70th VE Day anniversary: Remembering Georgy Zhukov

[Jesus Malverde]

Today is “V-E Day”, which is the cool guy 1940s newspaper man way of taking the phrase “Victory in Europe Day” and making it sound like an event some hospital put together to raise awareness for gonorrhea. Exactly seventy years ago today, the last shattered fragments of the Wehrmacht leadership sat in the demolished ruins of their burned-out capital and signed documents unconditionally surrendering to Allied Forces, thus marking the end of World War II in Europe and the final destruction of Nazi Germany once and for all. Naturally, the United States and U.K. immediately went to work jerking each other off about how they’d single handedly won the war by riding a Surfboard of Freedom into Normandy and then ruthlessly dick-slapping Nazis with their unstoppable Capitalist boners, even though anybody with a working knowledge of the Dewey Decimal System and/or an iPad can probably tell you that a vast majority of the heavy lifting in World War II was undertaken by the Fascist-demolishing warriors of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.

Well the USSR hasn't exactly forgotten about the twenty million casualties they suffered in their inexorable grinding onslaught towards Berlin – there’s a reason the Russians refer to WWII as “The Great Patriotic War” – and every year since 1945 they’ve chosen to celebrate the anniversary of their victory in one of the most badass ways possible: by having those huge-ass awesome parades where they drive tanks and nuclear missile trucks right through the heart of Red Square in a formal and coordinated display of their giant armor-plated nutsacks:

The Moscow Victory Parade is an awesome thing to behold, and holding such a balls-out display of military force in such close proximity to that one building from Tetris honestly scared the fucking piss out of most Americans for the vast majority of Cold War. So, as the Russians prepare to hold the 70th anniversary of the event tomorrow, it’s probably as good a time as any to talk about the man who, among all the soldiers and commanders who served in any capacity for any country during World War II, probably contributed the most to making Victory in Europe a possibility: Marshal Georgy Konstantinovich Zhukov.

And if you have any questions as to whether or not the man who engineered some of Hitler’s most crushing military defeats was a hardcore badass in his day-to-day life, take a look at this and judge for yourself:

- See more at: http://badassoftheweek.com/index.cgi?id=18699086166#sthash.paCiuisF.dpuf

[malthaussen]

1. Great article!

I like the dude's style. That is, both the author's and Zhukov's.

Zhukov is an excellent example of Wolseley's dictum: "If you want to be a good officer, you must try very hard to get killed."

-- Mal

[Jesus Malverde]

2. agreed..

[Diclotican]

3. Jesus Malverde

Jesus Malverde

As a funny bi-note - my foster father and marshall Zhukov was pen-pals for some years after World War Two - as my foster father had been, when he was young a liaison between the russian forces, and Norwegians when USSR invaded the tree nortmost parts of Norway to draw germany out of that general area - as thousands of germans had been stationed in Finland and Norway under most of the war... For some reason or another - my foster dad and Marshal Genii Zhukov got along - and even ended up as pen-pals until the censor on both sides made it almost impossible to write sensible letters between the two men...


Diclotican

[Jesus Malverde]

4. That's cool!

Sounds like your foster dad was an interesting guy.

[Diclotican]

5. Jesus Malverde

Jesus Malverde

It is really cool, as my foster father allways hold the Marshall Zhukov in high regard - or as he often stated - he was a asshole who could be an really hard nosed general all day - but in the evening when things was little slower - he could sit down with his fellow comrades and drink all night - singing all sorts of songs - and often drink most people under the table... Then get a few hours sleep - and then up in the morning at 5 in the morning - sober as a skunk and ready for a new day.... He really admired the Marshall - even if Zhukov was misusing russian soldiers when needed - and where he could be as brutal as Stalin himself if needed...

My Foster father was an interesting guy - he had at least many histories from the war - even though I suspected he never really told the whole truth about the war - all the violence - all the damage - the horrible fear he had to experience - been in enemy lands - as he often was - when he was airdropped into Norway, to communicate where the germans was and so one... And he never really told about the friends he lost - soldiers, who was fighting the same war against the enemy - and also the soldiers he had to kill - because they was the enemy.. He told me specially about a young german soldier he had to get up close and personal with - and kill... The german soldier was maybe 17-18 years old and my foster father had to stab him in the chest - other vice the german had being doing that with him... But as he stabbed him - and the young german soldiers was in his arms - dying - all he could se was a young man whose life was over before it had started... My foster father never lost that sight of that young man who died - literary in his own arms... And I suspect he regretted killing him to the day he died...

And he had periods, where he had problems with nightmares from the war - it could be a movie, or maybe something in the news who could trigger the nightmares - and then he was not himself for weeks at the time... Spesially when the more officially Norway celebrated 40-50 and 60 years since World War Two ended - he had issues.. Nightmares who made him almost a zombie - with his own hell behind his eyes.... Where old ghosts - friends who was lost in the war - was wisting him... If anything - he tought me that WAR was hell.... And nothing you should hope for...

Diclotican

[swilton]

6. Great read!

[Joe Chi Minh]

7. You have a fantastic historian in the US called Rick Atkinson. I recently

finished reading the third volume of his coverage of WWII, entitled, The Guns at Last Light.

I thought he said the Germans were only 4 miles from Moscow - though I may have misremembered - when Stalin summoned Zhukov from another location. He appeared before Stalin with another general, who had also presumably been summoned. Anyway, this other general sad he was surprised at the brusque, authoritative way Zhukov spoke to Stalin. There followed a brief exchange that tickles me to death.

Stalin: 'Shall we stay in Moscow?'

Zhukov: 'We shall!'

Having read the bit in the earlier post about another exchange between Stalin and Zhukov, I can understand the respect Stalin evidently had for Zhukov, the man, i.e. apart from admiring his military prowess.

Two other anecdotes: For a victory parade after the end of the war, Zhukov was given a white horse (very symbolic for a warrior leader, even Apocalyptic) to sit on, but when Stalin saw that, he wanted it, so Zhukov was jocked' off, and given another horse. However, when Stalin tried to mount the white horse, it wouldn't let him!

During one of the battles, either during a retreat or a withdrawal, a vehicle with a few officers in went past a small group of very tired and weary 'grunts' who signalled they could do with a lift. But the car swept past them, the officers not n the least interested in giving them a lift. Zhukov seeing this, stopped the car as it was about to go past, told the officers to get out, and the driver to turn round and pick up the 'grunts'. My kind of general!