Georgii Zhukov

Introduction

Conscripted into the Tsarist cavalry in 1915 to fight in the First World War, Georgy (also Georgii, Georgi) Konstantinovich Zhukov (b. 1896–d. 1974) joined the Red Army and the Communist Party after the 1917 Russian Revolution. He made his name as a general in a battle with Japan’s Kwantung Army in August 1939 at Khalkhin-Gol on the Mongolian-Manchurian border. In May 1940, he was appointed to the command of the Kiev Special Military District and in February 1941, Chief of the General Staff (CGS). After the German invasion of the USSR in June 1941, Zhukov stepped aside as CGS (he claimed in his memoirs to have been sacked by Stalin) and was given command of a reserve army of fifty divisions that launched a successful counteroffensive at Yel’nya in the Smolensk region. Zhukov’s next assignment, in September 1941, was to bolster the defenses of besieged Leningrad. Recalled to defend Moscow, he mounted a large-scale counteroffensive in front of the Soviet capital in December 1941. In June 1942, Hitler launched a southern campaign to capture Stalingrad and the Soviet oilfields at Baku. Zhukov was appointed Stalin’s Deputy Supreme Commander in August 1942 and took part in planning and preparing the counteroffensive that encircled 300,000 German troops in Stalingrad. He also played a central role in the Kursk battle in July 1943, when hundreds of German and Soviet tanks clashed in open warfare. Zhukov was in the forefront of the Soviet strategic offensive of 1943–1945. In November 1943, he rode into Kiev with the Soviet forces that recaptured the Ukrainian capital. A few months later, Zhukov supervised Operation Bagration—the campaign to liberate Belorussia from Nazi occupation. In November 1944, Zhukov was given command of the 1st Belorussian Front, which liberated Warsaw in January 1945, and then he advanced to Berlin. It was Zhukov’s troops who captured the German capital, and Zhukov signed the instrument of Germany’s unconditional surrender on 9 May 1945. At the victory parade in Red Square in June, he took the salute and delivered the victory speech. Zhukov was appointed commander-in-chief of Soviet ground forces in March 1946, but was sacked by Stalin a few months later—on grounds of disloyalty and egotism—and demoted to commanding the Odessa military district. In 1947, he was expelled from the party central committee, and in 1948, demoted to the command of the Urals Military District in Sverdlovsk. Zhukov gradually returned to favor, and after Stalin’s death in 1953, he was appointed Deputy of Defense and later, Minister of Defense. In June 1957, Zhukov saved Khrushchev from an internal coup by hardliners, but Khrushchev then turned on him and dismissed Zhukov as Minister of Defense in October 1947. In retirement, Zhukov was criticized by Khrushchev’s supporters. He wrote his memoirs in reply, which were published after Khrushchev’s fall from power in 1964. When Zhukov died in 1974, thousands queued to pay their respects as his body lay in state in Moscow. In post-Soviet Russia, he has been reinvented as a national as well as a communist patriotic hero, lauded as the general who saved Europe, and the world, from the Nazis. Zhukov is not everyone’s hero, but the consensus is that he played a key role in all the decisive battles on the eastern front and that he was one of the best generals of the Second World War. He is certainly the best documented of the Soviet generals: there is now available a vast range of memoir and documentary materials relating to his life and career.

General and Reference Works

Zhukov’s generalship can only be understood and evaluated against the background, circumstances, and events of the Great Patriotic War. The books listed in this section treat that conflict primarily from the Soviet point of view and provide extensive coverage of Zhukov’s role as well. Erickson 1975 is the most detailed, but it is dated before both the collapse of the USSR and the publication of a large amount of new material from the Russian archives. This new material is utilized in the general post-Soviet accounts in Glantz and House 1995, Overy 1998, Mawdsley 2005, and Bellamy 2007. Shukman 1997, Reese 2011, Roberts 2006, and Jones 2012 are specialist studies, while Werth 1965 is an influential, older account of the Soviet-German war.

Bellamy, Chris. Absolute War: Soviet Russia in the Second World War. London: Macmillan 2007.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Particularly strong on Soviet survival during the first two years of the war and on the battle for Berlin.
Find this resource:
Erickson, John. The Road to Stalingrad. New York: Harper & Row, 1975.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
To be read with Erickson’s The Road to Berlin (London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1983). Erickson was the leading British authority on the history of the Soviet armed forces. These detailed operational histories of the Great Patriotic War remain essential reading.
Find this resource:
Glantz, David, and Jonathan House. When Titans Clashed: How the Red Army Stopped Hitler. Lawrence, Kansas: University Press of Kansas, 1995.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
David Glantz is a prolific author of detailed studies of Soviet military operations during the Second World War, often in collaboration with Jonathan House. This book presents an overview.
Find this resource:
Jones, Michael. Total War: From Stalingrad to Berlin. London: John Murray, 2012.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
A view of the war from the grassroots of the Red Army, based mainly on veteran testimony.
Find this resource:
Mawdsley, Evan. Thunder in the East: The Nazi-Soviet War, 1941–1945. London: Hodder Arnold, 2005.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Acclaimed book by a Soviet specialist that tells the story of the war from the German perspective as well.
Find this resource:
Overy, Richard. Russia’s War. London: Penguin, 1998.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
A judicious and accessible history by Britain’s leading historian of the Second World War.
Find this resource:
Reese, Roger R. Why Stalin’s Soldiers Fought: The Red Army’s Military Effectiveness in World War II. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2011.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
A pathbreaking account of how and why the Red Army kept fighting through four years of war, huge losses notwithstanding.
Find this resource:
Roberts, Geoffrey. Stalin’s Wars: From World War to Cold War, 1939–1953. London: Yale University Press, 2006.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
A study of Stalin as Supreme Commander that details the dictator’s relations with his generals, above all Zhukov.
Find this resource:
Shukman, Harold, ed. Stalin’s Generals. London: Phoenix, 1997.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
An illuminating collection of essays by distinguished authors that facilitate comparisons between Zhukov and other Soviet generals.
Find this resource:
Werth, Alexander. Russia at War, 1941–1947. London: Pan, 1965.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
The classic history of the war that incorporates the author’s memoirs as a war correspondent in the Soviet Union.
Find this resource:
Biographical Studies in English

