Marshal Zhukov,‘The Best of the Best’

The man who inflicted more decisive defeats against Nazi forces than anyone else, is also the least known in the West. Yet Georgi Zhukov (1896-1974), the Russian marshal who commanded the Red Army from 1941,  was hailed in 1945 by US General, and later President, Dwight ‘Ike’ Eisenhower, as ‘the man to whom the United Nations owes a greater debt’ than to any other military figure, for his triumphs against Hitler’s armies.

Thick-set, with handsome features, pale blue eyes peering through rimless glasses, known as a social drinker, fine dancer and non-smoker, Georgi Konstantinovich Zhukov was also regarded by many as brusque, coarse and stubborn, even excessively severe – an accusation frequently levelled at him during the carnage on the Nazi-Soviet Front. Doubtless, he was ruthless and often pitiless. Zhukov admitted being sharp-tongued but excused himself saying that when thousands of lives were in the balance and a huge operation was under way, there was little time for delicacy.