was able to
secure his son an apprenticeship to a Moscow furrier—a big break for the young peasant lad.
Twelve-year-old Zhukov worked 12 hours a day and frequently suffered beatings from his supervisors.
Though, at the time, this was common and seen as necessary for a boy’s education.
For his actual education, Zhukov went to night school and devoured a wide range of literature.
His study buddy, cousin Alex, was studying German in Leipzig to help run the family business.
During Alex’s many trips back to Moscow, he taught Zhukov basic German,
a skill the future marshal would rely on heavily throughout his life.
Young Zhukov continued on the path to becoming a furrier until 1915,
when a minor event known as World War One abruptly ended his plans.
When war broke out, a wave of patriotism swept through Russia. Like many young men of the time,
Zhukov was caught up in it. When his uncle suggested Zhukov invalidate himself
on medical grounds, the teenager replied, “It is my duty to defend the motherland!”
As a skilled furrier, Zhukov was assigned to the cavalry,
something he was very proud of. His intelligence singled him out, and his commander sent him
away to be trained as an NCO. In August 1916, he got his first taste of combat.
Fighting on the Moldovan front, Zhukov captured a German officer and interrogated him in German,
acquiring some valuable intel. He was awarded the St George Cross for this,
the first of many, many decorations Zhukov would be awarded throughout his career.
A man who led by example and preferred encouraging soldiers to beating them,
Zhukov was his regiment’s most popular NCO. When the Tsar fell in 1917 and the army politicized,
Zhukov was thrust into a position of significant authority as a regimental Soviet delegate.
Seeing the writing on the wall, Zhukov left the Imperial Army and joined the Red Army in 1918.
His popularity, leadership, and bravery on the battlefield furnished him with rapid promotions.
Bolshevik officials desperately needed reliable leaders, and Zhukov’s career was accelerated.
But it wasn’t all hand-shaking and swift promotions.
Time and again Zhukov was sent into combat against White Russian factions on Russia’s vast steppes.
These battles were bloody and were often decided by brutal melee combat between sabre-wielding
horsemen. Zhukov recalled: “In a hand-to-hand fight a White Russian fired his sawed-off rifle at
me and killed my horse. We fell, the horse pinning me down, the next moment I would have been slashed
to death but for Novchevka, the Commissar … with a swing of his sabre he killed the [horseman],
caught the reins of his horse, and pulled me into the saddle.”
During the 1930s, Zhukov rose quickly in the Red Army high command. An old unit of his,
the 1st Cavalry Division, was largely spared from Stalin’s Great Purges due to its well-connected
political officers. Combined with his reputation, many accolades, and party membership,
Zhukov managed to avoid death by firing squad and keep his job. But he remained fearful.
His daughters, Era and Ella, later recalled that their father kept a grab-bag ready to go
at all times, just in case he needed to make a quick getaway from the NKVD. In his memoirs,
Zhukov described the Great Purges as “the most difficult emotional experience in [his] life.”
The order to report to Mongolia, far from Stalin’s clutches, couldn’t have come at a better time.
Zhukov, now a Corps Commander, took command of the First Soviet Mongolian Army Group in 1938.
The Mongolians had been fighting bitterly against the encroaching Japanese for years,
but no decisive battle had taken place. Zhukov would change that. He would strike a blow so
devastating that Japanese ambitions in Siberia would be crushed forever.
It happened at Khalkhin Gol. On one side of the Khalkha River stood
30,000 Japanese soldiers of the Kwantung Army and their allies, along with 92 tanks and 200 planes.
Across from them were 63,000 Red Army soldiers and Mongolian cavalrymen, 900 armoured vehicles,
and 580 warplanes. Feigning a Great war-style heavy bombardment and frontal assault,
Zhukov manoeuvred his tanks on the Japanese flanks. While the Japanese infantry focussed
on their enemy to their front, they were encircled by Soviet BT-5 and BT-7 tanks.
The plan was as daring as it was successful, and Zhukov crushed the entire Japanese 6th Army.
The battle gave him crucial experience in encirclement operations—something
that would later prove vital in the campaign to liberate the Soviet Union from the Axis.
The string of defeats suffered by the Red Army at the beginning of Operation Barbarossa were
greater than any suffered by any army throughout all of human history. And who was in charge of
the Red Army at the time? Zhukov. But instead of having him killed, which is what you’d probably
expect from Stalin, the victor of Khalkhin Gol was sent to Smolensk with an important mission:
pin the Wehrmacht down and protect Moscow.
Fighting offensively instead of defensively,
Zhukov pulled his old encirclement trick on the Germans north of Moscow.
Unfortunately, with the Red Army in the state it was, the offensive failed. But
the Germans were halted for some months, and their drive towards Moscow was jeopardized.
From then on, Zhukov’s commands read like a laundry list of the most important battles
of the Eastern Front. The Battle of Moscow, the Battle of Rhzev, the Defence of Stalingrad, the
Kalinin Front, Operation Mars, and many others. His fellow general, Konstantin Rokossovsky,
described Zhukov like this: “Has a strong will. Decisive and firm. Often demonstrates initiative
and skillfully applies it. Disciplined. Demanding and persistent in his demands.
A somewhat ungracious and not sufficiently sympathetic person. Rather stubborn. Painfully
proud. In professional terms well trained. Broadly experienced as a military leader...
Absolutely cannot be used in staff or teaching jobs because constitutionally he hates them.”
But this “somewhat ungracious and not sufficiently sympathetic person”
was great at winning wars, and that was exactly what he was about to do.
“Na Zapad.” In Russian, it means “to the west.” These words summarised Zhukov’s campaigns from
mid-1943 onwards. After the decisive defeat of the Wehrmacht’s Operation Citadel and the
total reversal during the Battle of Kursk, the Axis were on the run. Heinz Guderian,
Chief of the German General Staff, said after Kursk, “There were to be no more periods of
quiet on the Eastern Front. From now on, the enemy was in undisputed possession of the initiative.”
Zhukov pressed his victory for all its advantages. He told his soldiers,
“Remember our brothers and sisters, our mothers and fathers, our wives and children
tortured to death by [the] Germans ... We shall exact a brutal revenge for everything.”
That’s exactly what he did. All the way to Berlin,
where he personally accepted the German Instrument of Surrender.
To the Soviet people, Zhukov was the world’s greatest hero. They believed he had singlehandedly
forced the Axis from their land and beat Hitler and his subordinates into submission.
But for Stalin, this was a problem. A man more popular than him was a man to be feared.
Zhukov commanded more than just respect from the military; he commanded its absolute loyalty.
Whether in command or not, Zhukov could walk into any headquarters and the men of the Red
Army would follow him no matter what. This worried the chief of the NKVD, Beria, who,
on several occasions, attempted to implicate Zhukov in plots and get him locked up. Bad idea.
When Stalin died in 1953, his underlings scrambled to seize power.
They made shady deals with each other and formed coalitions,
but Zhukov was the real kingmaker. Whoever he backed had the backing of the mighty Red Army.
When Beria tried to position himself as the next Stalin, Zhukov facilitated his death. He may
have begun life as a lowly peasant, but now he was the most powerful man in the Soviet Union.
That was the story of Georgy Zhukov, peasant, soldier, officer, general, and kingmaker.
But what do YOU think? Did YOU know Zhukov was decorated in the Tsar’s army?
Did YOU know he owed his life to a sabre-wielding Commissar?
Do YOU think he did the right thing in getting rid of Beria? Let us know in the comments!