On December 1, 1896, in the village of Strelkovka, Kaluga province, the future Marshal of the Soviet Union Georgy Zhukov was born into a poor peasant family.
George's father, in addition to the usual peasant labor, was engaged in shoemaking, and his mother was engaged in the transportation of goods for merchants.
But their joint income was enough for the family only for bread and water.
A great joy for George, according to his recollections, was even the steering wheel brought by his parents from the city.
Becoming a commander
Georgy Zhukov helped his parents from early childhood by working in the field.
He received his primary education at a parish school.
When the future commander was 12 years old, his mother arranged for him to study furrier business with her brother in Moscow.
Despite his young age, George's working day in the workshops lasted from six in the morning to eleven in the evening.
At night, an inquisitive teenager read books, which helped him enroll in evening general education courses, the program of which corresponded to the level of the city school.
After passing the exams and completing his training in furrier business, Zhukov worked as an apprentice for some time, but in 1915, due to the First World War, he was early drafted into the army.
Georgy Zhukov got into the cavalry.
After completing training as a non-commissioned officer, he was sent to the front.
Non-commissioned officer Georgy Zhukov, 1916
© Wikimedia Commons
“Zhukov fought bravely and skillfully, was shell-shocked, received two St. George's crosses,” Alexander Mikhailov, a specialist in the history of the Victory Museum, told RT.
During the events of 1917, Georgy Zhukov supported the Bolsheviks and wanted to join the Red Guard, but fell ill with typhus, and only in August 1918 he volunteered for the 4th Cavalry Regiment of the 1st Moscow Cavalry Division of the Red Army.
He participated in the battles near Uralsk, Tsaritsyn, Nikolaevsk, was wounded and again had typhus.
After graduating from the Ryazan cavalry courses in 1920, Zhukov was appointed first a platoon commander, and then a squadron commander.
He participated in the suppression of the Antonov uprising (another name is the Tambov uprising. -
RT
).
For the fact that his squadron managed to hold out for several hours in a battle against one and a half to two thousand enemy fighters near the village of Vyazovaya Pochta, Tambov province, Zhukov was awarded the Order of the Red Banner.
Commander of the 39th Buzuluk cavalry regiment G.K. Zhukov.
1923 year
© Wikimedia Commons
After the end of the Civil War, the future commander decided to stay in the Red Army.
He graduated from the Cavalry advanced training courses for command personnel, led a regiment for several years, and then was sent to advanced training courses for senior command personnel.
After completing his studies for about a year, Zhukov commanded a cavalry brigade, then was assigned to Moscow and became an assistant inspector of the cavalry of the Workers 'and Peasants' Red Army.
Later Zhukov commanded a division and a corps, and in 1938 he became deputy commander of the Belarusian Special Military District.
In June 1939, he was sent to Mongolia, to the zone of the Soviet-Japanese conflict, where he led the 57th Special Corps, which was later deployed to the First Army Group.
“The Japanese went on the offensive.
Heavy fighting began on the Khalkhin-Gol River, "military historian Sergei Perelygin told RT.
At the same time, according to the military historian Grigory Popov, Zhukov used tanks on an unprecedented basis in battles with the aggressor and was able to achieve success.
“It was not in vain that Zhukov was sent to Mongolia.
He was a man with fresh views on military strategy and tactics, ”Popov stressed.
The Japanese army suffered heavy losses and retreated.
As experts note, this victory of the Soviet troops had far-reaching consequences: a political crisis began in Japan, after which official Tokyo abandoned the idea of an attack on the Soviet Union.
So for the USSR, the threat of a war on two fronts was eliminated.
Commander of the 1st Army Group Corps Commander Zhukov (center) among the soldiers during the fighting on Khalkhin Gol
RIA News
According to experts, it was in the battles on Khalkhin Gol that Zhukov first showed himself as an independent commander.
In 1940 he was appointed commander of the Kiev Special Military District.
Against the background of the aggravation of relations between the USSR and Romania, Georgy Zhukov also led the troops of the Southern Front, which was responsible for the liberation of Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina, previously annexed by Bucharest.
G.K. Zhukov takes the parade of the Red Army.
Kishinev.
July 4, 1940
© ANRM, Fototeca / Wikimedia Commons
In January 1941, Zhukov was appointed chief of the General Staff of the Red Army.
Marshal of Victory
In May 1941, Zhukov was engaged in drawing up plans to prevent Nazi aggression, and on June 21 he personally warned the command of the districts about a possible attack by Nazi Germany.
On the second day after the start of the Great Patriotic War, it was decided to create an emergency body of the highest military command - the Headquarters of the Supreme Command of the USSR Armed Forces.
Along with the marshals K.E.
Voroshilov and S.M.
Georgy Zhukov also entered it by Budyonny.
In July 1941, he was appointed commander of the Reserve Front.
In this position, he led the Yelninsk offensive operation, which ended with one of the first major victories of the Red Army in the Great Patriotic War.
After the completion of the Elninsky operation, Zhukov was appointed to the post of commander of the troops of the Leningrad Front.
Under his leadership, Soviet troops stopped the Nazi offensive on Leningrad and prevented the Nazis from capturing the city on the move.
According to historians, in this way Zhukov not only helped save many human lives in Leningrad itself, but also fettered a large enemy grouping that Hitler could not transfer to Moscow.
In October 1941, Zhukov led the troops of the Western Front, which played an important role in the Battle of Moscow.
