Marshal Zhukov, who pre- pared and carried out the final Soviet offensive against the Ger- man armies on the Eastern front and later commanded the Russian armies of occupation in Germany, has died at the age of 77. Zhukov w.as perhaps the most brilliant of the Soviet soldiers who fought in the Second World War. Although, like Rokos- sorsky, he was not an. outstand- ing veteran of the Russian Civil War, his victories over the Ger- mans at Moscow, on the Don, in the:Ukraine, and finally in Berlin have guaranteed him a significant place in military history. A great popular hero he bulked too large on the politi- cal scene to suit either Stalin's autocracy or Mr Khrushchev's brand of personal rule. At the end of the wvar Stalin moved him into a comparatively minor post and in 1957 in highlv dramatic circumstances Mr Khrushchev removed him from the party praesidium and the Ministry of Defence. He was accused of resisting party control of the armed forces, of " adventurism " in foreign affairs, promoting the cult of his own personality and was even blamed for the unpre- paredness of the Soviet forces when the Nazis invaded in 1941. It was not until May, 1965, on the occasion of a large military parade to mark the twentieth anniversary of the end of the Second World War, that lie again made a public appearance standing with other leading commanders and beinn greeted with a special burst of applause. Georgi Konstantinovitch Zhukov was born in 1896 in the village of Strelkova, near the spot where Kutozov defeated Napoleon. Of peasant stock, his early education was neglected and at the age of 11 lie was apprenticed to a furrier in Moscow. During the 1914-18 War he served with the 10th Nov- gorod Dragoons as an nco and was twice awarded the Russian George Cross for gallantry and daring. He was an ardent sup- porter of the October Revolu- tion, and in the newly formed Red Army, he was elected to his regimental council and became the chairman of his squadron comnmittpe. Tn 1919 he joined the Com- munist Party. During the civil war, as a young cavalryman, he took part in the defence of Tsaritsyn, under Voroshilov, where he was wounded. Whlien internal peace was at last re- stored to Russia. he continued to serve in the Red Army, rising to command a cavalry corps. Retween the wars he comman- ded the Stalin Cossack Corps and and for his work in the field of military training he wvas decorated with the Order of Lenin, In 1939 he saw fighting at Khalingol, Mongolia, against the Japanese Sixth Army and his abilities as a general on this occasion won him the title of 'Hero of the Soviet Union ". In February, 1941, Stalin appointed Zhukov Chief of the General Staff, in which post he was responsible for working out the Soviet defence plan in the spring of 1941, completed in outline by May: in this post Zhukov began his wartime ser- vice when Germany invaded the Soviet Union: he was dis- patched almost at once to assist with the defence of the Ukranian frontiers, and when in August Shaposhnikov was in- stalled once more as Chief of the General Staff, Zhukov was assigned to command of the Reserve Front, the main cover- ing force for Moscow. On Sep. tember 12 he was flown to Leningrad to organize the last- ditch defence of the city against Army Group North, and he was recalled from Leningrad on October 8 to take command of the Western Front when Army Group Centre broke through the centre of the Soviet forces and drove for Moscow. In this post he was respon- sible for the defence, of the capital, before which Army Group Centre was finally halted. Having taken part in planning the Soviet conmnter-blow, Zhukov commanded the Western Front armies until February 1, 1942, when he was appointed " Commander of the Western Axis " to supervise the encirclement and destruction of Army Group Centre. This, how- ever, wvas not accomplished and Zhukov remained in command at' the centre before M\Ioscow throughout the summer of 1942. The crisis developed not at the centre but in the south- vest and in the-autumn of 1942 Zhukov was dispatched to Stalingrad as "Stavka (G.H.Q.) representative " to supervise the defence of the city and to take part in planning and super- vising the counter-offensive where he coordinated the opera- tions of the South-western and Don Fronts (while Vasilevski of the General Staff controlled the Stalingrad Front proper). In January, 1943, he wvas appointed a Marshal of the Soviet Union and once again in the spring and summer of 1943 acted as planner and "Stavka co-ordinator " of the giant battles at Kursk in 1943. Zhukov was also Stalin's " deputy ", a post later forma- lized as First Deputy or Deputy Supreme Commander. During the third winter campaign, 1943-44, Zhukov planned and coordinated the operations of the 1st and 2nd Ukrainiar, Fronts, but when General Vatutin was killed by anti-Soviet guerrillas in February, 1944, Zhukov assumed personal com- mand of the 1st Ukrainian Front, which, in spite of con- siderable successes, failed to accomplish the total inner and outer encirclement of the Ger- man forces in the south-west. Zhukov was also at this time associated with the planning of the major offensive operations in Belorussia. Operation Bag. ration, in which Zhukov and Vasilevskii again collaborated in planning and coordination. Zhukov assuming responsibility for the 1st and 2nd Belorussian Fronts, which expelled German forces from Soviet territory, and which reached into Poland. After the planning conference on operations in Germany (October, 1944), Stalin appointed his "First Deputy" Zhukov on November 16 to command the 1st Belorussian Front, to which Stalin assigned the task of tak- ing Berlin. On January 26, 1945, Zhukov presented his plans for the offensive, while a certain delay was imposed by clearing the Soviet flanks, principally in Pomerania. At the end of March, after the conclusion of the first stage of operations in Germany, the General Staff worked out the final version of the Berlin attack plans; on April 16 Zhukov's 1st Belorussian and Koniev's 1st Ukrainian Fronts began their offensive on the Oder and Neisse respectively, Zhukov being held up for three days by the German defences. With Koniev moving on Berlin from the south-east, Zhukov's troops struck from the east and north-east, and the final battle for Berlin began on April 25, the encirclement of Berlin having been completed on April 21-22. On May 2 the Beilin garrison under General Weid- ling capitulated to Zhukov, whose troops had stormed the Reichstag and raised the Soviet flag over it. Soon aftervards he was appointed C-in-C of the Soviet occupation forces in Germany; he also became a member of Allied Control Com- mission. In The Memoirs of Marshal Zhukov, which he published in 1971, he recounts bow Stalin became hesitant, fearful and near despair when the German invasion became a certainty. and how the Russians grew sus- picious after the fall of Nazi Germany that the western allies were plotting against them. He also graphically described his early life in poverty when his family had to live for a while in a shed and his father, a cobbler, had to journey to Moscow in search of work. MARSHAL GEORGI ZHUKOV Led Soviet attack against Nazi Germany
'Бій відлунав. Жовто-сині знамена затріпотіли на станції знов'
и ещё один - Chestnut21.03.2012 17:31:46 (37, 38344 b)
Re: и ещё... - Chestnut21.03.2012 17:40:31 (33, 28351 b)