Zhukov is the most studied of Soviet generals, and there is a vast literature on his life and career, focusing mainly on the Great Patriotic War. Overwhelmingly, this literature casts Zhukov in a positive light, but there are some dissenting voices. Roberts 2012 is the most recent biography, but Chaney 1996 and Spahr 1993 remain valuable. Erickson 2005 and Anfilov 1997 focus on Zhukov’s positive qualities as a general, while Forczyk 2012 is much more critical. Andy 2011, Cocks 1963, and Colton 1977 deal with Zhukov’s postwar political career.

Andy, Joshua. “Politics and the Soviet Military: Civil-Military Relations in the Soviet Union in the Khrushchev Era, 1953–1964.” PhD diss., University of Birmingham, 2011.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Examines Zhukov’s postwar career in the general context of the relationship between the Communist party and the military.
Find this resource:
Anfilov, Victor. “Zhukov.” In Stalin’s Generals. Edited by Harold Shukman, 343–360. London: Phoenix, 1997.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
A biographical essay by a leading Soviet military historian who was an expert on the Red Army’s failure in the face of the German invasion of 22 June 1941.
Find this resource:
Chaney, Otto Preston. Zhukov. Rev. ed. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 1996.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Chaney’s 1971 biography of Zhukov was the first in any language. This revised edition, which takes onboard the post-Soviet editions of Zhukov’s memoirs, is still well worth reading. The author was a Colonel in the American army and a Professor at the US Army War College.
Find this resource:
Cocks, Paul M. “The Purge of Marshal Zhukov.” Slavic Review 22.3 (1963): 483–498.
DOI: 10.2307/2492494Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
An article on Zhukov’s dismissal as defense minister in 1957, based on public sources and written close to the time of the events in question.
Find this resource:
Colton, Timothy J. “The Zhukov Affair Reconsidered.” Soviet Studies 29.2 (April 1977): 185–213.
DOI: 10.1080/09668137708411118Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Colton challenges the prevalent view that there was substance to the official charges against Zhukov when he was dismissed as defense minister in 1957, i.e., that Zhukov represented some kind of personal/political challenge to the party leadership and attempted to use the armed forces to further his “Bonapartist” ambitions. Colton demonstrates that this was most unlikely to have been the case, and his interpretation has been confirmed by the documentation on the Zhukov affair now available from the Russian archives.
Find this resource:
Erickson, John. “Zhukov.” In The War Lords. Edited by Michael Carver, 244–259. Barnsley, UK: Pen & Sword, 2005.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
A valuable overview of Zhukov’s role within the Soviet high command during the war, by the leading British authority on the history of the Red Army and the Soviet-German war.
Find this resource:
Forczyk, Robert. Georgy Zhukov. Oxford: Osprey, 2012.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
A booklet that highlights Zhukov’s personal egotism and emphasizes his brutal operational methods that, the author claims, led to inordinately high casualty rates among his troops. A useful antidote to the generally good press that Zhukov gets, but should be read as critically as the more laudatory literature.
Find this resource:
Lopez, Jean, and Lasha Otkhmezuri. Joukov: L’homme qui a vaincu Hitler. Paris: Perrin, 2013.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
This French-language biography covers much the same ground as Roberts 2012 but with more contextual detailed and direct quotations from primary and memoirs sources.
Find this resource:
Roberts, Geoffrey. Stalin’s General: The Life of Georgy Zhukov. New York: Random House, 2012.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
The most comprehensive, up-to-date and authoritative biography of Zhukov, based on the full range of the available archival, documentary, memoir, and secondary sources. The book was awarded the Society for Military History Distinguished Book Award for Biography.
Find this resource:
Spahr, William J. Zhukov: The Rise and Fall of a Great Captain. Novato, CA: Presido, 1993.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
A short but illuminating study by an American military historian and CIA analyst, notable for being up to date on the extant Soviet sources.
Find this resource:
Biographical Studies in Russian

The Russian opinion of Zhukov is mostly positive, but he has his critics—including some virulent ones. Daines 2008, Isaev 2006, and Krasnov 2005 are three recent biographies that take a more balanced view of Zhukov. Afanas’ev 2006 and Gareev 2004 defend Zhukov’s reputation as a general, while Sokolov 2003, Suvorov 2003, and Suvorov 2005 are among his most prominent critiques, politically and personally as well as militarily. Another critic is Martirosyan 2012, but unlike Sokolov and Suvorov, he argues that Zhukov was traitorous in relation to Stalin, not loyal. Astrakhansky 1996 and Pavlenko 1988 show that Zhukov was a multifaceted personality.

