Biography of Georgy Zhukov, World War II Soviet General

Biography of Georgy Zhukov, World War II Soviet General Marshal Georgy Zhukov (December 1, 1896–June 18, 1974) was the most important and most successful Russian general in World War II. He was responsible for the successful defense of Moscow, Stalingrad, and Leningrad against German forces and eventually pushed them back to Germany. He led the final attack on Berlin, and he was so popular after the war that Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin, feeling threatened, demoted him and moved him to obscure regional commands. Fast Facts: Marshal Georgy Zhukov Rank: MarshalService: Soviet Red ArmyBorn: Dec. 1, 1896 in Strelkovka, RussiaDied: June 18, 1974 in Moscow RussiaParents: Konstantin Artemyevich Zhukov, Ustinina Artemievna ZhukovaSpouse(s): Alexandra Dievna Zuikova, Galina Alexandrovna SemyonovaConflicts: World War IIKnown For: Battle of Moscow, Battle  of Stalingrad, Battle of Berlin Early Life Georgy Zhukov was born on December 1, 1896, in Strelkovka, Russia, to his father, Konstantin Artemyevich Zhukov, a shoemaker, and his mother, Ustinina Artemievna Zhukova, a farmer. He had an elder sister named Maria. After working in the fields as a child, Zhukov was apprenticed to a furrier in Moscow at age 12. Completing his apprenticeship four years later in 1912, Zhukov entered the business. His career proved short-lived because in July 1915, he was drafted into the Russian Army to honorably serve during World War I. Following the October Revolution in 1917, Zhukov became a member of the Bolshevik Party and joined the Red Army. Fighting in the Russian Civil War (1918-1921), Zhukov continued in the cavalry, serving with the famed 1st Cavalry Army. At the wars conclusion, he was awarded the Order of the Red Banner for his role in putting down the 1921 Tambov Rebellion. Steadily rising through the ranks, Zhukov was given command of a cavalry division in 1933 and later was named deputy commander of the Byelorussian Military District. Far East Campaign Evading Russian leader Joseph Stalins Great Purge of the Red Army (1937-1939), Zhukov was selected to command the First Soviet Mongolian Army Group in 1938. Tasked with stopping Japanese aggression along the Mongolian-Manchurian border, Zhukov arrived after the Soviet victory at the Battle of Lake Khasan. In May 1939, fighting resumed between Soviet and Japanese forces. They skirmished through the summer, with neither gaining an advantage. Zhukov launched a major assault on August 20, pinning down the Japanese while armored columns swept around their flanks. After encircling the 23rd Division, Zhukov annihilated it, forcing the few remaining Japanese back to the border. As Stalin was planning the invasion of Poland, the campaign in Mongolia ended and a peace agreement was signed on September 15. For his leadership, Zhukov was made a Hero of the Soviet Union and was promoted to general and chief of general staff of the Red Army in January 1941. On June 22, 1941, the Soviet Union was invaded by Nazi Germany, opening the Eastern Front of World War II. World War II As Soviet forces suffered reverses on all fronts, Zhukov was compelled to sign the Directive of Peoples Commissariat of Defense No. 3, which called for a series of counterattacks. Arguing against the plans in the directive, he was proven correct when they suffered heavy losses. On July 29, Zhukov was sacked as chief of general staff after recommending to Stalin that Kiev be abandoned. Stalin refused, and more than 600,000 men were captured after the city was encircled by the Germans. That October, Zhukov was given command of the Soviet forces defending Moscow, relieving Gen. Semyon Timoshenko. To aid in the citys defense, Zhukov recalled Soviet forces stationed in the Far East, quickly transferring them across the country. Reinforced, Zhukov defended the city before launching a counterattack on December 5, pushing the Germans 60 to 150 miles from the city. Afterward, Zhukov was made deputy commander-in-chief and was sent to the southwestern front to take charge of the defense of Stalingrad. While the forces in the city, led by Gen. Vasily Chuikov, battled the Germans, Zhukov and General Aleksandr Vasilevsky planned Operation Uranus. A massive counterattack, Uranus was designed to envelop and surround the German 6th Army in Stalingrad. Launched on November 19, Soviet forces attacked north and south of the city. On Feb. 2, the encircled German forces finally surrendered. As operations at Stalingrad concluded, Zhukov oversaw Operation Spark, which opened a route into the besieged city of Leningrad in January 1943. Zhukov was named a marshal of the Soviet military, and that summer he consulted for the high command on the plan for the Battle of Kursk. Correctly guessing German intentions, Zhukov advised taking a defensive stance and letting the German forces exhaust themselves. His recommendations were accepted and Kursk became one of the great Soviet victories of the war. Returning to the northern front, Zhukov lifted the siege of Leningrad in January 1944 before planning Operation Bagration. Designed to clear Belarus and eastern Poland, Bagration was launched on June 22, 1944. It was a stunning triumph, Zhukovs forces stopping only when their supply lines became overextended. Then, spearheading the Soviet thrust into Germany, Zhukovs men defeated the Germans at Oder-Neisse and Seelow Heights before encircling Berlin. After battling to take the city, Zhukov oversaw the signing of one of the Instruments of Surrender in Berlin on May 8, 1945. To recognize his wartime achievements, Zhukov was given the honor of inspecting the Victory Parade in Moscow that June. Postwar Activity Following the war, Zhukov was made supreme military commander of the Soviet Occupation Zone in Germany. He remained in this post for less than a year, as Stalin, threatened by Zhukovs popularity, removed him and later assigned him to the unglamorous Odessa Military District. With Stalins death in 1953, Zhukov returned to favor and served as deputy defense minister and later defense minister. Though initially a supporter of Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev, Zhukov was removed from his ministry and the Communist Party Central Committee in June 1957 after the two argued over army policy. Though he was liked by Communist Party General Secretary Leonid Brezhnev and Soviet leader Aleksei Kosygin, Zhukov was never given another role in the government. He remained in relative obscurity until Khrushchev fell from power in October 1964. Death Zhukov married late in life, in 1953, to Alexandra Dievna Zuikova, with whom he had two daughters, Era and Ella. Following their divorce, in 1965 he married Galina Alexandrovna Semyonova, a former military officer in the Soviet Medical Corps. They had a daughter, Maria. The World War II hero was hospitalized after suffering a serious stroke in 1967 and died after another stroke on June 18, 1974, in Moscow. Legacy Georgy Zhukov remained a favorite of the Russian people long after the war. He was awarded Hero of the Soviet Union four times in his career- 1939, 1944, 1945, and 1956- and received many other Soviet decorations, including the Order of Victory (twice) and the Order of Lenin. He also received numerous foreign awards, including the Grand Cross of the Legion dHonneur (France, 1945) and the Chief Commander, Legion of Merit (U.S., 1945). He was allowed to publish his autobiography, Marshal of Victory, in 1969.

