From Keralam with love, a biography of Soviet WW-II hero Marshal Zhukov to be out soon

Ratheesh C. Nair and Varvara Erokhina next to a photograph of Marshal Zhukov at the Zhukov Museum.

During his lifetime, Georgy Konstantinovich Zhukov - better known to the world as Marshal Zhukov - earned many descriptive labels: World War II hero, the military strategist who played a central role in crushing Hitler’s army, and not least, the man whose martial heft and formidable public appeal helped him outlive the Stalin era.

A forthcoming biography seeks to acquaint contemporary readers with the life and times of the legendary Marshal of the Soviet Union and former Minister of Defence. What is special about the book, which will be published in English, is that it is being written by an Indian from Keralam with the help of Zhukov’s great-granddaughter.

“He is known as the ‘Marshal of Victory.’ I felt that a book about him has relevance today when World War II history is being re-interpreted in many ways. But what matters is that the war in Europe ended when Soviet forces entered Berlin,” the book’s author Ratheesh C. Nair, who is also the current Honorary Consul of Russia in Thiruvananthapuram, told The Hindu. “Marshal Zhukov contributed immensely to the Soviet victory with his planning, strategy and experience. The impact of his actions during WW II becomes evident when one considers how the outcome of the war influenced the decolonisation of Asian and African nations,” he said.

Marshal Zhukov

Marshal Zhukov’s 130th birth anniversary falls on December 1, 2026. Moscow’s Victory Museum is planning to celebrate the occasion. The biography, which is being published by the International Russophile Movement, is timed to coincide with the event.

Mr. Ratheesh Nair is being helped in his unique literary enterprise by Zhukov’s great-granddaughter Varvara Erokhina, Deputy Director at the Victory Museum. He first met her at the museum after Elena Galaktionova, Director of the Russian Foreign Ministry’s Department for Multilateral Humanitarian Cooperation and Cultural Relations, recommended his inclusion in the organising committee for the celebrations. His earlier book on Tanya Savicheva, often described as Russia’s own Anne Frank, had won him a name as an author.

“It is heartening to see that my great-grandfather continues to have admirers outside Russia,” Ms. Erokhina - who is Zhukov’s daughter Erra’s granddaughter - told The Hindu in a message conveyed via the Honorary Russian Consulate. “I want him to be depicted exactly the way he was; not the way he could have been, or the way you would like him to be, but just the way he was, without falsification of his story,” Ms. Erokhina said.

Georgy Konstantinovich Zhukov was an extraordinary man who rose to eminence from an extraordinary background. Young Zhukov emerged from a childhood spent in poverty to become one of the great Allied fighting Generals of World War II alongside America’s Dwight D. Eisenhower and Britain’s Bernard Montgomery.

“He was a model for everyone, children and soldiers included. His reputation among the Russian people and soldiers helped him survive even Joseph Stalin’s post-war persecution of popular figures. Stalin was wary of acting against Zhukov,” Mr. Ratheesh Nair said.

In 1957, during his stint as Minister of Defence under Nikita Khrushchev, Zhukov led a Soviet delegation to India, where he was famously photographed riding an elephant. He also visited Kochi.

Marshal Zhukov (in the middle) riding an elephant during his India visit.

Zhukov passed away in June 1974. Accompanied by Ms. Erokhina, Mr. Ratheesh Nair recently visited Strelkovka village where Zhukov was born in 1896. “The nearby city is named ‘Zhukov’ after him. It has a big museum dedicated to him where soldiers go to register their marriages,” he said. Mijgona Salimova from Tajikistan and Mr. Ratheesh Nair’s daughter Subhadra are assisting with the research for the book.