David Murphy tell us "Georgy Zhukov was a great general and one of the USSR’s great military survivors – both of the Great Patriotic War and Josef Stalin’s subsequent mad purges of the Soviet army". David Murphy has written an interesting review about the book "Marshal of Victory: The Autobiography of General Georgy Zhukov" in The Irish Time.

David Murphy´s review: "This autobiography is a remarkably frank account of a remarkable career. Zhukov is never less than forthright about the difficult political and military realities faced by Russia during the “Great Patriotic War”. Zhukov is critical of Stalin while acknowledging Stalin’s capacities as a war leader, and there are accounts of meetings between the two men – exchanges that always appear businesslike and forthright.

Marshal Timoshenko later said that “Zhukov was the only person who feared no one. He was not afraid of Stalin.” Yet there are obvious undertones of tension in some of the Stalin-Zhukov exchanges, and after the war he would fall out with both Stalin and, later, Khrushchev. Zhukov’s autobiography also gives us an insight into the relationships between the Allied commanders and Russian perceptions of the creation of postwar Europe.

Zhukov, whose career lasted until 1958, brought out an edition of this autobiography in 1969; a second appeared after his death, in 1974. Both were heavily censored. This new version is the first full edition in English. It is edited by Prof Geoffrey Roberts of University College Cork, an internationally renowned expert on the Soviet Union during the second World War and the cold war.

Alongside his well-researched introduction, Roberts has included translations of Zhukov’s account of the 1953-7 period and previously unpublished interview material.

This book is an important source on the conduct of the war on the Eastern Front. And, as an account of the career of one the most influential generals and political survivors of the 20th century, Marshal of Victory is fascinating. Given the renewed tensions between the Kremlin and the West, it is also a timely insight into the Russian military mindset".

Book Title: Marshal of Victory: the autobiography of General Georgy Zhukov | Author: Edited by Geoffrey Roberts | Publisher: Pen & Sword Books, 960 pp.