Marshal of Victory: The Autobiography of General Georgy Zhukov

by Georgi Konstantinovich Zhukov, Geoffrey Roberts (Editor)

Marshal of the Soviet Union Georgy Konstantinovich Zhukov remains a national hero in today’s Russia as the man who beat Hitler and saved both Russia and Europe from the Nazis. His reputation is that of a Russian patriot and an independent-minded general who remained a key figure in Stalin’s high command throughout the Great Patriotic War. Zhukov played a significant role in virtually all the principal battles on the Eastern Front during the Second World War – including Moscow, Leningrad, Stalingrad, Kursk and Berlin. It was Zhukov who formally accepted Germany’s unconditional surrender on 9 May 1945.

In his post-war autobiography Zhukov chronicled his brilliant career as he saw it – and wanted it to be seen. His memoirs reveal the why and how of decision-making at the highest level of the Soviet command throughout the war, and his continued loyalty to the Soviet dictator despite being demoted after the war. Zhukov’s writing is a fascinating and invaluable source for anyone interested in the war on the Eastern Front and presents intriguing insights into Zhukov the man as well as Zhukov the military commander.

Genres: History, Biography, Russia, World War II, Russian History, Military Fiction, Russian Literature

960 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1971

About the author

Georgi Konstantinovich Zhukov, Soviet army officer, as chief of staff during World War II directed the counteroffensive at Stalingrad, relieved Leningrad from 1942 to 1944, and captured Berlin in April 1945.

From the occupation of the Axis powers, Georgi Konstantinovich Zhukov (Russian: Георгий Константинович Жуков), marshal of the union, in the course of a Red career played a pivotal role in leading the drive through much Eastern Europe to liberate and to conquer other nations and ultimately to conquer the capital of Germany. Russia most decorated this general in the history.

Amongst many notable generals, many people placed the Georgi Konstantinovich Zhukov at the top in the respect of number and scale of victories and recognized his talent in operational and strategical command. Many famous military leaders as Bernard Law Montgomery, Dwight David Eisenhower, and Jean de Lattre de Tassigny already recognized great contributions of Zhukov in many important victories. His combat achievements, valuable heritages in military knowledge of humanity, exerted great influence on the whole theory.

Reviews

[Sean · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was quite a chore to read this all the way through. Its hard to separate, the man from the propaganda. And theres a lot of propaganda in the text. There are only small details about Zhukov's private life, allegedly most of it was censored by the Soviet Press as anti-patriotic. Some of the dialogue between Zhukov and Stalin is interesting, at some point Zhukov locks horns with Stalin and accepts a lesser position because he knows the Stavka, and Stalin are wrong. All the statistics are there and he does refer to a lot of different commanders, mostly upper brass, and the occasional grunt. Its hard to picture the various commanders, generals, etc...Because he doesn't talk too much about them individually, almost no faces to a name. He tries to bring some order to the chaos of the Russian Front but we rarely get a sense of how intense the battles really were. Only toward the closing chapters does he defend loosely his position during the Stalin purges of the late 30s, and his disrepute with the Khrushchev administration. The publisher neglected to correct a few typos that occur every few chapters. There are some interesting strategic ideas here but what interested me more was Zhukov's personal discipline. At some point in order to stay awake, he asks his driver to stop the car and runs instead just to stay awake. Overall there isn't too much you wouldn't find online but the dialogue between Zhukov, and Stalin were interesting enough. The statics you can find anywhere though. I imagine if Zhukov had lived longer the text would have been more personal and private about his life and not just about the famous general he was.

