World War II Database

Contributor: C. Peter Chen

ww2dbaseBorn in the village of Strelkovka sixty miles south west of Moscow, Russia to a shoemaker, Georgy Konstantinovich Zhukov was a member of a poor family. In his teenage years he was an apprentice furrier to his uncle before being drafted into the Russian Imperial Cavalry. During WW1, Sergeant Zhukov was twice decorated with the Cross of St. George for his bravery. During the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917, he led the Red Army's cavalry; in Mar 1919, he officially joined the Communist Party and became deeply indoctrinated in the communist ideals. Even during his friendship with Dwight Eisenhower immediately after the end of WW2, Eisenhower noted his sincere devotion to Marxist ideals during their philosophical discussions. Zhukov's quickness to react on the battlefield led him to be noticed by Joseph Stalin, then a member of the Revolutionary Council. In the 1920s and 1930s, he was regularly given coveted roles in the Red Army, such as being one of the first tank commanders in the Soviet Union.

ww2dbaseDuring the conflict with Japan, the stocky Zhukov with his closely cropped hair led a mixed Russian and Mongolian unit in a successful defense against Japanese troops at Khalkin Gol in Jul and Aug of 1939. In Mongolia and Manchuria regions, Zhukov's units inflected significant Japanese casualties, halting the Japanese advance, and might have contributed to Japan's fundamental change in philosophy, expanding across the Pacific instead of deeper into continental Asia. At the end of the war with Japan, Zhukov was promoted to the rank of general, commanding the Kiev Military District.

ww2dbaseZhukov met Stalin in Jan 1941 after a war game exercise, in which he won a mock battle that he was not supposed to win. Zhukov's leadership abilities and his popularity with the common soldiers made Stalin's feelings toward him uneasy. However, Zhukov kept his rank due to his impressive skills. He was one of the very few men who could voice opinions against the Soviet premier and live to tell the tale. Zhukov was a decisive leader who took the time to study battle details and was the type of leader who required absolute and unquestioning loyalty from his troops. He was also known to be an absolutely ruthless commander when he needed to be; for instance, he did not think twice when he sent entire penal battalions marching across a minefield as a method to clear enemy mines. He was also known for once dropping paratroopers from low altitude without parachutes into a snowy field, rationalizing that enough of them should survive the fall to cause menace behind enemy lines.

ww2dbaseAfter leading units in the successful defense of Moscow, Zhukov wanted to launch a counteroffensive, but Stalin overruled his recommendation. He would not have his chance to successfully assault and defeat the Germans until winter of 1942-43, where a series of battles resulted in the first surrender by a German field marshal. In summer of 1943, he defeated the Germans in a tank battle at Kursk. Zhukov later led a successful campaign that eventually brought the Soviet troops deep into Germany, and capturing Berlin. Along with Field Marshal Ivan Koniev, he accepted the German surrender on behalf of the Soviets on 9 May 1945, two days after Germany surrendered to the western Allies.

ww2dbaseThroughout the war, Zhukov maintained a girlfriend (Russian: pokhodno-polevaya zhena, or PPZh, "campaign wife"), Lidia Zakharova. He bestowed her, a junior officer in the Red Army, many medals and honors.

ww2dbaseZhukov remained in Berlin after the war as a leader of the Soviet occupation forces. He became a friend of Eisenhower, and received the Chief Commander grade of the Legion of Merit from the American government for his contributions against the German forces. "I though Marshal Zhukov an affable and soldierly-appearing individual", said Eisenhower, who held the utmost respect for Zhukov as a soldier. "One day there is certain to be another order of the Soviet Union. It will be the Order of Zhukov, and that order will be prized by every man who admires courage, vision, fortitude, and determination in a soldier." Their friendship grew throughout the remainder of 1945, where Zhukov invited American representatives, including Eisenhower and his son John, to visit various locations in Russia, including the Kremlin museum. In Nov 1945, US-Soviet relations grew cold, and Zhukov turned down Eisenhower's invitation for him to visit the United States as the Soviet government returned to their state of distrustfulness toward the west. Very soon after, Stalin grew weary of Zhukov's popularity, and exiled him to a minor military district. He "was Stalin's favourite general - and also the stuff of which his nightmares were composed", said historians Anthony Read and David Fisher. Nevertheless, Zhukov briefly returned to a major post after Stalin's death in 1953, but his career once again hit a brick wall during Nikita Khrushchev's reign. Khrushchev accused him of disloyalty, and placed him under virtual house arrest in Moscow.

ww2dbaseZhukov spent his final years writing his experiences in WW2 and the post-war period, but many of his writing were censored by the Soviet government. He passed away on 18 Jun 1974 at the age of 78.

Georgy Zhukov Interactive Map

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