Afanas’ev, Vladimir A. Stanovlenie Polkovodcheskogo Iskusstva G.K. Zhukova. Moscow: Svyatigor, 2006.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
A study of Zhukov’s development as a commander. The author defends Zhukov against his Russian critics and argues that the key to Zhukov’s success as a military leader was constant study—of his failures as well as his successes. Contains an excellent annotated bibliography of writings by and about Zhukov.
Find this resource:
Astrakhansky, V. S. “Biblioteka G.K. Zhukova.” Arkhivno-Informatsionnyi Bulleten’ 13 (1996): 3–59.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Zhukov was a great reader, especially of military, historical, and literary works; and when he died, there were some 20,000 books in his library. Most of these were pulped by the state when it took back his dacha, but several hundred were preserved in museums. This article analyzes Zhukov’s reading tastes and habits.
Find this resource:
Daines, Vladmir. Zhukov: Rozhdennyi Pobezhdat’. Moscow: Yauza-Eksmo, 2008.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
A substantial biography based on much first-hand research. Deals with Zhukov’s prewar and postwar career, but concentrates on his role during the war.
Find this resource:
Gareev, Makhmut A. Polkovodtsy Pobedy i Ikh Voennoe Hasledie. Moscow: INSAN, 2004.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
A study of the top Soviet generals of the Second World War by the President of the Russian Academy of Military Science. Includes a chapter on Zhukov, whom Gareev strongly defends against accusations that he was too harsh a commander, pointing out that the casualty rates of Zhukov’s troops were proportionately lower than those of other Soviet generals. A longer treatment of Zhukov by Gareev may be found in his book Marshal Zhukov (Ufa: Vostochnyi Universitet, 1996).
Find this resource:
Isaev, Aleksey. Georgy Zhukov. Moscow: Yauza-Eksmo, 2006.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Isaev, a post-Soviet Russian military historian, is a prolific author of books about the Great Patriotic War. This study of Zhukov’s role during the war strives for an objective and balanced analysis of his successes and failures, one that steers a middle path between his supporters and detractors.
Find this resource:
Krasnov, Valerii. Zhukov: Marshal Velikoi Imperii. Moscow: Olma, 2005.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
A “warts and all” portrayal of Zhukov that is especially valuable for the many documents it reproduces that cannot be found elsewhere, including in relation to his early career.
Find this resource:
Martirosyan, Arsen. 22 Iunya. 2 vols. Moscow: Veche, 2012.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
According to Martirosyan, another former Soviet intelligence officer, Zhukov was involved in a military conspiracy to overthrow Stalin, a conspiracy linked Marshal Tukhachevsky, convicted and executed for treason in 1937. The key move of the second generation of conspirators, supposedly led by Zhukov, was to change Soviet military strategy from active defense to a series of disastrous counteroffensives intended to facilitate the Nazi invasion of June 1941. Conspiracy theories are popular in Russia, but Martirosyan’s views have little or no support among historians or among the public.
Find this resource:
Pavlenko, Nikolai. G. “Razmyshleniya o Sud’be Polkovodsta.” Voenno-Istoricheskii Zhurnal, no 10 (1988): 14–20.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Pavlenko was editor of this publication (Military-Historical Journal) in the 1960s and was instrumental in getting Zhukov’s articles published again during the period of his rehabilitation immediately after Khrushchev’s fall in 1964. In this series of articles, Pavlenko focuses on Zhukov’s postwar fate and treatment by the Soviet authorities. See also issue 11, pp. 19–27, and 12, pp. 27–37.
Find this resource:
Sokolov, Boris V. Georgy Zhukov: Triumf i Padeniya. Moscow: Ast, 2003.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
A hostile biography that seeks to debunk the Zhukov legend in every aspect—militarily, politically, and personally.
Find this resource:
Suvorov, Viktor. Ten’ Pobedy. Donetsk, Ukraine: Harvest, 2003.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Suvorov is a former Soviet intelligence officer who defected to the West in 1978. He is best known for his contention that in the summer 1941, Stalin was preparing a pre-emptive strike against Germany, only to find himself pre-empted by Hitler. In this book, Suvorov sets his sights on Zhukov, whom he describes as a scoundrel, a war criminal, and a vainglorious egotist.
Find this resource:
Suvorov, Viktor. Beru Svoi Slova Obratno. Donetsk: Stalker, 2005.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
This is the second of Suvrov’s two volumes criticizing Zhukov on personal, political and military grounds.
Find this resource:
Archival Sources

The two most important phases of Zhukov’s military and political career were the years of the Great Patriotic War (1941–1945) and his time as Deputy of Defense and later, Minister of Defense (1953–1957). The main Russian archive covering these periods in Zhukov’s life are the Central Archive of the Ministry of Defense (in Russian: Tsentral’nyi Arkhiv Ministerstva Oborony, or TsAMO), but the archive is difficult to access, even for Russian scholars. However, many thousands of documents have been published from the archive, including a large number relevant to Zhukov. The Russian State Military Archive (in Russian: Rossiiskii Gosudarstvennyi Voennyi Arkhiv, or RGVA) is open to researchers. In general, it covers only the prewar Red Army, but also houses an important set of Zhukov’s personal files. The materials from these two archives may supplemented by material in the Volkogonov, Eisenhower, and Fond 89 archives.

