Summary of Geoffrey Roberts's Stalin's General - E-book - ePub

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Sample Book Insights: #1 The salute at the Victory Parade in Red Square in 1945 was one of the greatest moments of triumph in the life of Marshal Georgi Konstantinovich Zhukov. He was chosen to lead the parade by Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin, who had saved Europe from Nazi enslavement. #2 Zhukov was the leader of the Soviet Union's first successful counteroffensive, which forced the Wehrmacht to retreat and demonstrate that Hitler's war machine was not invincible.
In December 1941, he launched a counteroffensive that drove the Wehrmacht away from Moscow. #3 Zhukov was not a man given to overt displays of emotion, but his demotion and exile to Odessa caused him great distress. He was expelled from the Communist Party Central Committee in February 1947 on grounds that he had an antiparty attitude. #4 During the post-Stalin era, Zhukov was rehabilitated and appointed deputy minister of defense in 1953.
In 1955 he was promoted to minister of defense, but was sacked in 1958. He suffered the same fate of excision from the history books during the Khrushchev era.