Stalin's General: The Life of Georgy Zhukov

About the Book: Stalin's General

The first major biography in a generation of the Soviet general whom many believe "won World War II," for readers of Antony Beevor and Max Hastings.

A man of indomitable will and fierce determination, Georgy Zhukov was the Soviet Unions indispensable commander through every one of the critical turning points of World War II. It was Zhukov who saved Leningrad from capture by the Wehrmacht in September 1941, Zhukov who led the defense of Moscow in October 1941, Zhukov who spearheaded the Red Armys march on Berlin and formally accepted Germanys unconditional surrender in the spring of 1945. Drawing on the latest research from recently opened Soviet archives, including the uncensored versions of Zhukovs own memoirs, Roberts offers a vivid portrait of a man whose tactical brilliance was matched only by the cold-blooded ruthlessness with which he pursued his battlefield objectives.

After the war, Zhukov was a key player on the geopolitical scene. As Khrushchevs defense minister, he was one of the architects of Soviet military strategy during the Cold War. While lauded in the West as a folk herohe was the only Soviet general ever to appear on the cover of Time magazineZhukov repeatedly ran afoul of the Communist political authorities. Wrongfully accused of disloyalty, he was twice banished and erased from his countrys official historyleft out of books and paintings depicting Soviet World War II victories. Piercing the hyperbole of the Zhukov personality cult, Roberts debunks many of the myths that have sprung up around Zhukovs life and career to deliver fresh insights into the marshals relationships with Stalin, Khrushchev, and Eisenhower.

A remarkably intimate portrait of a man whose life was lived behind an Iron Curtain of official secrecy, Stalins General is an authoritative biography that restores Zhukov to his rightful place in the twentieth-century military pantheon.

About the Author: Geoffrey Roberts

Geoffrey Roberts is the author of Stalins Wars and Victory at Stalingrad. He is professor and head of the School of History at University College Cork, Ireland. Roberts is a frequent contributor to British, Irish, and American newspapers and to popular-history journals and has been a consultant for TV and radio documentaries.