Stalin's General

The Unholy Alliance: Stalin's Pact with Hitler

The Soviet Union and the Origins of the Second World War

The Soviet Union in World Politics, 1945–1991

Victory at Stalingrad: The Battle That Changed History

Stalin's Wars: From World War to Cold War, 1939–1953

Molotov: Stalin's Cold Warrior

IF RUSSIA HAS A PREEMINENT HERO IT IS GEORGY ZHUKOV, THE MAN WHO
beat Hitler, the peasant lad who rose from poverty to become the greatest general of the Second World War, the colorful personality who fell out with both Stalin and Khrushchev yet lived to fight another day. When Jonathan Jao of Random House suggested I write a new biography of Zhukov I was intrigued. While working on my book
Stalin's Wars
I'd formed a questioning view of Zhukov's role in the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany, not least concerning the mythology generated by his self-serving memoirs. If I had a favorite Soviet general, it would be Konstantin Rokossovsky—a rival of Zhukov's who had a very different leadership style. My working title for the new project was “Zhukov: A Critical Biography” and the intention was to produce a warts-and-all portrait that would expose the many myths surrounding his life and career as well as capture the great drama of his military victories and defeats, and his journey on the political roller coaster. But the more I worked on his biography the more sympathetic I became to Zhukov's point of view. Empathy combined with critique, and the result is what I hope will be seen as a balanced reappraisal that cuts through the hyperbole of the Zhukov cult while appreciating the man and his achievements in full measure.

This is not the first English-language biography of Zhukov and I have to acknowledge the groundbreaking efforts of Albert Axell, William J. Spahr, and, especially, Otto Preston Chaney. The main limitation of their work was overreliance on Zhukov's memoirs, an indispensable but problematic source. In this biography I have been able to utilize an enormous amount of new evidence from the Russian archives, including Zhukov's personal files in the Russian State Military Archive. I have also benefited from the work of many Russian scholars, especially V. A. Afanas'ev, V. Daines, A. Isaev, and V. Krasnov, who have all written valuable biographical studies focused on Zhukov's role in the Second World War. Mine, however, is a full-scale biography that gives due weight to Zhukov's early life as well as his postwar political career.

In Moscow my research was greatly facilitated by my friends in the Russian Academy of Sciences' Institute of General History, especially Oleg Rzheshevsky, Mikhail Myagkov, and Sergey Listikov. Professor Rzheshevsky was kind enough to arrange for a meeting and interview with Zhukov's eldest daughter, Era. Mr. Nikita Maximov and Alexander Pozdeev accompanied me on a fascinating visit to the Zhukov museum in the hometown that now bears his name. I do not share Boris Sokolov's hostile view of Zhukov but he was generous in advising me of the work of Irina Mastykina on Zhukov's family and private life.

Evan Mawdsley was kind enough to read the first draft and to make some valuable suggestions as well as correct mistakes. The most amusing of the latter was my conviction that Zhukov had fallen in love with a young gymnast rather than a schoolgirl (in Russian
gimnazistka
). Evan's own work on the Soviet-German war has been indispensable, as have the writings of Chris Bellamy, David Glantz, Jonathan House, and the late John Erickson. My main guides through the prewar Red Army that Zhukov served in were the works of Mary Habeck, Mark von Hagen, Shimon Naveh, Roger Reese, and David Stone.

I am grateful to Ambassador John Beyrle for finding time in his busy day to talk to me about his father, Joseph's, chance meeting with Zhukov in 1945 and for giving me the materials that enabled me to reconstruct the incident.

Opportunities to present my research on Zhukov were provided by the Society of Military History, the Irish Association for Russian and East European Studies, the Society for Co-operation in Russian and Soviet Studies in London, the Centre for Military History and Strategic Studies at Maynooth University, and the Department of Politics and International Studies at the University of Hull.

Many weeks of research in Moscow and many more months writing would not have been possible without research leave and financial support from my employer, University College Cork, Ireland.

For this book I was fortunate to have the input of not one but two brilliant editors: my partner, Celia Weston—to whom the book is dedicated—and Jonathan Jao, who gave me a master class in the writing of popular scholarly biography. I have also been privileged to have the services of my agent, Andrew Lownie, who has also encouraged me to take on the challenges of writing for a broader audience.

Finally, an acknowledgment of Nigel Hamilton's
How to Do Biography
. It was only when I read the book for a second time—after I had finished writing about Zhukov—that I realized how many of its valuable lessons I had taken to heart. But neither he nor anyone else mentioned in this preface can be blamed for any defects, which are entirely my own.