[Bahman Bahman · Rating 2 out of 5]

مارشال گئورگی ژوكف فاتح برلن ، نابغه نظامی روسیه و قهرمان شوروی است كه ۱۱ دسامبر سال ۱۸۹۶ به دنیا آمد. ژوكف كه پدرش یك كشاورز فقیر بود ، یك سرباز وظیفه در ارتش تزاری بود كه در انقلاب بلشویكی اكتبر ۱۹۱۷ شركت كرد و وارد حزب كمونیست شد. او سپس به عنوان یك سرباز ارتش سرخ در جنگ با ضد انقلابیون شركت كرد .
در سال ۱۹۳۹با واحدهای تحت فرمان خود نیروهای ژاپنی را كه پس از اشغال منچوری چین به مغولستان تجاوز كرده بودند از انجا اخراج كرد .
پس ازرسیدن نیروهای ارتش آلمان به دروازه مسكو ، خود فرماندهی دفاع از پایتخت را به دست گرفت و با بكار گرفتن آتش وسیع و بی سابقه توپ، در دسامبر۱۹۴۱ آلمانی ها را با تحمل تلفات سنگین مجبور به عقب نشینی كرد و با این كه رئیس ستاد ارتش شوروی بود شخصا به آزاد ساختن استالینگراد پرداخت و موفق شد كه بهترین افراد و ژنرالهای آلمان را در آنجا به اسارت بگیرد . سپس به یاری مارشال وروشیلوف در شكستن محاصره طولانی لنینگراد ( سن پترز بورگ ) شتافت و پس از رفع محاصره ، از اوكراین حمله همه جانبه خود به نیروهای آلمان را آغاز كرد كه به حمله نهایی سال ۱۳۴۵ انجامید و در آوریل همین سال برلن را تصرف كرد و در آلمان شرقی مستقر شد . ژوكف با وجود انعقاد یك پیمان عدم تعرض میان آلمان و شوروی ، تعرض آلمان به شوروی را پیش بینی كرده بود وهمراه با دلایل خود، در این زمینه به استالین هشدار داده بود.
ژوكف به تجربه تاریخ عقیده خاص داشت و می گفت كه نباید ترتیبات صلح مانع تمهیدات دفاعی یك كشور شود . ژوكف می گفت كه نیروهای بالقوه دشمن باید به مسافت بسیار دور از مرزهای اصلی وطن باشند و با این استدلال با تخلیه شرق المان و كشورهای حد فاصل اروپای غربی و روسیه مخالف بود .آن چه كه از سال ۱۹۸۹در اروپا با موافقت سران مسكو انجام شده است درست عكس عقاید ژوكف بوده است . مطبوعات غرب كه روانشناسی استالین را می دانستند در بزرگ كردن ژوكف و این كه او برنده جنگ با هیتلر بود تلاش بسیار كردند و به وسیله اورا از چشم استالین كه می خواست پیروزی به نام او در تاریخ ثبت شود انداختند و استالین برای كوچك كردن ژوكف اورا بركنار و به یك كار كوچك در «اودسا» گمارد .
پس از درگذشت استالین ، ژوكف به قدرت باز گشت و در سال ۱۹۵۵ وزیر دفاع و در سال ۱۹۵۷ عضو كمیته مركزی حزب كمونیست شد. ژوكف كه عقیده به نوسازی لاینقطع تسلیحات و باز نایستادن از كار ساختن سلاحهای هرچه پیشرفته تر داشت راه را برای برتری تسلیحاتی روسیه باز كرد .او بود كه گفت سلاحهای پیشرفته به خودی خود مانع جنگ می شوند زیرا كه یك دولت تا مطمئن به پیروزی نشود دست به نعرض نمی زند.
به گفته ژوكف كه نظرات او در آكادمی های نظامی تدریس می شود اگر همه كشورها بتوانند ازسلاحهای دفاعی لازم برخوردار شوند ، دیگر جنگی روی نخواهد داد .« ضعف نظامی » باعث جنگ می شود.
وی گفته است كه هیچ كس نمی تواند پایان یك جنگ و نتایج آن را پیش بینی كند. ژوكف در جنگ تعرضی معتقد به نیروی ورزیده ، متحرك ، كم و سرباز حرفه ای بود و در جنگ دفاعی عكس این نظر را داشت . از او نقل كرده اند كه تا دست یافتن به سلاحهای برتر ، می توان برای بازداشتن حریف به دروغ و خدعه هم متوسل شد و خود را دارای این نوع سلاحهایی وانمود كرد . از گزارش هایی كه در باره ژوكف نوشته شده چنین بر می آید كه اوضاع امروز جهان را كه قدرتهای بزرگ مانع از دسترسی كشورهای كوچكتر به سلاحهای پیشرفته و موثر خواهند شد پیش بینی كرده بود. وی همچنین اواخر عمر ابر قدرت شدن چین و اروپای غربی را پیش بینی كرده بود و گفته بود كه رقابت های اقتصادی شدیدا افزایش خواهد یافت .
ژوكف در دوران خروشف چندی مورد توجه او بود كه چون با برنامه همزیستی مسالمت امیز خروشچف با غرب میانه خوبی نداشت و می گفت كه یكی از دو قدرت بالاخره از سر راه دیگری باید كنار برود از چشم وی افتاد .
پس از بر كناری خروشچف دوباره مورد توجه قرار گرفت و سپس باز نشسته شد و به نوشتن كتاب از جمله خاطرات خود روی آورد و در سال ۱۹۷۴ در گدشت و شاهد كنار رفتن شوروی از برابرغرب و فروپاشی آن نشد.

