Georgy Konstantinovich Zhukov ( 1896-1974)
Born in Strelkovka, Russia, Zhukov fought in the First World War before joining the Red Army in 1918 and serving as a cavalry commander in the Russian Civil War. He joined the Russian communist party in 1919. After the war, he attended Soviet and German military academies, and then rose rapidly up the military ladder. In the summer of 1939, he commanded the Soviet and Mongolian troops in the Khalkhin-Gol offensive against the Japanese. During the Second World War, he was a member of the general staff, first deputy defence minister and deputy commander-in-chief. In 1941, he became chief of staff of the Red Army and he was promoted to marshal of the Soviet Union in January 1943. He directed the defence of Leningrad and then Moscow, and played an important part in planning the defence of Stalingrad and winning the battle of Kursk. Zhukov commanded the Soviet counter-attack and the operations in Poland and Czechoslovakia, and personally led the final siege of Berlin. However, he has been widely criticized for halting his forces outside Warsaw in September 1944 and not entering the city while the Polish uprising there was being crushed by the Germans. In 1945- 6, he became commander-in-chief of the Soviet forces and military administration in Germany, commander-in-chief of land forces, and Soviet deputy defence minister. However, this concentration of power in Zhukov' s hands was seen as dangerous by Stalin, who dismissed him from his functions in mid-1946 and appointed him commander of the Odessa and Ural military districts. After Stalin's death, he became first deputy defence minister in March 1953 and defence minister from February 1955 to October 1957. He was a member of the Central Committee of the CPSU in 1953- 7 and a member of the CPSU Presidium from February 1956 to June 1957. In October 1957, he was removed from the party leadership on trumped-up charges and retired in 1958. He received the Order of Lenin in 1966.
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