In 1896 CE Zhukov was born into a poor peasant family living in the village of Strelkovka. At school he was a bright pupil. At the age of 12 he became an apprentice furrier and four years later a journeyman. In 1915 CE he was conscripted into the Russian army and assigned to a cavalry regiment. For two years he fought in World War I against Germany and Austria. He earned several medals for bravery and was promoted to non-commissioned officer. In 1917 CE, after the October Revolution, he joined the Bolshevik party, probably with the aim to pursue a military career. He continued to serve in the army, fighting in the Russian Civil War until 1921 CE. In the interwar years Zhukov's star continued to rise. He attended multiple military schools and commanded several cavalry units. He survived Josef Stalin's heavy 1937 CE - 1939 CE purge of the Red Army officer corps.
In 1938 CE he was assigned to an army group in Mongolia. The USSR was involved in skirmishes with the Japanese army, which rapidly escalated and led to the Battle of Khalkhin Gol / Nomonhan. Zhukov commanded the Soviet side and won by encircling the Japanese with a combined arms maneuver. For this, he was made a Hero of the Soviet Union. Three years later he was promoted to general and made chief of the general staff of the Red Army.
Zhukov was one of the generals who early on was interested in tanks and grasped their potential. His favorite tactic was the one displayed at Khalkhin Gol: first pinning the enemy down with a solid defense, building up a stronger force and then surrounding him with a rapid counterattack. He could handle the details of battle planning without losing sight of the greater picture, though displayed no superior tactical insight. Organizationally, he advocated to distribute experienced troops among green soldiers so that the latter could learn from the former.
When the German army launched Operation Barbarossa, against the USSR, Stalin ordered Zhukov to counterattack, but this failed miserably because of the poor state of the Red Army. Zhukov was dismissed as chief of staff, though commanded the successful Yelnya Offsenive, the first setback for the Germans in the east. Afterwards he was assigned to the defense of Leningrad and later the entire western front. He took part in organizing the Battles of Moscow and Rhzev.
In 1942 CE Zhukov achieved fame with his counterstrike Operation Uranus at the Battle of Stalingrad, though the plan was the fruit of the combined minds of several generals. A year later he convinced Stalin not to go on to the offensive, but instead to fight a defensive battle at Kursk. Between battles he returned several times to Leningrad, helping to open supply routes and finally to break its siege. In the last years of the war he participated in Operation Bagration and the Vistula-Oder Offensive. His last battle of the war, the Battle of Berlin, was hastily planned and sloppily exeucted. There was intense rivalry between Zhukov and Ivan Konev about who was to reach the German Reichstag first. Zhukov was awarded the prize, even though he had had a lot of trouble crossing the barrier of the Seelow Heights.
Zhukov was a man with a strong will, iron discipline, intolerant to laziness and broken promises. He radiated confidence, but demanded much of his soldiers, not hesitating to sacrifice some if that served a greater goal. He was also boastful and often ignored contributions of others in joint enterprises. Due to bullying, threats and coercion he was hated by almost all his fellow commanders.
Zhukov was one of the few men who dared speak his mind freely against Stalin and one of the fewer who managed to get away with it, because he understood him. Stalin seems to have genuinely appreciated Zhukov and granted him the honors of signing the surrender of the Germans. He even delegated the inspection of the post-war victory parade in Moscow to his general, though the motivation for the latter was that he was afraid to mount a horse himself and possibly fall off it. Nonetheless the paranoid leader made sure that his generals never rose above him.
After the war many top level Soviet generals were sidelined; Zhukov was not spared. He was accused of several misdoings, demoted and sent off to an obscure post in the Urals, though not imprisoned or executed like some others. In 1953 CE, after Stalin's death, he was rehabilitated. He helped to dispose of Lavrentiy Beria and sign a peace treaty with Austria, among others. When his power and ambitions started to rival those of the new first secretary Nikita Khrushchev, the latter forced him into retirement, even though Zhukov had supported him several times in political conflicts. He wrote his memoirs, battled with declining health and died in 1974 CE.