On 29 August 1942, as German tanks reached the Volga river near Stalingrad, Josef Stalin consulted his most senior General, Georgy Zhukov about his strategy. Despite his impoverished background, Zhukov was intelligent, demanding and strong-willed. The general persuaded Stalin to delay counter-attacking the Nazis for a week to allow time for supplies and artillery to
At Ukraine’s military academies, they still teach the war doctrines of Georgy Zhukov, the celebrated Soviet general, whose victory at Stalingrad reversed the fortunes of the Second World War.But they are taught about him as an example of what not to do. Given that the focus of the current war in Europe, the Battle of Bakhmut, is being described as Ukraine’s Stalingrad, that is a gamble of which the academies’ recruits are only too well aware.