Editing Georgy Zhukov (section)

=== Interwar period ===
[[File:Georgy Zhukov 3.jpg|thumb|upright|Zhukov as a regimental commander, 1920s]]
[[File:Graduation Photo Leningrad Cavalry School 1925.jpg|thumb|right|Graduates of the Leningrad Higher Cavalry School 1924/25.<br>Sitting in the second row ('''right to left'''): 1. [[Hovhannes Bagramyan|Bagramyan]], 3. [[Andrei Yeremenko|Yeremenko]]. Standing in the third row ('''right to left'''): 1. Zhukov, 5. Rokossovsky.]]
Zhukov quickly advanced through the ranks as the commander of a cavalry troop and squadron, and deputy commander of a cavalry regiment. At the end of May 1923, he was appointed commander of the 39th Cavalry Regiment.{{sfn|Zhukov|2002|pp=79, 90}} In 1924, he entered the Higher School of Cavalry,{{sfn|Zhukov|2002|p=87}} from which he graduated the next year, returning afterward to command the same regiment.{{sfn|Zhukov|2002|p=89}} According to [[Friedrich von Mellenthin]]: 
:"It is not generally realized that Zhukov received much of his early training in Germany. Together with other Russian officers, and by arrangement with the [[Reichswehr]], he attended courses at German military schools in the 1920's. For a time he was attached to the cavalry regiment in which Colonel Dingler{{efn|Colonel H. R. Dingler was Chief of Staff (''1a'') of [[3rd Infantry Division (Wehrmacht)|3rd Motorized Division]] at [[Battle of Stalingrad|Stalingrad]] in 1942.{{sfn|Mellenthin|1971|p=193}} }} was serving as a subaltern; Dingler has vivid recollections of the uproarious behavior of Zhukov and his companions, and the vast quantities of liquor which they were accustomed to consume after dinner. But in the military sphere it is clear that Zhukov's time was not wasted."{{sfn|Mellenthin|1971|p=223n}}<ref>{{cite report |type=CIA Information Report |title=Subject: Zhukov, Georgi Konstantinovitch, Marshal |date=August 1953 |url=https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP80-00809A000600040366-2.pdf |page=1 |access-date=5 November 2024}}</ref>

He attended the [[Frunze Military Academy]] beginning in 1929, and graduated in 1930.{{sfn|''Stalin's General''|page=49}}

In May 1930, Zhukov became commander of the 2nd Cavalry Brigade of the 7th Cavalry Division.{{sfn|Zhukov|2002|p=99}} In February 1931, he was appointed as the Assistant Inspector of Cavalry for the Red Army.<ref name="Garejev_1996">M. A. Gareev (1996) [http://militera.lib.ru/bio/gareev/index.html Маршал Жуков. Величие и уникальность полководческого искусства]. Ufa</ref>

In May 1933, Zhukov was appointed commander of the 4th Cavalry Division.<ref name="Garejev_1996"/> His career was accelerated by the [[Great Purge]], when thousands of officers were arrested and shot, but those associated with the First Cavalry Army were protected, as they were battling the Japanese on the edges of Manchuria. In 1937, Zhukov became commander of first the [[3rd Cavalry Corps (Soviet Union)|3rd Cavalry Corps]], and later the [[6th Cavalry Corps (Soviet Union)|6th Cavalry Corps]].{{sfn|Zhukov|2002|p=151}} In 1938, he became deputy cavalry commander of the [[Belorussian Military District]].{{sfn|Zhukov|2002|p=158}}