Eisenhower Papers. Eisenhower Presidential Library, Abilene, Kansas.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Eisenhower and Zhukov served together in Germany after the war (June–November 1945) as the American and Soviet representatives on the Allied Control Council. When Eisenhower was President and Zhukov was Soviet Defense Minister, their paths crossed again at the Geneva summit of July 1955, where they had two long conversations. The documentation is scattered across a number of files, including: Eisenhower Papers, Pre-Presidential Principal File, Box 26 (the Eisenhower-Zhukov correspondence in 1945–1946); and Dulles Papers, General Correspondence, Box no.3 (Eisenhower-Zhukov conversations in Geneva).
Find this resource:
Fond 89: The Soviet Communist Party on Trial.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
This large and wide-ranging collection of confidential documents from the Soviet party archives was compiled by the prosecution as part of its case against the party, following its banning in the aftermath of the failed coup of August 1991. It contains Zhukov’s reports to the Presidium on the conduct and progress of the Soviet military operation to crush the Hungarian uprising of November 1956. It is available on microfilm at the Hoover Institution and elsewhere.
Find this resource:
Rossiiskii Gosudarstvennyi Voennyi Arkhiv.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
RGVA contains many files and documents relating to Zhukov’s service in the interwar Red Army. Of particular importance are the file series on Khalkhin-Gol (Fond 32113, Opis 1, and Zhukov’s command of the Kiev Special Military District (Fond 25880, Opis 4). The archive also contains Zhukov’s lichnyi fond, or personal file, series (Fond 41107, Opis 1 and 2). There are around 190 files consisting of manuscripts and materials relating to his memoirs, speeches, articles, correspondence, and personal memorabilia, some published in the collection Georgy Zhukov: Stenogramma Oktyabr’skogo (1957g.) Plenuma (cited under Published Documents). The archive is open to Russian and foreign researchers.
Find this resource:
Volkogonov Papers. Library of Congress Manuscript Division, Washington, DC.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
General Dmitry Volkogonov was head of the Institute of Military History during the Gorbachev era (1985–1991) and was able to gain early access to a wide range of Soviet military and political archives. These papers contain copies of thousands of documents from those archives. The collection is eclectic, fragmentary, and disorganized, but it contains documents that are not available elsewhere. A microfilm copy of the archive is also deposited in the Lamont Library, Harvard University.
Find this resource:
Published Documents

Since the 1990s, thousands of documents have been published from Soviet military archives, including hundreds that relate to Zhukov’s activities during the Great Patriotic War: orders given and received by Zhukov, reports to Stalin and the high command, and records of telephone and telegraph conversations involving Zhukov. Two key collections are G.K. Zhukov v Bitve pod Moskvoi and G.K. Zhukov v Stalingradskom Bitve. Georgy Zhukov: Stenogramma Oktyabr’skogo (1957g.) Plenuma and Molotov, Malenkov, Kaganovich, 1957 document Zhukov’s postwar political career, while Marshal Zhukov: Moskva v Zhizini i Sud’be Polkovodtsa deals mainly with his personal life. Christensen and Jensen 2003 document a revealing speech by Zhukov when he was Minister of Defense.

Christensen, S. A., and F. P. Jensen. “Superpower under Pressure: The Secret Speech of Minister of Defence Zhukov in East Berlin, March 1957.” Parallel History Project on NATO and the Warsaw Pact, December 2003.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
In this speech, Zhukov stated that as soon as it became clear that NATO was going to attack the Warsaw Pact, Soviet forces would launch a pre-emptive strike that would take them to the English Channel. A pre-emptive strategy may have been Zhukov’s preference in 1941, too—but if so, he was overruled by Stalin.
Find this resource:
Georgy Zhukov: Stenogramma Oktyabr’skogo (1957g.) Plenuma TsK KPSS i Drugie Dokumenty. Moscow: Democratiya, 2001.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
This collection documents Zhukov’s postwar political career, including the record of the central committee meeting in October 1957 that dismissed him as defense minister. Also contains documentation on the censoring of Zhukov’s memoirs before they were published in 1969.
Find this resource:
G.K. Zhukov v Bitve pod Moskvoi: Sbornik Dokumentov. Moscow: Mosgorarkhiv, 1994.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Covers the battle of Moscow from Zhukov’s appointment as commander of the western front in October 1941 to the counteroffensive of December 1941. Also contains a variant text of the chapter in Zhukov’s memoirs dealing with the battle.
Find this resource:
G.K. Zhukov v Stalingradskom Bitve: Sbornik Dokumentov. Moscow: Biblioteka, 1996.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Documents Zhukov’s role during the battle of Stalingrad, September 1942–February 1943.
Find this resource:
Marshal Zhukov: Moskva v Zhizini i Sud’be Polkovodtsa. Moscow: Glavarkhiv, 2005.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
This eclectic but useful collection of documents and memoir extracts is most notable for its inclusion of Zhukov’s letters in the 1950s to his mistress and second wife, Galina Semonova, which gives a sense of the interaction between the political and personal events in his life.
Find this resource:
Molotov, Malenkov, Kaganovich, 1957: Stenogramma Iun’skogo Plenuma TsK KPSS i Drugie Dokumenty. Moscow: Democratiya, 1998.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Zhukov played a central role in the central committee meeting that rejected the attempt by Molotov, Malenkov, and Kaganovich to oust Khrushchev as party leader, as documented in this record of the meeting.
Find this resource:
Zhukov’s Memoirs

The single most important source on Zhukov’s biography is his memoirs. The first edition was published, in Russian, in 1969. A second, revised edition, containing new chapters on Stavka, the battle of Leningrad, and the Yel’nya counteroffensive was published in 1974, just after Zhukov’s death. The first and second editions, Zhukov 1971 and Zhukov 1985, were published in English. A facsimile of the latter is reproduced in Zhukov 2013, together with additional materials. In 1990, a 10th revised Russian edition of the memoirs was published, containing material cut during the process of censorship. More excluded material was contained in the 11th edition—Zhukov 1992. Kumanev 1999 and Pavelenko 1988 contain interview-memoirs with Zhukov. Salisbury 1969 is an annotated collection of Zhukov’s articles on the big battles in which he fought.

