Zhukov’s career spanned most of the Soviet period, reflecting the turmoil of the civil war, the hardships endured by the Russian people in World War II, the brief postwar optimism evidenced by the friendship between Zhukov and Eisenhower, repression in Poland and Hungary, and the rise and fall of such political figures as Stalin, Beria, and Krushchev. The story of Russia’s greatest soldier thus offers many insights into the history of the Soviet Union itself.
Otto Preston Chaney was a colonel in the United States Army and Professor of National Security Studies at the U.S. Army War College and is the author of Zhukov: Marshal of the Soviet Union.
Malcolm Mackintosh is the author of Juggernaut: A History of Soviet Armed Forces.