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Widely regarded as the most accomplished general of World War II, the Soviet military legend Marshal Georgy Zhukov at last gets the full-scale biographical treatment he has long deserved. A man of indomitable will and fierce determination, Georgy Zhukov was the Soviet Union's indispensable commander through every one of the critical turning points of World War II. It was Zhukov who saved Leningrad from capture by the Wehrmacht in September 1941, Zhukov who led the defense of Moscow in October 1941, Zhukov who spearheaded the Red Army's march on Berlin and formally accepted Germany's unconditional surrender in the spring of 1945. Drawing on the latest research from recently opened Soviet archives, including the uncensored versions of Zhukov's own memoirs, Roberts offers a vivid portrait of a man whose tactical brilliance was matched only by the cold-blooded ruthlessness with which he pursued his battlefield objectives. After the war, Zhukov was a key player on the geopolitical scene. As Khrushchev's defense minister, he was one of the architects of Soviet military strategy during the Cold War. While lauded in the West as a folk hero -- he was the only Soviet general ever to appear on the cover of Time magazine -- Zhukov repeatedly ran afoul of the Communist political authorities. Wrongfully accused of disloyalty, he was twice banished and erased from his country's official history -- left out of books and paintings depicting Soviet World War II victories. Piercing the hyperbole of the Zhukov personality cult, Roberts debunks many of the myths that have sprung up around Zhukov's life and career to deliver fresh insights into the marshal's relationships with Stalin, Khrushchev, and Eisenhower. A remarkably intimate portrait of a man whose life was lived behind an Iron Curtain of official secrecy, Stalin's General is an authoritative biography that restores Zhukov to his rightful place in the twentieth-century military pantheon. - Publisher.… (more)
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Two, Roberts does a good job of placing Zhukov in perspective in relation to the system he served and the war that he fought, as at this point there has to be some synthesis between Zhukov, the hero general, and Zhukov the alleged butcher who only achieved great victories at an exorbitant cost. The portrait that Roberts gives is of a man who made his reputation before Nomonhan of straightening out troubled units and essentially continued doing this from Nomonhan on.
Where Zhukov was less successful was as institutional custodian. His tenure as chief of staff prior to the outbreak of war with Germany did nothing to alleviate the Red Army's own cult of the offensive, which contributed to the great debacle of 1941. In his taste for the limelight he was probably lucky to not run more afoul of Stalin and then of Khrushchev, being somewhat tone deaf to how his commitment to the system would not protect him from the overbearing aspects of his personality. The ultimate irony is that it took the demise of the Soviet system to see this most Soviet of commanders returned to the place in history that he probably deserves.
Finally, Roberts is able to tell you enough about the man as a person so that Zhukov comes out of the shadow of the marble man he has become again in Russian memory. Perhaps the most positive thing you can say about Zhukov is that while he was certainly driven by great ambition, and wholeheartedly enjoyed the acclaim he received, he also had the character to resolve not to be ground down by being given the rough exit from the center of the system he had been integral to. Zhukov was enough of a realist to no doubt recognize that his fate could have been much worse!
There is a fantastic story here,