Kumanev, Georgy A. Ryadom so Stalinym. Moscow: Byliia, 1999.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Contains an interview with Zhukov.
Find this resource:
Pavelenko, Nikolai G. ed. “G.K. Zhukov: Iz Neopublikovannykh Vospominanii.” Kommunist 14 (1988): 87–101.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
A mid-1960s interview with Zhukov in which he reminiscences about Stalin and Stavka, the battle of Moscow, and the run up to the German attack in June 1941.
Find this resource:
Salisbury, Harrison E., ed. Marshal Zhukov’s Greatest Battles. London and New York: Harper & Row, 1969.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Contains articles by Zhukov on the battles of Moscow, Stalingrad, Kursk, and Berlin. These articles, originally published in Soviet journals in the mid-1960s, were incorporated as chapters of Zhukov’s memoirs. The commentary is by the American journalist-historian Harrison Salisbury, who served as a foreign correspondent in Moscow. In 1970, Zhukov publicly denounced Salisbury’s criticism that he had been profligate with the lives of his soldiers, sarcastically suggesting that perhaps the American journalist should have been in command! The book was republished in 2002 with an additional introduction by David Glantz.
Find this resource:
Zhukov, Georgy K. The Memoirs of Marshal Zhukov. London: Jonathan Cape, 1971.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Translation of the first Russian edition (1969). The translation is accurate, but clumsy in places. Has been superseded by the translation of the second Russian edition, which contains three additional chapters.
Find this resource:
Zhukov, Georgy K. Reminiscences and Reflections. 2 vols. Moscow: Progress, 1985.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Translation of the second Russian edition (1974). A facsimile of these two volumes is included in Marshal of Victory.
Find this resource:
Zhukov, Georgy K. Vospominaniya i Razmyshleniya. 11th ed. 3 vols. Moscow: Novosti, 1992.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
This is the most complete Russian edition of Zhukov’s memoirs. It includes about 40,000 words of text cut from the memoirs during the official processes of editing and censorship, material supplied by Zhukov’s youngest daughter Maria. The censured text is printed in italics.
Find this resource:
Zhukov, Georgy K. Marshal of Victory: The Autobiography of General Georgy Zhukov. Edited by Geoffrey Roberts. Barnsley, UK: Pen & Sword, 2013.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
The most up-to-date and fullest English-language edition of Zhukov’s memoirs. Also contains two additional memoirs by Zhukov: “Briefly about Stalin,” which deals with his relations with the Soviet dictator, and “After the Death of Stalin,” his memoir of the period 1953–1957. The introduction by Geoffrey Roberts includes a detailed analysis of the differences between the Soviet and post-Soviet versions of the memoirs.
Find this resource:
Soviet Military and Political Memoirs

Zhukov was the most prominent member of a talented team of Soviet generals who worked under the supreme command of Stalin. Like Zhukov, many of them published their memoirs, a number of which have been translated into English. Zhukov looms large in all these memoirs, and they provide invaluable evidence of how he was viewed by his fellow generals, both at the time and in retrospect. Chuikov 1963, Konev 1969, and Rokossovsky 1970 are quite critical of Zhukov, whereas Meretskov 1971, Shtemenko 1970–1986, and Vasilevsky 1981 tend to take Zhukov’s side. Bialer 1970 is a collection of memoirs that date from the Khrushchev era, when Zhukov was under a cloud per se, while the memoirs in Main Front: Soviet Leaders Look Back on World War II paint a more positive picture of Zhukov. Griogorenko 1982 is another memoir that is highly critical of Zhukov. Khrushchev 1971 and Gromyko 1989 are political memoirs that provide evidence on Zhukov’s postwar career.

