Editing Georgy Zhukov (section)

==== Pre-war military exercises ====
[[File:Жуков и Тимошенко, 1940 год.jpg|thumb|upright|left|Zhukov and [[Semyon Timoshenko]] in 1940]]
In the autumn of 1940, Zhukov started preparing plans for the [[military exercise]] concerning the defence of the Western border of the Soviet Union. It had been pushed further to the west after the Soviet Union annexed eastern Poland and the Baltic republics.<ref>{{cite book|chapter = Folio 37977. inventory 5, file 564, sheets 32–34|title = Central State Archive of the Red Army|publisher = [[TsAMO RF|TsGAKA]]}}</ref> In his memoirs, Zhukov reports that in this exercise, he commanded the Western or Blue forces—the supposed invasion troops—and his opponent was Colonel General [[Dmitry Pavlov (general)|Dmitry Pavlov]], the commander of the Eastern or Red forces—the supposed Soviet troops. He noted that Blue had 60&nbsp;divisions, while Red had 50&nbsp;divisions. Zhukov describes the exercise as being similar to events that later took place during the German invasion.{{sfn|Zhukov|2002|pp=224–225}}

:''"In this military exercise, I commanded Blue forces representing the Germans, while Pavlov, the commander of Western Military District, commanded the Red forces representing our army [...] After knowing the original documents and the real amount of German forces, when commanding the Blue Forces, I had the attacks developed into three directions, that in the following event the Germans also attacked us in the same manners. The main strikes of us that time was also similar to the main strikes of the Germans later. The army groups built was also nearly similar to the army groups that the Germans formed during the war. [...] Comrade [Stalin] asked why the Blue forces was so powerful, why the original documents of the military exercise allocated too many large forces for the German. He was replied that such forces corresponded to the German capability and the real calculation about the potential forces that the German could unleash after they managed to achieve great superiority on the main axes. That sufficiently showed why the Blue forces could make strong advances during the military exercise.''"<ref>Konstantin Simonov. Notes about the biography of Zhukov. Translated to Vietnamese by Trần Anh Tuấn and published in Vietnam by Publisher of the People's Army in 2004. [https://sachcugiadinh.com/but-ky-ve-tieu-su-giucop/]</ref>

Russian historian Bobylev noted that the details of the exercises were reported differently by the various participants who published memoirs.<ref name="Bobylev">П. Н. БОБЫЛЕВ "Репетиция катастрофы" // "Военно-исторический журнал" № 7, 8, 1993 г. [http://rkka.ru/analys/kshu/main.htm]</ref> He said that there were two exercises; one from 2 to 6 January 1941, for the North-West direction; another from 8 to 11 January, for the South-West direction.<ref name="Bobylev"/> During the first, Western forces attacked Eastern forces on 15&nbsp;July, but the Eastern forces counterattacked and, by 1 August, reached the original border.<ref name="Bobylev"/>

At the time, the Eastern forces had a numerical advantage: 51 infantry divisions against 41; 8,811&nbsp;tanks against 3,512—with the exception of anti-tank guns.<ref name="Bobylev"/> Bobylev describes how by the end of the exercise, the Eastern forces did not manage to surround and destroy the Western forces. In their turn, the Western forces threatened to surround the Eastern forces.<ref name="Bobylev"/> The same historian reported that the second game was won by the Easterners, meaning that on the whole, both games were won by the side commanded by Zhukov.<ref name="Bobylev"/> However, he noted that the games had a serious disadvantage since they did not consider an initial attack by Western forces, but only an attack by Eastern forces from the initial border.<ref name="Bobylev"/>

According to Marshal [[Aleksandr Vasilevsky]], the war-game defeat of Pavlov's Red Troops against Zhukov was not widely known. The victory of Zhukov's Blue Troops was widely publicized, which created a popular illusion of easy success for a preemptive offensive.{{sfn|Vasilevsky|1973|p=24}} On 1&nbsp;February 1941, Zhukov became chief of the Red Army's [[General Staff]].{{sfn|Zhukov|2002|p=205}} He was also elected a candidate member of the [[Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union]] In February 1941, and was appointed a Deputy People's Commissar for Defence in March.