The Cost of Marshal Zhukov’s Victories

“…Do not spare soldiers!”

 

Oleksiy Volovych
Ph.D. in History

 

In my opinion, not only historians but also high-level specialists in military history should write about G. Zhukov, assessing his activities. To write something more or less adequate about such ambiguous, contradictory and large-scale figure as G. Zhukov, the author (or perhaps a group of authors) should work with original documents for at least 5 years. Moreover, I think, G. Zhukov’s biography and his activities will be subject to research for more than one generation of historians.

But it is not very interesting for us, Ukrainians. To us everything is clear about G. Zhukov. Let Russians concern themselves with him — he is their hero.

He should not be depicted in black or pink only. He should be represented objectively — the way he really was, with all his positive and negative features. Although, of course, any study of such a biography, with very few exceptions, will always be politically charged. What I have posted here is based on open sources, and I’m not sure they are all 100 % true. I do not know how much I managed, but I tried not to demonize G. Zhukov and not to make a monster of him, although I will never admit that G. Zhukov is our, Ukrainians’, hero. Therefore, I am sure, there should be no monuments (to him) in Ukraine. But if someone does not agree with me, that’s his/her right.

The discussions around G. Zhukov will not subside for many years to come, but they must be at least civilized and fact-based. At this, when assessing G. Zhukov’s activities from the point of view of today, it should be borne in mind that he was a typical representative of the horrible Stalinist totalitarian era of the 1920s – 1940s.

The article is available in Ukrainian

 

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