“Zhukov led the front in a critical situation - there were almost no Soviet troops left on the way of the Nazis to the capital of the USSR.
He collected reserves, emerging from the encirclement of the unit, created new formations.
The defeat of the Nazis near Moscow is in many ways his personal merit, ”stressed Sergei Perelygin.
In 1942, Georgy Zhukov was appointed Deputy Supreme Commander and People's Commissar of Defense of the USSR.
On January 18, 1943, he was awarded the title of Marshal of the Soviet Union.
According to Alexander Mikhailov, Zhukov's strategic thinking and his skillful command and control of troops helped to rectify the situation in the most difficult situations on the Soviet-German front.
At the headquarters of the Western Front, defense of Moscow, 1941.
(From left to right) Nikolai Bulganin, Georgy Zhukov, Vasily Sokolovsky, Ivan Khokhlov
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Zhukov coordinated the actions of Soviet troops in the battles of Stalingrad and Kursk, the Battle of the Dnieper, and breaking the blockade of Leningrad.
“Even when Zhukov did not personally command the organizational units, he helped others: he directed, prompted,” said Sergei Perelygin.
In 1944, after the death of General Nikolai Vatutin, Zhukov commanded the 1st Ukrainian Front for several months.
Later, he coordinated the actions of the Soviet fronts during the Belorussian operation, and then personally led the 1st Belorussian Front and commanded it until May 1945.
Armor-piercers are firing at the Kursk Bulge
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“The most important was the role of Zhukov in the capture of Berlin.
In February, he proposed stopping the offensive in order to build up forces and minimize losses.
In addition, he ensured the isolation of Berlin from the rest of Germany, ”said Grigory Popov.
On May 8, 1945 (May 9 Moscow time) Zhukov received from Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel the unconditional surrender of the troops of Nazi Germany.
On June 24, Zhukov hosted the Victory Parade in Moscow on Red Square, and on September 7, the Victory Parade of the Allied Forces in World War II in Berlin.
In the summer of 1945, Zhukov headed the Group of Soviet Occupation Forces in Germany.
But less than a year later, with the registration of the Ground Forces in a separate branch of the armed forces of the USSR, Zhukov became their commander-in-chief.
However, a few months later, a "trophy case" was opened against the Marshal of the Soviet Union: he was accused of misappropriating trophies and exaggerating his merits in the victory over Germany.
The Great Patriotic War.
1941-1945
Soviet tanks on the streets of Berlin
RIA News
“There was a conflict between two departments - the army and the NKVD.
Zhukov and other representatives of the Soviet command disliked the NKVD, and the NKVD disliked them.
In addition, they saw the popular military leader as a threat to the party apparatus.
So the "trophy case" was just an excuse to put pressure on Zhukov.
In fact, there was nothing criminal in the acquisition of trophy property by the standards of that time, it corresponded to the norms of law, ”said Grigory Popov.
Nevertheless, Zhukov was removed from the post of commander-in-chief of the Ground Forces and sent to command first the troops of the Odessa and then the Ural military district.
Only after the death of Joseph Stalin, Zhukov was first appointed First Deputy Minister of Defense of the USSR, and in 1955 he became Minister of Defense of the USSR.
During the change of power in the Soviet Union, he personally participated in the arrest of Lavrenty Beria.
“In connection with the outbreak of the Cold War, the Soviet command was faced with the task of developing a methodology for engaging all types of troops in the conditions of the use of atomic weapons.
It was also necessary to improve and introduce missile weapons in the troops, optimize the structure of the armed forces, and establish interaction with the allies, "said Alexander Mikhailov.
Georgy Zhukov
RIA News
According to Sergei Perelygin, Zhukov creatively rethought the actions of the armed forces in new conditions, studied the experience of NATO countries, and developed special forces in the Soviet Union.
“He was a man of great military talent, courageous and original in his judgments, very firm in implementing decisions in life, who did not stop at any obstacles to achieve the set military goals,” General of the Army Sergei Shtemenko, who led the General Staff in the post-war period, wrote about Zhukov USSR Armed Forces and GRU.
In June 1957, Georgy Zhukov supported the first secretary of the CPSU Central Committee Nikita Khrushchev in the confrontation with the party opposition, and a few months later the Soviet leader "thanked" Zhukov: he removed him from his post, and in March 1958 he dismissed him.
“Khrushchev was afraid of Zhukov, since the first secretary of the Central Committee himself was less popular among the people than the defense minister, whom people called the Marshal of Victory,” said Grigory Popov.
According to historians, Zhukov was accused of "Bonapartism" and vanity.
For this reason, despite all his merits and the title of four times Hero of the Soviet Union, unlike other commanders of the Great Patriotic War, he was not even included in the Group of Inspectors General of the USSR Ministry of Defense.
According to experts, Zhukov found himself in de facto isolation, which ended only after the resignation of Khrushchev.
After completing his military career, Georgy Zhukov was engaged in literary, historical and educational activities.
On June 18, 1974, the Victory Marshal died of a heart attack.
The urn with his ashes was buried in Moscow on Red Square.
Sculptural monument to the Soviet commander Georgy Zhukov on Manezhnaya Square
RIA News
© Sergey Guneev
“His talent as a leader has played an important role in the history of our country.
Georgy Zhukov made an enormous contribution to both the victory over Nazism and the transformation of the Soviet armed forces into one of the strongest in the world, "summed up Alexander Mikhailov.