Georgy Zhukov
Early life and career

Zhukov was born into a poor peasant family of Russian ethnicity in Strelkovka, Maloyaroslavsky, Kaluga Governorate in western Russia, approximately 62 miles (100 km) east of Moscow. His father Konstantin, who had been orphaned at the age of two and then adopted by Anuska Zhukova, was a cobbler. His mother Ustin'ya was a peasant laborer. Zhukov was said to resemble his mother, and he believed he inherited his physical strength from her; Ustin'ya was reportedly able to accomplish demanding tasks such as carrying 200-pound (91 kg) sacks of grain over long distances. In an era when most members of Russia's poor and working classes completed only two years of schooling, Zhukov completed the three-year primary education course at his hometown school. He was then apprenticed to his mother's brother Mikhail as a furrier in Moscow.

While working for his uncle, Zhukov supplemented his education by reading with his cousin Alexander on a wide range of topics, including the Russian language, German language, science, geography, and mathematics. In addition, he enrolled in a night school, where he completed courses as the work in his uncle's shop permitted. He completed his apprenticeship in 1914 and established his own fur business, which included three young employees under his leadership.

At 5 ft 5 in (1.64 m), Zhukov was quite short; Marvin Kalb, who met Zhukov in the 1950s, described him as being as "short as he was wide".
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