Georgy Konstantinovich Zhukov
Soviet military commander
"No one claims to be the best until we build this "best" ourselves"
Georgy ZhukovBiography of the great commander
He was born on December 1 , 1896 in the village Strelkovka, which is in the Kaluga province. George comes from a simple peasant family.
Before the First World War began, Georgy had drafted into the Imperial army and had sent to a cavalry regiment. Curiously, he could go to the school of ensigns and immediately become an officer, but he had embarrassed at the age of 19 to command experienced soldiers, so he refused.
As Marshal Zhukov will say later, it was a happy thought, otherwise after the revolution he would have had to emigrate. While participating in the fighting, the young cavalryman had wounded, partially lost his hearing. Georgy Zhukov had performed a number of feats, including capturing a German officer alone, before the future commander had awarded the St. Georgy Cross.
As Marshal Zhukov will say later, it was a happy thought, otherwise after the revolution he would have had to emigrate. While participating in the fighting, the young cavalryman had wounded, partially lost his hearing. Georgy Zhukov had performed a number of feats, including capturing a German officer alone, before the future commander had awarded the St. Georgy Cross.
St. George Cross
The first achievements in the command of troops
In the 30s, Georgy Konstantinovich had entrusted with the 4th Cavalry Division, then he had appointed deputy commander of the Belarusian Military District for Cavalry.
During the battles on Khalkhin-Gol (1939, Mongolia) with the Japanese army Zhukov had appointed commander of the corps. Zhukov had awarded the title of Hero Of the Soviet Union and the rank of general of the Army because he had defeated the Japanese army.
On the eve of the Great Patriotic War
Before he Great Patriotic War started, the Politburo had appointed Georgy Konstantinovich Zhukov as Chief of the General Staff.
First of all, Zhukov had demanded that the entire army be put on alert, as he foresaw the attack of Nazi Germany, but had not abled to convince the Leader of all his ideas, which he repeatedly publicly regretted after the war.
The next stage in the life of George Konstantinovich
The beginning of the Great Patriotic War
"But the war, as it always happens, confused all our hopes and calculations." - Georgy Zhukov
During the Great Patriotic War, Zhukov was a member of the Stavka, Deputy Supreme Commander, had commanded the fronts.
The offensive of Army Group North on Leningrad
On January 18, 1943, he was the first during the war to be awarded the rank of Marshal Of the Soviet Union. Under the command of Zhukov, the troops of the Leningrad Front, together with the Baltic Fleet, had stopped the offensive of Army Group North on Leningrad in September 1941.
Under his command, the troops of the Western Front had defeated the troops of Army Group Center near Moscow (the Moscow Battle of 1941-1942) and dispelled the myth of the invincibility of the Nazi army.
Zhukov G.K. had coordinated the actions of the fronts near Stalingrad (Operation Uranus, 1942), in Operation Iskra, during the breakthrough of the Leningrad blockade (1943), in the Battle of Kursk Bulge (summer 1943).
Marshal Zhukov's name is also associated with the victories at the liberation of Right-Bank Ukraine, Operation Bagration (in Belarus), where the "Fatherland Line" had broken through and Army Group Center had defeated. At the final stage of the war, the 1st Belorussian Front, led by Marshal Zhukov, had taken Warsaw, had defeated Army Group A in the Vistula-Oder operation with a dissecting blow and victoriously ended the war with the grandiose Berlin operation.
On May 8, 1945, in Karlshorst (Berlin), the commander had accepted the unconditional surrender of nazi Germany from Hitler's Generalfeldmarschall Wilhelm Keitel.
Marshal Zhukov's name is also associated with the victories at the liberation of Right-Bank Ukraine, Operation Bagration (in Belarus), where the "Fatherland Line" had broken through and Army Group Center had defeated. At the final stage of the war, the 1st Belorussian Front, led by Marshal Zhukov, had taken Warsaw, had defeated Army Group A in the Vistula-Oder operation with a dissecting blow and victoriously ended the war with the grandiose Berlin operation.
On May 8, 1945, in Karlshorst (Berlin), the commander had accepted the unconditional surrender of nazi Germany from Hitler's Generalfeldmarschall Wilhelm Keitel.
Georgy Konstantinovich Zhukov signs the act of surrender of Fascist Germany in Berlin.
Marshal Zhukov takes the Victory Parade in 1945
"Of all the major military leaders who grew up with lightning speed in the pre-war years, he was certainly the brightest and most gifted person... He possessed not only military talent, without which a commander cannot turn out to be a commander during the years of military trials, but also a tough character, ruthlessness to unscrupulous people... If he achieved something, he did not like to go to the goal, as they say, "with a slow step, a timid zigzag." In such cases, he went directly."
I. H. Baghramyan
Marshal of the Soviet Union
"I certainly have great respect for Georgy Konstantinovich Zhukov. He is one of the heroes of the Soviet Union and the entire Russian people, having prevented the threat of destruction not only of the USSR, but of the whole world. I admire his courage, tact and ability to decisively and correctly choose the tactics of combat. We should all remember the feat of Soviet commanders and soldiers and their contribution to victory."
Bogdan Butakov
Student of MISIS University
"I have lived my life with the consciousness that
I benefit the people, and this is the main thing for any life."
G.K. Zhukov
I benefit the people, and this is the main thing for any life."
G.K. Zhukov
