Review of Jean Lopez & Lasha Otkhmezuri, Joukov: L'Homme Qui A Vaincu Hitler

Abstract

Most of the history of the Baltic States in the 20th century is completely dominated by their relation to the Eastern giant, the Soviet Union. What the Soviet Union represented was not only an authoritarian, and at times, totalitarian rulership but also a constant fear of the unpredictable. Two French military historians, connected with the journal Guerre et Histoire, have recently managed to go through newly opened archives in Russia to unveil the unpredictable career of the most distinguished commander of the Red Army, Gregory Zhukov. Their book entirely confirms the impression among Baltic people that the Soviet Union was fundamentally instable in the sense that anything could happen: state arbitrariness. The research methodology employed in this biography of Zhukov is a novelty, as the French scholars have refrained from using the many memoires written by the participants of Operation Barbarossa. Instead, they rely upon so-called primary sources to show how all the memoir writers, including Zhukov, deviated from the truth in one way or another in order to tell self-flattering stories. The result is a brilliant analysis of how the Soviet state operated in its most important section, defence. It is also very interesting because it analyses strategies employed by both sides, not only by the Red Army but also by Wehrmacht Ostheer. The findings from this in-depth analysis of Zhukov’s life – a real roller coaster – include the following points: