Stalin's General: The Life of Georgy Zhukov

387 Pages·2012·5.31 MB·English

by  Geoffrey Roberts

ALSO BY GEOFFREY ROBERTS
The Unholy Alliance: Stalin’s Pact with Hitler
The Soviet Union and the Origins of the Second World War
The Soviet Union in World Politics, 1945–1991
Victory at Stalingrad: The Battle That Changed History
Stalin’s Wars: From World War to Cold War, 1939–1953
Molotov: Stalin’s Cold Warrior

Copyright © 2012 by Geoffrey Roberts
All rights reserved.
Published in the United States by Random House,
an imprint of The Random House Publishing Group,
a division of Random House, Inc., New York.
R H and colophon are registered
ANDOM OUSE
trademarks of Random House, Inc.
Cover design: Carlos Beltrán
Cover photo: © Sovfoto
All maps, except as noted below, copyright © 2012 by
Mapping Specialists, Ltd.
Maps on this page, this page, this page, this page,
this page, this page, this page, this page, this page,
this page, this page, this page, this page,
and this page are from Stalin’s Wars by
Geoffrey Roberts (New Haven, Conn. and London:
Yale University Press, 2007) and are reprinted by
permission of Yale Representation, Ltd., London.
All photos, except for the photo of the statue of Georgy
Zhukov, are reprinted by permission of SCRSS, Society for
Cooperation in Russian and Soviet Studies. Photo of the
statue of Georgy Zhukov by Geoffrey Roberts.
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA
Roberts, Geoffrey
Stalin’s general: the life of Georgy Zhukov /
Geoffrey Roberts.
p. cm.
eISBN: 978-0-679-64517-7
1. Zhukov, Georgy Konstantinovich, 1896–1974.
2. Marshals—Soviet Union—Biography. 3. Soviet
Union—History—1939–1945. 4. World War,
1939–1945—Soviet Union. I. Title.
DK268.Z52R63 2012
940.54′1247092—dc23
[B] 2011040663
www.atrandom.com
v3.1
For Celia
PREFACE AND ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
beat Hitler, the peasant lad who rose from
IF RUSSIA HAS A PREEMINENT HERO IT IS GEORGY ZHUKOV, THE MAN WHO
poverty to become the greatest general of the Second World War, the colorful
personality who fell out with both Stalin and Khrushchev yet lived to fight
another day. When Jonathan Jao of Random House suggested I write a new
biography of Zhukov I was intrigued. While working on my book Stalin’s Wars
I’d formed a questioning view of Zhukov’s role in the Soviet victory over Nazi
Germany, not least concerning the mythology generated by his self-serving
memoirs. If I had a favorite Soviet general, it would be Konstantin Rokossovsky
—a rival of Zhukov’s who had a very different leadership style. My working title
for the new project was “Zhukov: A Critical Biography” and the intention was to
produce a warts-and-all portrait that would expose the many myths surrounding
his life and career as well as capture the great drama of his military victories and
defeats, and his journey on the political roller coaster. But the more I worked on
his biography the more sympathetic I became to Zhukov’s point of view.
Empathy combined with critique, and the result is what I hope will be seen as a
balanced reappraisal that cuts through the hyperbole of the Zhukov cult while
appreciating the man and his achievements in full measure.
This is not the first English-language biography of Zhukov and I have to
acknowledge the groundbreaking efforts of Albert Axell, William J. Spahr, and,
especially, Otto Preston Chaney. The main limitation of their work was
overreliance on Zhukov’s memoirs, an indispensable but problematic source. In
this biography I have been able to utilize an enormous amount of new evidence
from the Russian archives, including Zhukov’s personal files in the Russian State
Military Archive. I have also benefited from the work of many Russian scholars,
especially V. A. Afanas’ev, V. Daines, A. Isaev, and V. Krasnov, who have all
written valuable biographical studies focused on Zhukov’s role in the Second
World War. Mine, however, is a full-scale biography that gives due weight to
Zhukov’s early life as well as his postwar political career.
In Moscow my research was greatly facilitated by my friends in the Russian
Academy of Sciences’ Institute of General History, especially Oleg
Rzheshevsky, Mikhail Myagkov, and Sergey Listikov. Professor Rzheshevsky
was kind enough to arrange for a meeting and interview with Zhukov’s eldest
daughter, Era. Mr. Nikita Maximov and Alexander Pozdeev accompanied me on
a fascinating visit to the Zhukov museum in the hometown that now bears his
name. I do not share Boris Sokolov’s hostile view of Zhukov but he was
generous in advising me of the work of Irina Mastykina on Zhukov’s family and
private life.
Evan Mawdsley was kind enough to read the first draft and to make some
valuable suggestions as well as correct mistakes. The most amusing of the latter
was my conviction that Zhukov had fallen in love with a young gymnast rather
than a schoolgirl (in Russian gimnazistka). Evan’s own work on the Soviet-
German war has been indispensable, as have the writings of Chris Bellamy,
David Glantz, Jonathan House, and the late John Erickson. My main guides
through the prewar Red Army that Zhukov served in were the works of Mary
Habeck, Mark von Hagen, Shimon Naveh, Roger Reese, and David Stone.
I am grateful to Ambassador John Beyrle for finding time in his busy day to
talk to me about his father, Joseph’s, chance meeting with Zhukov in 1945 and
for giving me the materials that enabled me to reconstruct the incident.
Opportunities to present my research on Zhukov were provided by the Society
of Military History, the Irish Association for Russian and East European Studies,
the Society for Cooperation in Russian and Soviet Studies in London, the Centre
for Military History and Strategic Studies at Maynooth University, and the
Department of Politics and International Studies at the University of Hull.
Many weeks of research in Moscow and many more months writing would
not have been possible without research leave and financial support from my
employer, University College Cork, Ireland.
For this book I was fortunate to have the input of not one but two brilliant
editors: my partner, Celia Weston—to whom the book is dedicated—and
Jonathan Jao, who gave me a master class in the writing of popular scholarly
biography. I have also been privileged to have the services of my agent, Andrew
Lownie, who has also encouraged me to take on the challenges of writing for a
broader audience.
Finally, an acknowledgment of Nigel Hamilton’s How to Do Biography. It
was only when I read the book for a second time—after I had finished writing
about Zhukov—that I realized how many of its valuable lessons I had taken to
heart. But neither he nor anyone else mentioned in this preface can be blamed
for any defects, which are entirely my own.
CONTENTS
Cover
Other Books by This Author
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
PREFACE AND ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
LIST OF MAPS AND CHARTS
TIMELINE: THE LIFE AND CAREER OF GEORGY ZHUKOV
SIC TRANSIT GLORIA: THE RISES AND FALLS OF MARSHAL
CHAPTER 1
GEORGY ZHUKOV
FABLED YOUTH: FROM PEASANT CHILDHOOD TO
CHAPTER 2
COMMUNIST SOLDIER,1896–1921
A SOLDIER’S LIFE: THE EDUCATION OF A RED
CHAPTER 3
COMMANDER, 1922–1938
KHALKHIN-GOL, 1939: THE BLOODING OF A GENERAL
CHAPTER 4
IN KIEV: WAR GAMES AND PREPARATIONS, 1940
CHAPTER 5
ARCHITECT OF DISASTER? ZHUKOVAND JUNE 22, 1941
CHAPTER 6
STALIN’S GENERAL: SAVING LENINGRADAND MOSCOW,
CHAPTER 7
1941
ARCHITECT OF VICTORY? STALINGRAD, 1942
CHAPTER 8
NA ZAPAD! FROM KURSK TO WARSAW, 1943–1944
CHAPTER 9
RED STORM: THE CONQUESTOF GERMANY, 1945
CHAPTER 10
EXILED TO THE PROVINCES: DISGRACE AND
CHAPTER 11
REHABILITATION, 1946–1954
MINISTER OF DEFENSE: TRIUMPH AND TRAVESTY, 1955–1957
CHAPTER 12
FINAL BATTLE: THE STRUGGLEFOR HISTORY, 1958–1974
CHAPTER 13
MARSHAL OF VICTORY
CHAPTER 14
NOTES

