page_title: Georgy Zhukov
section_title: Interwar period
hierarchical_section_title: Georgy Zhukov / Early life and career / Interwar period
caption_attribution_description: Русский: Георгий Константинович Жуков. Командир полка. 1920-е годы
context_page_description: Georgy Konstantinovich Zhukov was a Soviet general and Marshal of the Soviet Union. He also served as Chief of the General Staff, Minister of Defence, and was a member of the Presidium of the Communist Party. During the Second World War, Zhukov oversaw some of the Red Army's most decisive victories.
  Born to a poor peasant family from central Russia, Zhukov was conscripted into the Imperial Russian Army and fought in the First World War. He served in the Red Army during the Russian Civil War. Gradually rising through the ranks, by 1939 Zhukov was given command of an army group and won a decisive battle over Japanese forces at Khalkhin Gol, for which he won the first of his four Hero of the Soviet Union awards. In February 1941, Zhukov was appointed as chief of the Red Army's General Staff.
  Following the German invasion of the Soviet Union, Zhukov lost his position as chief of the general staff. Subsequently, he organized the defense of Leningrad, Moscow, and Stalingrad. He participated in planning several major offensives, including the Battle of Kursk and Operation Bagration.
context_section_description: Zhukov quickly advanced through the ranks as the commander of a cavalry troop and squadron, and deputy commander of a cavalry regiment. At the end of May 1923, he was appointed commander of the 39th Cavalry Regiment. In 1924, he entered the Higher School of Cavalry, from which he graduated the next year, returning afterward to command the same regiment. He attended the Frunze Military Academy beginning in 1929, and graduated in 1930.
  In May 1930, Zhukov became commander of the 2nd Cavalry Brigade of the 7th Cavalry Division. In February 1931, he was appointed as the Assistant Inspector of Cavalry for the Red Army.
  In May 1933, Zhukov was appointed commander of the 4th Cavalry Division. In 1937, he became commander of first the 3rd Cavalry Corps, and later the 6th Cavalry Corps. In 1938, he became deputy cavalry commander of the Belorussian Military District.
caption: Zhukov as a regimental commander, 1920s
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