Georgy Zhukov

Born to peasants near Moscow in 1896, Zhukov fought in the Tsar's army, then the Bolsheviks', and climbed fast. In summer 1939 he crushed Japanese forces at Khalkhin Gol, earning his first Hero of the Soviet Union. Stalin made him chief of the General Staff in February 1941; five months later, after Germany invaded, Stalin fired him for arguing over Kiev's defense. What followed was the war's center of gravity: Zhukov, often with Aleksandr Vasilevsky, ran the decisive Soviet operations - Leningrad, Moscow, Stalingrad, Kursk. He became deputy commander-in-chief in August 1942 and Marshal in January 1943. He helped plan Operation Bagration in 1944, then led the 1st Belorussian Front through the Vistula-Oder Offensive into Germany and took Berlin. He accepted the German surrender and stood atop the 1945 Victory Parade. Stalin, threatened by his popularity, stripped him of power and sent him to irrelevant posts. After Stalin died in 1953, Zhukov backed Khrushchev, became Defence Minister in 1955, joined the Presidium - then fell again in 1957 and was forced out for good. He died in 1974, never restored, remembered as one of Russia's four greatest commanders.