BIBLIOGRAPHY
About the Author
Photo Insert
LIST OF MAPS AND CHARTS
The Battle of Khalkhin-Gol, August 20–31, 1939
MAP 1:
The Soviet-Finnish War, 1939–1940
MAP 2:
The First War Game, January 2–6, 1941
MAP 3:
The Second War Game, January 8–11, 1941
MAP 4:
The Soviet Plan for an Offensive War Against Germany, May
MAP 5:
1941
Operation Barbarossa, June–December 1941
MAP 6:
The Border Battles, June 22–July 9, 1941
MAP 7:
The Structure of Soviet Military and Political Decision-Making
DIAGRAM 1:
During the Great Patriotic War
The Yel’nya Offensive, August–September 1941
MAP 8:
The German Advance to Leningrad, June–September 1941
MAP 9:
The Battle for Leningrad, September 1941
MAP 10:
The Battle for Moscow, October–December 1941
MAP 11:
Zhukov’s Moscow Counteroffensive, December 1941
MAP 12:
Operation Mars—the Third Rzhev-Viazma Operation,
MAP 13:
November–December 1942
The German Advance in the South, Summer 1942
MAP 14:
The Battle for Stalingrad, September–November 1942
MAP 15:
Operation Uranus, November 1942
MAP 16:
Operations Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, and Uranus
MAP 17:
Zhukov’s Plan for Operation Polar Star
MAP 18:
Operation Citadel, July 1943
MAP 19:
The Soviet Counteroffenasives at Kursk, July–August 1943
MAP 20:
The Battle for the Ukraine, 1943–1944
MAP 21:
The Plan for Operation Bagration, June 1944
MAP 22: