translated parts of book "zhukov", writen by otto preston chaney jr.
december 1940 - january 41:
the russian high commamd, makes an important meeting in moscow followed by "war games", developed over maps. the meeting was attended by stalin and all the responsibles for the defence of ussr including the military district of kiev, driven by zhukov.
many topics was discussed, like the modernization of russian war devices, the lack of training by the high level officers - consequence of stalin´s persecutions - and also the modern ofensive operations, presented by zhukov.
later, after presentations was started the great exercise over maps, and the theme was an german invasion over ussr.
zhukov played the german army - the blues - , pavlov commands the reds, the defender army.
after the exercise, stalin openly criticised the way as pavlov commanded the reds, he ask if someone has something to say. zhukov complain that the fortified zones along the russian frontier was too close to the borderline, in case of war, they wouldnt be able to resist much time.
voroshilov, president of peoples defence comission and very close of stalin, severely interrupted zhukov, to say the zones was builted acording to the plans aproved by the main military council.
feeling that argue would be useless, zhukov sit and stay silent.
then, general meretskov, chief of staff, show his briefing about the situation, his briefing was inconsistent and with lack of many infos. asked about the past exercise, he couldnt make a good analisys wich made stalin very angry.
after the meeting, stalin invite zhukov for his office and says:
- the "politiburo" decided fire meretskov and mominates you as chief of staff.