Never Lost a Battle

Marshal Zhukov

Gregori Zhukov (1896-1974) achieved the rank of marshal in the Soviet Army and, in Russian lore, is known as “the man who never lost a battle.”[1] Zhukov’s military experience included World War I, the Russian Civil War, and World War II or The Great Patriotic War as it was known in Stalin’s Russia. Between the two world wars, Zhukov studied the tactics, techniques, and procedures armored warfare, then just emerging, incorporating what he learned into Russian military doctrine. In WWII, Zhukov led Soviet forces against the Japanese in fighting along the Mongolian-Manchurian border, emerging triumphant after the “Battle of Lake Khasan” and “was [afterwards] made a Hero of the Soviet Union.”[2] Zhukov successfully defended Moscow during the German’s ill-fated Operation BARBAROSSA. Later, along with Aleksandr Vasilevsky, Zhukov “planned Operation URANUS”[3] which caused the defeat of Nazi General von Paulus at Stalingrad. The Soviets’ employment of Zhukov’s armored warfare doctrine along with the T-34 Tank, which Zhukov championed,[4] plus the Marshal’s leadership, enabled the Russians to defeat the Germans at Kursk and gain a firm upper hand on the eastern front. Zhukov also planned led the victorious Red Army in Operation BAGRATION—the ‘liberation’ of Belorussia and Poland—and in the Battle of Berlin which brought the war in Europe to its conclusion.

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[1] Military Commanders of World War II, History Learning Site, http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/georgy_
zhukov.htm (accessed 25 July 2012).

[2] Kennedy Hickman, “World War II: Marshal Georgy Zhukov,” About.com (Military History), http://military
history.about.com/od/1900s/p/zhukov.htm (accessed 25 July 2012).

[3] Ibid.

[4] Publications International, Ltd., Ed., “T-34 Medium Tank,” How Stuff Works, http://science.howstuffworks.com/t-34-medium-tank.htm (accessed 25 July 2012).



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There's a new book out about Marshal Zhukov, called Stalin’s General: The Life of Georgy Zhukov, by Geoffrey Roberts.