Bialer, Seweryn, ed. Stalin and His Generals: Soviet Military Memoirs of World War 11. New York: Pegasus, 1970.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
This volume of translated extracts reflects those military memoirs by top Soviet commanders published during the Khrushchev era (1957–1964). During this period, Zhukov was under political attack following his dismissal as defense minister in 1957. Hence, many of the memoirs published in this book are highly critical of Zhukov, depicting him as a disciplinarian and as an ineffective martinet.
Find this resource:
Chuikov, Vasily I. The Beginning of the Road. London: MacGibbon & Kee, 1963.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
To be read with The End of the Third Reich (London: MacGibbon & Kee 1967). Chuikov was the commander of the 62nd Army under siege at Stalingrad in 1942, the subject of the first volume of his memoirs. After the battle of Stalingrad, the 62nd was renamed the 8th Guards Army. Still commanded by Chuikov, it took part in the battle for Berlin in 1945 as part of Zhukov’s 1st Belorussian Front. In the 1960s, Chuikov was embroiled in a controversy with Zhukov about whether the 1st Belorussian could have captured Berlin as early as February 1945. Zhukov insisted that strong German forces on his northern flank precluded an immediate thrust to Berlin.
Find this resource:
Erickson, John. Main Front: Soviet Leaders Look Back on World War II. London: Brassey’s Defence, 1987.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Translated extracts of Soviet military memoirs. Includes General P. A. Rotmistrov’s account of the battle of Kursk in which Zhukov makes a memorable appearance in the aftermath of the great tank battle at Prokhorovka.
Find this resource:
Griogorenko, Petro G. Memoirs. New York: W. W. Norton, 1982.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Grigorenko was a Soviet dissident who was imprisoned for several years in psychiatric confinement. In 1939, Grigorenko was a recent graduate of the Red Army’s Staff Academy, and he was posted in Khalkhin-Gol. His memoirs give a rather unflattering account of Zhukov’s performance during the border battles with the Japanese Kwantung Army.
Find this resource:
Gromyko, Andrei A. Memories. London: Hutchinson, 1989.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
The memoirs of the Soviet diplomat and foreign minister (1957–1985) contain pen portraits of prominent public figures of his era, including Zhukov.
Find this resource:
Khrushchev, Nikita S. Khrushchev Remembers. London: Sphere, 1971.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
To be read with Khrushchev Remembers: The Last Testament (London: Andre Deutsch, 1974). Khrushchev’s and Zhukov’s paths often crossed during the war as well as in the postwar period, when Zhukov served as defense minister. Khrushchev’s two volumes of memoirs contain much about Zhukov, especially in relation to the events that led to his dismissal as defense minister in October 1957.
Find this resource:
Konev, Ivan S. Year of Victory. Moscow: Progress, 1969.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Konev was Zhukov’s great rival during the war, especially during the race to see whose troops would get to Berlin first—a competition encouraged by Stalin. As the title suggests, these memoirs cover only the last year of the war. The Russian edition of Konev’s memoirs (Zapiski Komanduushchego Frontom, 1943–1945, Moscow: Voenizdat, 1981) also starts when he begins to win his battles and campaigns.
Find this resource:
Meretskov, Kiril. Serving the People. Moscow: Progress, 1971.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Meretskov led the Soviet attack on Finland in December 1939 and then served as Chief of the General Staff for a few months before Zhukov was appointed to that post in February 1941. His memoirs provide an account of the background to Zhukov’s appointment.
Find this resource:
Rokossovsky, Konstantin K. A Soldier’s Duty. Moscow: Progress, 1970.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
One of the more intellectual Soviet generals, Rokossovsky did not agree with Zhukov’s tough, uncompromising, and often-brutal style of leadership. This led to some clashes between the two men during the war. A post-Soviet edition of Rokossovsky’s memoirs restored censured passages, including some critical of Zhukov (Soldatskii Dolg, Moscow: Olma, 2002).
Find this resource:
Shtemenko, Sergey S. The Soviet General Staff at War, 1941–1945. 2 vols. Moscow: Progress, 1970–1986.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Shtemenko was Chief of Operations and then Deputy Chief of the General Staff. His memoirs were a seminal insider study of the Soviet high command during the war. Together with Stalin, Zhukov is one of their main characters. Zhukov and Shtemenko worked with each other again in the 1950s, and in the 1960s, they were allies against the Khrushchevites in the struggle for the historical memory of the Great Patriotic War.
Find this resource:
Vasilevsky, Alexander M. A Lifelong Cause. Moscow: Progress, 1981.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Vasilevsky was Chief of the General Staff for most of the war. He knew Zhukov from the 1930s and was his closest collaborator during the war. Of particular importance was their collaboration during the battle of Stalingrad in developing the plan for the November 1942 counteroffensive that encircled the German 6th Army in the city, which turned the tide of the war on the eastern front.
Find this resource:
Family and Personal Memoirs

Zhukov was reticent about his private life and personal feelings—even in his memoirs, which were devoted almost wholly to his public life as a Soviet soldier. But many insights into Zhukov’s inner world and personal development may be gleaned from the numerous memoirs of him by other people. Zhukov’s family life was complicated. He was married twice, had four daughters but with three different women, and conducted at least three long-term affairs while he was still married to his first wife. Inevitably, the accounts of different sections of Zhukov’s family do not always tally, not least because nothing at all became public until twenty years after his death. Memoirs about Zhukov fall into two categories: those by family and friends and those by professional associates. Works in the first category are well represented in Aleksandrov 1988 and in the memoirs of his fourth and youngest daughter Maria, in Zhukova 2005; his second daughter, Margarita in Filippova 1995; and the interviews in Mastykina 1996. Memoirs of his professional associates include those such as Mirkina 2000; Buchin 1994; Smirnov 1988; Troyanovsky 1997; and, most revealingly, Simonov 1989. Information on Zhukov’s postwar medical history may be found in a memoir by his doctor, Alekseev, in “Marshal Georgy Konstantinovich Zhukov (Zapiski Vracha).”

