BIOGRAPHY - Z

ZHUKOV, GEORGI Probably the most talented Russian general of World War II and certainly the most successful. Zhukov was one of the few generals to survive Stalin's purge of the Red Army (1937-39). His first victory was at the Battle of Khalkan-Gol (July-August 1939) during the undeclared war with Japan. His next success was the defense of Leningrad, during the first autumn of the German invasion of the USSR in 1941. He was then promoted and led the Western Front Army in the defense of Moscow, holding back the Germans once again. In 1942, Zhukov directed the defense of Stalingrad and the succeeding counteroffensive which trapped and destroyed the German 6th Army in 1943. Having been essential in the three great defensive battles which saved the Soviet Union, Zhukov was appointed a Marshal of the Soviet Union and Deputy Supreme Commander of the Army. He went on to plan or command most of the great victories that pushed the German Armies back to Berlin and served as Soviet Representative at the official German surrender on May 8, 1945.

ZIEGLER, ADOLF (1892-1959) Hitler's favorite contemporary painter according to Wulf Schwarzwaller, author of Unknown Hitler. Ziegler was a pedantic realist," master of German pubic hair" and president of the Reich Chamber of the Arts.

ZIMMERMAN, ARTHUR (18??-19??) German Foreign Minister during World War I who brought about the resignation of William Jennings Bryan, advocated unrestricted submarine warfare, and sent the so-called Zimmerman telegram that finally brought America into the war. It was also Zimmerman who is said to have originally come up with the idea of sending Lenin and his Bolsheviks back to Russia on a "sealed" train in order to take that country out of the war in 1917. Zimmerman was an associate of Max Warburg and was dining with him at his club on the day unrestricted submarine warfare was announced. (Warburgs)

ZINOVIEV, GRIGORY YEVSEYEVICH (RADOMYSLSKY) (18??-19??) One of Lenin's closest collaborators from 1903. Zinoviev accompanied Lenin on the "sealed" train back to Russia in 1917. After the Bolsheviks seized power in November 1917, Zinoviev became head of the Petrograd party organization, and in 1919, became head of the Communist International (Comintern). In 1920, Zinoviev convened a Congress of Peoples of the East at Baku in Azerbaijan, urging delegates from various Asian countries to wage a "holy war" against British imperialism. Zinoviev's Jewish descent (as well as that of Trotsky, Kamenev, Kaganovich and others) contributed to the perception that the Bolsheviks were largely a Jewish revolutionary group. After Lenin's death, Zinoviev formed a triumvirate with Kamenev and Stalin to exlude Trotsky from power, but Stalin gradually eased Zinoviev and Kamenev out and took complete control for himself.

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