Georgy Zhukov

Georgy Zhukov (1896-1974), Soviet military officer. Georgy Konstantinovich Zhukov was born near Moscow. He served in the Russian imperial army during World War I, joined the Red Army in 1918, and fought as a cavalry commander in the Russian Civil War. After the war, he studied armored warfare at the Frunze (now Bishkek) Military Academy. In 1939, using tanks, he was victorious during the Soviet-Japanese clashes on the Manchurian border; the following year, he was made chief of staff while fighting in the Russo-Finnish War.

During World War II, Zhukov commanded the defense of Moscow; he was involved in most other important Soviet battles and led the final attack on Berlin. A marshal since 1943, he remained in Germany to head the Soviet occupation forces. Shortly after his triumphant return to Moscow in 1946, he was demoted to a regional post by Premier Joseph Stalin, who resented the marshal's prestige. Following Stalin's death in 1953, Zhukov became first deputy minister of defense in 1955 and a member of the executive committee of the Communist Party in July 1957; three months later he was dismissed from both offices for allegedly giving military affairs priority over party concerns. Marshal Zhukov's Greatest Battles, an English translation of articles by Zhukov that appeared in Soviet periodicals between 1965 and 1968, was published in 1969; the first American edition of The Memoirs of Marshal G. Zhukov was published in 1971.