25 Georgy Zhukov Quotes

Georgy Zhukov quotes

1. It is a fact that under equal conditions, large-scale battles and whole wars are won by troops which have a strong will for victory, clear goals before them, high moral standards, and devotion to the banner under which they go into battle.

2. The nature of encounter operations required of the commanders limitless initiative and constant readiness to take the responsibility for military actions.

3. If we come to a minefield, our infantry attacks exactly as it were not there.

4. Nazis did not expect Soviet resistance to be so strong. The deeper they moved into this country's territory, the more fierce it became. When Hitler's armies approached Moscow, every man and woman here thought it imperative to resist the enemy. And that resistance grew by the day. The enemy was sustaining heavy losses, one after another. In fact, Hitler's best troops perished here. Nazis believed the Red Army was not capable of defending Moscow, but their schemes failed.

5. Generalissimo Stalin directed every move... made every decision... He is the greatest and wisest military genius who ever lived...

6. We will do all we can to insure peace... but if war is imposed upon us we will be together shoulder to shoulder as in the last war to strive for the happiness of mankind.

7. If they [the Germans] attack, we will defend. If they do not attack until winter comes, then we will and will tear them to shreds!

8. And now German generals find it hard to explain away their retreat.

9. There are things in Russia which are not as they seem.

10. The mere existence of atomic weapons implies the possibility of their use.

11. There's no smoke without fire.

12. If you feel that the Chief of the General Staff talks only rubbish, my place is not here. Better to give me a command at the front where I can be of better use!

13. The longer the battle lasts the more force we'll have to use!

14. Winning depended to a large extent on the determination of the troops and the officers. The certainty that we were going to win kept up everyone's spirits, from privates to generals.

15. If the nation only knew their hands dripped with innocent blood, it would have met them not with applause but with stones.

16. Here they found real war, but they were not ready for it. They were used to easy victories. This deprived them of flexibility on the one hand, of tenacity on the other. For them, war was merely maneuvers. They have neither cavalry nor skiers, their tanks cannot pass over the snow.

17. Zhukov was the only person who feared no one. He was not afraid of Stalin.

18. Zhukov's right arm, which once was enlisted in a just cause, will battle no more. Sleep! Russian history holds, as is fitting, Space for the exploits of those who, though bold, marching triumphant through foreign cities, trembled in terror when they came home.

19. Zhukov was the most successful commander of World War II, who fell from grace under Khrushchev, but never lost his place in the pantheon of Soviet heroes.

1. We got 16,000 wonderful vehicles. We got all the steel that we make our tanks out of. Of course, we couldn't have done without Western aid.

2. “The most important task was to step up party-political work, to raise the morale of the troops and their confidence in their strength and inevitable victory over the enemy on the approaches to Moscow.”

3. “Viewing the events of 1942 critically, I can say now that we misjudged the situation in the Vyazma area. We had overrated the potential of our troops and underrated the enemy. He proved to be a harder nut to crack than we believed…”

4. “Our objective,” he said, pacing up and down his study as was his wont, “is to deny the Germans any breathing space, to drive them westward without let-up, to make them use up their reserves before spring comes…”

5. “The hardships of the Civil War were forgotten. But we will never forget that each of us was motivated by the firm belief in the justice of the ideas proclaimed by Lenin’s Party in October 1917. British General Knox wrote to his government at that time that it was possible to crush a million-strong Bolshevik army, but when 150 million Russians did not want the whites, and wanted the Reds, it was futile helping the former.”

6. “The State Defence Committee adopted some 10,000 resolutions and decisions of a military and economic nature during the war. All of them were carried out with precision and energy. They gave the start to assiduous work, assuring a single Party line in the country’s administration during that rigorous and arduous time.”