J.F. Atkinson
MASTERS OF WAR: GEORGY ZHUKOVThe most comprehensive English-language biography of the Soviet Union’s greatest military commander, the peasant’s son who saved Moscow, orchestrated Stalingrad, and conquered Berlin.Georgy Konstantinovich Zhukov rose from abject poverty in a Russian village to become the Marshal who commanded millions and changed the course of history. This meticulously researched volume in the acclaimed 'Masters of War' series presents a balanced, unflinching examination of the man who arguably did more than any other individual to defeat Nazi Germany and who paid a terrible price for that success.From the trenches of World War I to the gates of Berlin, this biography traces Zhukov’s extraordinary journey: his service in three wars, his survival of Stalin’s purges, his defense of Moscow when the city seemed doomed, his brilliant encirclement at Stalingrad, his defensive mastery at Kursk, his coordination of Operation Bagration, the largest offensive in military history and his final assault on Hitler’s capital. Each campaign is examined in detail, revealing the operational genius that made Zhukov the Soviet Union’s indispensable commander.But this is no hagiography. The book honestly confronts the controversies surrounding Zhukov’s career: the staggering casualties suffered under his command, his harsh treatment of subordinates, his service to Stalin’s totalitarian regime, and his participation in Soviet occupation of Eastern Europe. It examines his two falls from power, disgraced by the jealous Stalin in 1946, dismissed by the insecure Khrushchev in 1957 and his final years seeking to defend his legacy through memoirs censored by the state he had saved.Drawing on Russian archives, German military records, and decades of scholarship, this volume presents Zhukov as he was: neither the unblemished hero of Soviet propaganda nor the brutal incompetent of Cold War dismissals, but a commander of extraordinary capability whose achievements and moral compromises together illuminate the nature of military leadership in total war.This book is essential reading for military historians, students of World War II, and anyone seeking to understand how individual leadership shapes history’s most consequential events. It demonstrates why Zhukov remains one of the most studied and most controversial military commanders of the modern era.'Masters of War' series: Neutral accounts of history’s great military leaders, examining their lives, their battles, and the positive impacts they had in the conflicts they fought, without judgment based on the side they served.