[Joshua · Rating 1 out of 5]

Very very disappointing i couldnt even finish it . It was my first attempt to read a Soviet memoir.


Zhukov likes to play with history facts alot to twist to his own view or ignore them completely
The Soviet invasion of Poland in 1939? not even mentioned. He talks about how the USSR needed to gear up to fight the Nazis.....in the late 1920s when both the Nazi party and future Chancellor
Adolf Hitler havent even been elected yet. The purges of the Red Army in 1930s? not mentioned either.

The clash with Imperial Japan in 1939? to his mind the whole reason for the Japanese invasion of Manchuria and China was to invade the Soviet Union and of course they were no match for the Red army....

But the all of his own arse licking combined with the above made me give this book the boot. To him the Soviet Union and the Red Army can do no wrong, they are simply the best.

Even with my years of reading Axis memoirs where they give credit when credit is due and also the faults, i have never seen so ,much arse licking then in this book, very very disappointed. Now that i think of i dont remember any arse licking in memoirs of Manstein or Kesselring for example .

[Michael Linton · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book was actually two volumes combined in one book. Well over a 1,000 pages. The GREAT majority of the book was worthless. So much propaganda for Russia, Stalin, the army and on and on. In addition, tt wasn't really an autobiography, it was a retelling of events of his time in the army for the most part. And it was so basic in the things he wrote. The army went here, they defeated the enemy and blah, blah, blah. The hypocrisy about the Nazi's was annoying as if the Soviet Union was high and mighty like a true democracy.

The reason I was interested in reading this book was because when I read the Last Battle by Cornelius Ryan, it was about how Stalin pitted Zhukov against the other general. There was no mention of that other than in the section about Stalin's death.

I think I learned about 5% of new information in this book.

[gaverne Bennett · Rating 5 out of 5]

great book

[tom cunningham · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved it, my dissertation was about Zhukov so I read as many books about him as I could.

[Anthony · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great read although very dense in parts. You have to read between the lines a bit to figure out which battles ended disastrously because he doesn’t explicitly say it. He gives quite a balanced opinion of Stalin, which is refreshing. The end of the book touches on his life after the war and under Khrushchev which was interesting. It’s quite funny that most of the reviews online are from people who can’t seem to grasp that maybe Zhukov just had a genuine affection for the Soviet people and socialist system, a lot of people in the West seem to think Russians are robots who can’t form their own opinions or something. I’d highly recommend this book if you’re interested in the Red Army and WWII.

[Ahmad Hassan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I personally have a strong affinity for Zhukov but regardless, the image of the early Soviet Union and his rise through the ranks is riveting and incredibly insightful. There is a noticeable tinge of propaganda but the reading is worthwhile.

[paul russell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Outstanding

Very good up to the chapter about how the Russian army behaved in Berlin .And the obvious crap on communist brain washing that is than God not practisted today

[Robert · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was a good book on the Soviet efforts during the war. However, you have to get past all of the communism is great throughout the book.