Word: marshal
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...most popular man in Russia and its greatest living hero. Not until early last month did Khrushchev feel ready to make his move. Then, with all the fanfare due Zhukov's rank as Defense Minister and a member of the Presidium that rules the Communist Party, the unsuspecting marshal was shipped off on a state visit to Yugoslavia-a trip that was scheduled to last two weeks but was suddenly extended to three when Zhukov unexpectedly got orders to proceed from Yugoslavia to Albania...
...More Promotions. Clearly, Khrushchev planned to kick Zhukov upstairs to some such post as Deputy Premier, thus depriving him of control of the armed forces but at the same time avoiding the risk of a public showdown. Communist newspapers in Europe blossomed out with obviously inspired stories that the marshal was slated for "an important new post." On the afternoon of Zhukov's return to Moscow, Tass and Radio Moscow reported his arrival with all the flowery detail they reserve for VIPs...
...other Presidium members who had accepted invitations to an Iranian embassy reception were twice obliged to postpone the hour of their arrival. When they finally did show up, all that came out of the Presidium was the curt announcement that Zhukov had been replaced as Defense Minister by Marshal Rodion Malinovsky. The Tass account of Zhukov's arrival shrank to three lines in next morning's edition of Pravda...
Articles in the Soviet military press, now firmly under the control of Marshal Malinovsky, immediately took on a more ominous tone. Red Star, the army newspaper, told the sad tale of one Velikolug who was so puffed up by a successful military career that he committed "serious blunders for which he received strict party punishment." Soviet Fleet, in a similar attack on "swaggering military leaders,'' declared that "decisive condemnation should be made of efforts to minimize the role of political organs in the life of the armed forces." Pointedly, the navy publication added: "No matter what a Communist...
Sharing the Blame. The jackals were soon at work. In the Central Committee itself, reported Pravda, many of Zhukov's oldest and closest military comrades-among them Marshals Timoshenko, Rokossovsky and Sokolovsky-"pointed out the serious shortcomings of Zhukov's work . . . unanimously condemned his wrong, unpartylike behavior." Marshal Ivan Konev suddenly discovered that Zhukov shared the blame with Stalin for Soviet reverses early in World War II, did not deserve much credit for the Stalingrad victory, had hindered more than helped at the conquest of Berlin. All in all, Konev concluded, "it would be absurd to affirm Zhukov...