33 upvotes, 3 direct replies (showing 3)
View submission: Tuesday Trivia | History's Greatest Betrayals
An excellent topic to talk about myself! By which of course I mean the real Georgy, who got stabbed not once, but twice!
As Stalin's Deputy, and the commander of the 1st Belorussian Front which had taken Berlin, Marshal of the Soviet Union Georgy Konstantinovich Zhukov was at the height of his fame in the summer of 1945. Lauded by leaders of the Allied nations, and lionized by the Soviet Union itself, with his usefulness now passed, he quickly fell into the sights of the ever suspicious Stalin, who saw Zhukov as the one person who could rival him, and perhaps even wrest power away and into his own hands. According to some accounts, the first inking that Stalin felt of the threat posed by Zhukov was at the Victory Parade in Moscow, led by Zhukov on a magnificent white stallion[1]. By way of hearsay, according to Zhukov himself, Stalin's son told him that the horse was originally intended for the leader himself, but after being thrown by the spirited beast, Stalin chose to instead not lead the parade. Whether true or not, it is not hard to understand how seeing the respect the Zhukov enjoyed that day would stoke the paranoia of Stalin.
1: http://albumwar2.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/37506.jpg
Assigned originally to command the occupying Soviet force in Berlin and collaborate with his Western counterparts on the Allied Control Counci, Zhukov found himself recalled to Moscow in early 1946. Over several carefully orchestrated days, he was forced to endure denouncements from all sides, including many of his comrades in arms such as Konev, Rokossovsky, and Chuikov. Charges stemmed from the large - falsely claiming more share of the victory than he was due - down to the small - such as the collection of 300 fur coats he took in Germany (trained as a furrier in his youth, he no doubt had a good eye for them). Stripped of his command, he was shuttled off to the unimportant Odessa Military District, where the stress lead to his first heart attack, and then to the Urals, an even worse backwater.
In 1952 though things began to look up. Stalin began to allow the rehabilitation of Zhukov, and he returned to the Central Committee in late 1952, and and in early 1953, was appointed as Deputy Defense Minister, coming only a month before Stalin's death that year. In the power plays that followed the Steel-fisted dictator's demise, Zhukov played a key role in the arrest of L.P. Beria, one of Stalin's closest allies (and a disgusting rapist). No certain thing, Zhukov was tasked with the arrest itself, bursting through the door and holding Beria at gunpoint upon receiving word (He would later consider it one of his proudest moments). His demonstration of reliability and loyalty put him in the good graces of Khrushchev, then one of the key players working to consolidate power, and this would see Zhukov raised to Defense Minister in 1955.
While Zhukov can be said to have done his job well, he was no politician, and was certainly naive about his vulnerabilities, and how his actions were percieved by others in the ultra-paranoid environment of Soviet politics. In June of 1957, in the midst of an attempted coup against Khrushchev, Zhukov stood up and gave an impassioned speech in defense of his friend and colleague. It was one of the central factors in preventing success and keeping Khrushchev in his position of leadership. But really, it was too effective, and behind closed doors his loyalty now was being questioned over he himself now looked to be a threat, over statements in the speech that were construed to imply he believed the military to be loyal to him, not the party. Sent to Yugoslavia and Albania on a goodwill tour several months later, he was not present for a party meeting where his loyalty was called into question. Returning from his trip, he was one again blindsided, accused of ‘Bonapartist’ tendencies and anti-party sentiments with old accusations resurfacing. TEven this painting[2], by Yakovlev, was even used as evidence, although Zhukov claimed he had never before seen it, let alone commissioned it. Once again, Zhukov was disgraced - stripped of hiss position as Defense Minister, and removed from the Central Committee as well. In early 1958 he was refused a new army posting, effectively forcing him into retirement.
Zhukov's second "winter" was worse than the first even, now lacking his career, and seeing his former comrades writing derogatory memoirs to which he could do little to respond. The official histories written in the period gave him almost no mention, in typical Soviet whitewashing, and even his own Chief-of-Staff was sparing in writing. Even though the prospect of publication was dim, Zhukov was determined to set the record straight and began to write his own memoirs - written out by hand and typed up by his mistress's mother. In his writings, there are numerous scores to settle, and Zhukov offers any number of explanations for his denouncements, from the mindgames that Stalin would play, pitting commanders against each other to breed competition, down to simple jealousy of Zhukov's success.
Once again though, rehabilitation would come. Khrushchev was finally outed in 1964, and knowing the prestige that an accomplished war hero can bring by mere association, Brezhnev allowed Zhukov to filter back into the limelight, although never granting him any political position. His arrival back on the scene was heralded by his invitation to attend the 1965 Victory Day Parade, and soon after, a publisher contacted Zhukov about turning his memoirs into a published work . Now given access to government archives, Zhukov went at his task with redoubled effort, and although heavily censored - and with perhaps most famously, a totally fabricated reference to his new patron Brezhnev's participation in events inserted, the first edition was published in 1969. Thousands of fans, veterans, and well-wishers wrote him in the years after, and he prepared a revised work over the next several years.Following his wife's death in 1973 however, his own health took an ill-turn, and he passed away the next summer. The revised edition was published soon after. Interestingly, his well requested an Orthodox funeral, which was refused by the authorities, but of course gives speculation as to whether he harbored private religious beliefs. He was cremated and interred in the Kremlin Walls.
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The roller-coaster of Zhukov's life is one of the things I find most interesting about him. Used and praised when convenient, and then cast aside when those in power feel to threatened. Although a matter of opinion, I never had felt that Zhukov was trying to set up the power plays he was accused of, and rather than he was simply politically naive. Eisenhower, recalling their work together, characterized Georgy as sincere and honest, and I think it is fair to say that he was trying to do what was best, and truly was blindsided both by Stalin and Khrushchev when they cast him aside.
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Sources:
“Marshal of Victory: The Autobiography of General Georgy Zhukov”, edited by Geoffrey Roberts is, to my knowledge, the only English translation of Zhukov’s memoirs currently in print. It was published only last year, but uses the text of the 1974 translation of the revised second edition, which is unfortunate since several Russian editions have been published since, including the 11th edition (if not higher by now), published after the fall of the USSR, and includes significant additions from Zhukov’s daughter Maria, the holder of many of his papers. Even so, while a terrible history of the Eastern Front in of itself, Zhukov’s memoirs are a key source in coming to understand the man.
“Stalin’s General: The Life of Georgy Zhukov” by Geoffrey Roberts is an excellent biography of Zhukov’s life, although again, is part of a limited pool of English language, in-print sources. Either way, I would highly recommend it as a solid portrait of the man. Roberts takes a generally positive view of Zhukov.
“Georgy Zhukov” by Robert Forczyk is a short (60 pages or so) introductory text with an overview of the ‘greatest hits’. Personally, I would evaluate Forczyk as being overly critical, with a decidedly negative view, especially in contract to Roberts, but even compared to other historians such as Glantz who are at times critical.
Comment by Sid_Burn at 02/06/2015 at 17:23 UTC
6 upvotes, 1 direct replies
Stalin’s General: The Life of Georgy Zhukov” by Geoffrey Roberts
I'm reading it now, its rather short for a man who lived such a long, interesting life. But damn its such a well written book, easily top 5 biographies I've ever read.
Comment by [deleted] at 02/06/2015 at 18:02 UTC
3 upvotes, 1 direct replies
nice post! what does being a Bonapartist mean in this context?
Comment by DravisBixel at 02/06/2015 at 20:37 UTC
2 upvotes, 1 direct replies
From about the same period, Sergei Korolev's treatment was even more brutal. He nearly died in the late thirty's for what amounted to doing a good job. After being freed from prison he goes on to become the mastermind behind the whole Soviet space program.
The thing that makes the story amazing to me isn't that he recovered, but that he went back to the same people, the same system, that nearly killed him.