Aleksandrov, I. G., ed. Marshal Zhukov: Polkovodets i Chelovek. 2 vols. Moscow: APN, 1988.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Important collection of memoirs about Zhukov that includes contributions by his daughters, Era and Ella, and his childhood friend and cousin, Mikhail Plikhin, as well as by those who worked with him at various stages of his military career.
Find this resource:
Alekseev, Georgy K. “Marshal Georgy Konstantinovich Zhukov (Zapiski Vracha).”
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
The memoirs of one of Zhukov’s doctors in the 1960s. Provides information on Zhukov’s health problems after the war.
Find this resource:
Buchin, Alexander N. 170,000 Kilometrov s G. Zhukovym. Moscow: Molodaya Gvardiya, 1994.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
The memoirs of Zhukov’s wartime driver as told to Nikolai Yakovlev, an early Soviet biographer of Zhukov. Buchin hinted that during the war, Zhukov had a long-term affair with a medical aide, Lida Zakharova, a matter that he further elaborated in his interview with Irina Mastykina in 1996.
Find this resource:
Filippova, E. A., ed. Georgy Zhukov: Al’bom. Moscow: Polirgrafresursy, 1995.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
This album was put together with the collaboration of Margarita Zhukova, Zhukov’s second-eldest daughter, born as result of an affair between Zhukov and her mother in the 1920s. Contains facsimiles of Zhukov’s letters to Margarita in the 1940s when he resumed contact with her following the wartime time death of her stepfather.
Find this resource:
Mastykina, Irina. Zheny i Deti Georgiya Zhukova. Moscow: Komsomol’skaya Pravda, 1996.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
In 1996, Mastykina did a series of interviews about Zhukov’s personal life with his daughters, Era and Ella, from his first marriage; with Margarita, the daughter from an affair in the 1920s; with his wartime driver, Alexander Buchin; and with the officer who served as his last adjutant. These interviews were first published in the newspaper Komsomol’skaya Pravda and then republished in this booklet.
Find this resource:
Mirkina, Anna. Vtoraya Pobeda Marshala Zhukova. Moscow: Vniigmi-Mtsd, 2000.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Mirkina was the Soviet editor/publisher responsible for the publication of Zhukov’s memoirs. This is her account of the process leading to the publication of the first and second edition of the memoirs in 1969 and 1974, respectively.
Find this resource:
Smirnov, S. S., ed. Marshal Zhukov: Kakim My Ego Pomnim. Moscow: Politizdat, 1988.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Collection that includes the recollections of David Ortenberg, who first met Zhukov at Khalkhin-Gol and edited the Red Army’s newspaper, Krasnaya Zvezda, during the war. Also, an account by Evgeny Tsvetaev, a military historian, of his collaboration with Zhukov during the preparation of the second edition of Zhukov’s memoirs.
Find this resource:
Simonov, Konstantin M. Glazami Cheloveka Moego Pokoleniya. Moscow: Novosti, 1989.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
This book contains the text of Simonov’s “Notes Towards a Biography of G.K. Zhukov.” Notes are based on intermittent meetings and conversations with Zhukov, from 1939 through to the mid-1960s. Simonov was a famous Soviet writer and journalist, and his portrayal of the softer side of Zhukov was instrumental in humanizing Zhukov’s public image in post-Soviet Russia.
Find this resource:
Troyanovsky, Oleg A. Cherez Gody i Rasstoyaniya. Moscow: Vargrius, 1997.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Troyanovsky was a mid-ranking Soviet diplomat who interpreted for Zhukov at the Geneva Summit of July 1955, when he met President Eisenhower.
Find this resource:
Zhukova, Maria. Marshal Zhukov—Moi Otets. Moscow: Sretenskogo Monastyriya, 2005.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
The memoirs of Zhukov’s youngest daughter Maria, particularly valuable because she cites material from her father’s personal archive that did not fall into the hands of the Soviet authorities when he died.
Find this resource:
Campaigns and Battles

Another way of studying Zhukov is via detailed accounts of the campaigns and battles in which he was centrally involved. Coox 1990 and Goldman 2012 deal with Zhukov’s first battle as a general at Khalkhin-Gol in 1939. While most historians would question Zhukov’s effectiveness as Chief of the General Staff in 1941, when the Red Army suffered stupendous defeats at the hands of the Germans, Fugate and Dvoretsky 2001 argues that what happened during the early months of the Soviet-German war was all part of a master plan by Zhukov and others. Glantz 2000, Showalter 2013, Tucker-Jones 2009, and Tissier 2008 are specialist accounts of key episodes in Zhukov’s wartime career; Beevor 1999, Nagorski 2007, and Ryan 1968 are popular histories of Moscow, Stalingrad, and Berlin that help to bring these great battles to life.

