Abstract
Abstract The Soviet Union's leading general during World War II. Born a peasant, Zhukov was drafted into imperial Russia's army during World War I and decorated for valor. Joining the Communist Red Army in 1918, he fought in the Russian Civil War, rising to become commander of a cavalry squadron. He advanced quickly through the ranks of the Soviet officer corps after the Civil War, particularly when the Great Purges of 1937–1938 removed a large proportion of the Red Army's high command. Taking over the Soviet 1st Army Group in Mongolia in 1939 along with units of the Soviet puppet Mongolian People's Republic, he crushed Japanese forces at the Battle of Nomonhan on the Khalkhin‐Gol River, convincing the Japanese government to move east and south against western colonial possessions, not against the Soviet Union. In the fight against Japan, Zhukov displayed many of the hallmarks of his later command style: the application of massive force to achieve breakthroughs, the careful coordination of infantry, artillery, armor, and aviation to encircle and destroy enemy formations, and the ruthless sacrifice of soldiers to achieve victory.
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