12. WWII’s Greatest General
Soviet Marshal Georgy Zhukov (1896 – 1974) gets his props in Russia, but his remarkable WWII achievements are quite underappreciated in the US and the West. The USSR’s most important military commander during WWII, Zhukov was arguably the greatest military commander of the entire conflict. He played a greater role than any other single individual in ensuring the Soviets’ survival early in the war and had a similarly outsized role in securing final victory.
Zhukov was Stalin’s golden boy, and almost always came through. He played a prominent role in nearly all the Soviet Union’s greatest battles and campaigns: the defense of Leningrad; the defense of Moscow; Stalingrad; Kursk; liberation of the Ukraine; Operation Bagration; and the climactic capture of Berlin. He not only planned those operations, but often oversaw their execution. And when problems arose, Zhukov was often rushed in as a troubleshooter to take direct command and sort things out.