Beevor, Antony. Stalingrad. London: Penguin, 1999.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Best-selling popular history of the Stalingrad battle, notable for its emphasis on the role of the harsh discipline used in order to bolster the Red Army’s defense, as opposed to the heroics stressed by Soviet propaganda.
Find this resource:
Coox, Alvin D. Nomonhan: Japan against Russia, 1939. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1990.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Coox’s monumental study of the Khalkhin-Gol battle gives dues weight to the Soviet side of the Mongolian-Manchurian border war with Japan, including Zhukov’s role.
Find this resource:
Fugate, Brian, and Lev Dvoretsky. Thunder on the Dnepr: Zhukov-Stalin and the Defeat of Hitler’s Blitzkrieg. Novato, CA: Presido, 2001.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
The two authors argue that early Soviet defeats on the eastern front were part of a plan to draw the Germans into Russia and then destroy them. Intriguing, but lacks direct evidence of any such strategy.
Find this resource:
Glantz, David. Zhukov’s Greatest Defeat: The Red Army’s Epic Disaster in Operation Mars, 1942. Shepperton, UK: Ian Allan, 2000.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
A controversial book by Glantz that contests Zhukov’s account in which the failed operation Mars was just a diversionary operation in front of Moscow, designed to deter the Germans from redeploying troops south to bolster their flagging Stalingrad campaign. According to Glantz, Mars was Zhukov’s preferred operation because he saw the war as being won by the defeat of Army Group Centre.
Find this resource:
Glantz, David. After Stalingrad: The Red Army’s Winter Offensive, 1942–1943. Solihull: Helion, 2009.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Good account of Zhukov’s little-known role in Operation Polar Star—the January 1943 operation that partially lifted the German blockade of Leningrad.
Find this resource:
Goldman, Stuart D. Nomonham 1939: The Red Army’s Victory that Shaped World War II. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute, 2012.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Short compared to Coox, but still substantial. Emphasizes that the Japanese defeat at Khalkhin-Gol encouraged them to head in the direction of Pearl Harbor. A little overreliant on Zhukov’s memoirs for the Soviet side of the battle.
Find this resource:
Nagorski, David. The Greatest Battle: The Fight for Moscow, 1941–1942. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2007.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
A popular history by an American journalist and former Moscow correspondent during the battle that made Zhukov’s name as a great Soviet commander.
Find this resource:
Ryan, Cornelius. The Last Battle. London: New English Library, 1968.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Treatment of the Berlin battle by the American historian whose The Longest Day (about D-Day) popularized the history-from-below battle books about the Second World War. In doing research for this book, Ryan talked to a number of Soviet generals, but he was not allowed to interview Zhukov, who was still in disgrace following his dismissal as defense minister in 1957.
Find this resource:
Showalter, Dennis. Armor and Blood: The Battle of Kursk; The Turning Point of World War II. New York: Random House, 2013.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
The most up-to-date study of the battle by a leading American military historian.
Find this resource:
Tissier, Tony. Zhukov at the Oder: The Decisive Battle for Berlin. Stroud, UK: Sutton, 2008.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Deals with the battles on the approaches to Berlin in April 1945—where Zhukov experienced his greatest difficulties and casualties in the operation to take the German capital.
Find this resource:
Tucker-Jones, Anthony. Stalin’s Revenge: Operation Bagration and the Annihilation of Army Group Centre. Barnsley, UK: Pen & Sword, 2009.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Detailed study of the operation—coordinated by Zhukov—that liberated Belorussia and brought the Red Army to the outskirts of Moscow.
Find this resource:
Literary, Material, and Internet Sources

In Russia, there are many statutes, paintings, photographs, museums, and exhibitions devoted to Zhukov. The best-known monument is a large statue of Zhukov riding a horse, which was erected beside Red Square in Moscow in 1995 to mark the 50th anniversary of the end of the Second World War (Klykov 1995). Zhukov’s home village of Strelkovka (located about eighty miles southwest of Moscow and renamed in his honor) contains a replica of the wood cabin in which he was brought up. The town also hosts a museum dedicated to Zhukov that opened in 1995, State Museum of G.K. Zhukov. There are numerous depictions of Zhukov in Russian/Soviet literature. Three of the most interesting are Simonov 1961, a novel about the battle of Khalkhin-Gol in 1939; “On the Death of Zhukov,” a poem marking Zhukov’s death; and Solzhenitsyn 2011, a short story about Zhukov writing his memoirs. Zhukov’s campaigns and battles are frequently studied in military staff colleges. Four examples of papers by military personnel that are available online are Canuel 2009, Gilbody 2013, Goncharov 1999, and Kyker 1998.

Brodsky, Joseph. “On the Death of Zhukov.”
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Composed in 1974, a poem by the exiled Soviet writer that questions the glorification of Zhukov in light of the many who died under his command.
Find this resource:
Canuel, Commander Hugues. “Leadership at the Operational Level: Canadian Doctrine and a Soviet Case Study.” Canadian Military Journal, 2009.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
A study by a Canadian military officer of Zhukov’s operational art.
Find this resource:
Gilbody, John. “Marshal Georgy Zhukov.” Uploaded to Prezi by John Gilbody, 23 February 2013.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
A presentation by a British army officer on Zhukov’s leadership style.
Find this resource:
Goncharov, Lieutenant Colonel Vladislav A. Marshal Zhukov—Warrior, Commander, Citizen. Carlisle Barracks, PA: United States Army War College, 1999.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
An overview by a Russian army officer of Zhukov’s role during the Second World War.
Find this resource:
Klykov, Vyacheslav M. Georgy Zhukov. (1995). Sculpture adjacent to the Red Square erected in 1995 to commemorate the 50th Victory anniversary in the Great Patriotic War of 1941–1945.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
A statute of Zhukov riding a horse, sculpted by Vyacheslav M. Klykov in collaboration with architect U. Grigoriev. The statute was inspired by Zhukov’s taking salute on horseback during the Victory Parade in Red Square, June 1945. A particular influence on the design may have been a photograph of Zhukov riding through Red Square, by the famous Soviet photographer Yevgeny Khaldei.
Find this resource:
Kyker, Commander Clayton B. The Genesis of an Operational Commander: Georgi K. Zhukov at Khalkhin Gol. Newport, RI: Naval War College, 1998.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
A study by a US naval officer of Zhukov’s role in the battle of Khalkhin-Gol in 1939.
Find this resource:
Simonov, Konstantin. Tovarishchi po Oruzhui. Moscow: Gosizdat, 1961.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Simonov’s novel about Khalkhin-Gol, which includes an anonymous “Commander” of the Soviet forces that could easily be confused with Zhukov.
Find this resource:
Solzhenitsyn, Alexander. “Times of Crisis.” In Apricot Jam and Other Stories. By Alexander Solzhenitsyn, 231–284. Edinburgh: Canongate, 2011.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Solzhenitsyn published this story in 1995 after he returned to Russia from exile in the United States. It depicts Zhukov writing his memoirs and struggling to tell the truth about his relationship with Stalin.
Find this resource:
State Museum of G.K. Zhukov.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
The museum contains items of furniture and other personal memorabilia as well as documents, photographs, and works of art. Well worth a visit.
Find this resource: