Talk:Georgy Zhukov

hi

Hello. Do you have an interest or comment on the Georgi Zhukov article? - Texture 18:32, 7 Mar 2004 (UTC)

Yes, I do. Before assuming command of the defence of Moscow in late 1941, Zhukov organised the defence of Leningrad, stopping the German advance in the southern outskirts of the city. Maybe you want to insert a more elaborate reference to that?

Oh and by the way, Russia adopted the Zhukov Order and the Zhukov Medal in 1995, commemorating his 100th birthday.

--Kolt 12:30, 2 Apr 2004 (UTC)

Zhukov didn't subdue 'a peasant revolt" but the Tambov rebellion: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tambov_rebellion

Russian topography and administration

Hello,

there was no Ugodski-Zavod raion in tsarist era, I was wrong, sorry. The tsarist-era raion was of larger scale than later soviet-era raion. - therefore is right: "born in ...Maloyaroslavets raion".

Does anyone know when the place (PGT) UGODSKI ZAVOD was renamed "ZHUKOVO" in Georgi K. Zhukov's honor ?

Thanks, WernerE (germanwiki), 25.2.05

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Kursk

How does it happen that Battle of Kursk is not linked, nor the city even mentioned? Robert Service (NPR interview 2005 May) attributes his role at Kursk as the biggest reason for his veneration to this day in Russia, unless i got confused.
--Jerzy (t) 05:49, 2005 May 8 (UTC)

Zhukov was representative of Stavka (actually, Stalin's deputy), to coordinate the Fronts during the battle. The immediate major commanders are listed at the Battle of Kursk article. If one wants to attribute this piece of glory to Zhukov, he must not forget that all Soviet battles have been won by the Greatest Military Genius of All Times Generalissimo Stalin. Mikkalai 00:43, 9 May 2005 (UTC)

Mistake in the article

The painting of Marshal Zhukov is tagged as "propaganda poster" In fact, this is a painting by the artist Konstantin Vassiliev (Константин Васильев), 1942 - 1976. You can see some of his paintings at http://rus-sky.com/vasilyev/

[email protected]

Stalin submit to criticism?

Stalin's willingness to submit to criticism and listen to his generals eventually contributed to his success as a commander - whereas Hitler sacked any general who disagreed with him.

From what I remember of history class (which isn't much) Stalin executed most of his military commanders before the war, for some reason Zhukov survived Stalin's extermination. This meant Russia had precious few capable generals at the beginning of WWII, leading to massive Soviet losses.

But basically, did Stalin really take criticism at all from anyone? He executed more Russians than died in WWII! Perhaps someone who knows more about history than me could clear that up! --Fxer 01:01, 19 November 2005 (UTC)

• That's actually true. After the major failures of 1941 Stalin became quite receptive to the suggestions of his commanders. Unlike Hitler he did listen to their advice, allowed them to ovverrule him on occasions, and let them act independently. Instead of being judged on their opinions before the battle they were judged by the outcome. Of course the pressure to succeed was enormous, and the punishment for failure severe; however Stalin was at least smart enough not to think himself a military genius. He'd take the credit for the successes later anyway. 24.168.5.223

After the Nazis almost took Moscow and won WWII Stalin had no other option but to listen to his generals. Hitler on the other hand had taken France within a month, and held most of Europe by 1941. To him the Russian Victory at Battle of Moscow was simply luck and general winter. The battles of Stalingrad and Kursk would prove him dead wrong. But Stalin had no successes as a commander. His 'success' was realizing that others who grew up with the army and fought in actual battles should command instead of him. His contribution to victory was beating the Nazis at the 'propaganda war'.

Numbers

The following piece of text

for example at the Battle of Moscow in the winter of 1941 Zhukov lost 139,586 men, or 13.6% of his total strength - while a comparable operation under General Kozlov lost 39.4% of his men near Kerch. As the war went on, Zhukov's casualties were becoming even lower; while often incredibly high by any other country's standards, for the Soviet Union they were below average. At the Battle of Berlin Zhukov lost only 4.1% of his men, while Konev's forces, that faced weaker German opposition, lost 5%, and at the same time Rodion Malinovsky lost almost 8% at the Battle of Budapest

does not credit a source. I have never come across such numbers and they seem very suspicious to me. could the author of these staements provide her/his sources?--Compay 21:11, 3 April 2006 (UTC)

I believe they are coming from the book "Russia and USSR in the Wars of XXth Century. Military Losses. Statistical Research" by candidate of sciences (military) full general G. F. Krivosheev. It was published in Russia in 2001 and so far remains the most thorough and reliable source for information on Soviet losses in WWII. It is available online in Russian here: http://www.soldat.ru/doc/casualties/book/.

The numbers are based on loss reports, which in the Red Army were submitted bi-weekly IIRC. Note that the balance method of losses estimation gives a total number of military losses that is approximately 16% higher than Krivosheev's data (10,107,500 total losses during WWII as opposed to 8,668,400 as calculated by Krivosheev). These two numbers are the "safe" lower and upper limits for Soviet military losses during WWII. The actual number of losses is somewhere between these two figures, but it's hard to tell where exactly.

As for operational losses, only Krivosheev's numbers are available. Purely theoretically, I would expect them to be more accurate towards the end of the war. Thus, the numbers of losses in Berlin operation are probably quite close to reality, while the losses for operations of 1941 are probably underreported. But this is just speculation, of course. Eleyvie 09:43, 7 April 2006 (UTC)

Contradictory Text

According to the text on this page, Lavrentiy Beria is "one of the main organizers of Stalin's purges". This information directly contradicts the data on Lavrentiy Beria's page and does not relate to this article anyway. This statement should probably be removed I reckon?

Grand Cross of the Bath

This article begins with the words "Georgy Konstantinovich Zhukov, GCB", with the acronym GCB linking to the "Grand Cross of the Bath" page. As Zhukov was Russian, not British, and as he held many other honours in addition to this, I don't really think that it is appropriate to single out the fact that he had had this British honour conferred upon him. Comments? --The Thieving Gypsy 14:34, 30 April 2006 (UTC)