A negotiation plan Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

A negotiation plan - Essay Example Among the above mentioned issues, the labor union will have its major focus on the first two i.e. the basis for the increase in wages; and the process of selecting the individuals for training and other advantages. Toward the first one, the group will bargain on the need of an amount that would cover both the past inflation and past contributions toward productivity. Moreover, there should be provisions to issue the payment since the commencement of the agreement and the work group will not propose any alternative on this regard. Productivity bonus should be paid equally across the entire work group considering it as the group bonus. Secondly, regarding the workplace arrangements, the union would demand that employees should have the right to go on paid training when they think it is essential for them to improve their level of performance; and if they do not find a higher job even after the training, they should be paid a ‘trained allowance’. The trained employees must be given the priority for promotion when there is a vacancy at the higher levels. The work group considers these issues as the most important factors that have a direct impact on the individuals because of several reasons. To illustrate, rewards like wage increase is the most brittle factor that can influence most of the individuals in a working group. An average worker is always concerned about an unexpected inflation that would affect his/her economic stability as it becomes impossible for him to meet both ends with the limited income. As Saunders (249) states, ‘negotiation theory that concentrate only on what happens around the negotiation table’ does not meet the exact goal; instead it should have rather comprehensive approach toward the real issue underlying. The basis of wage rise that the union will propose is relevant to the context for two reasons. Firstly, there was a considerable increase in the

The effects of smoking Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

The effects of smoking - Research Paper Example Moreover glucose tolerance and insulin sensitivity is impaired in the body by smoking. Eliasson et al in his research tells that smoking initially show the symptom of insulin resistance. And after some time the endothelial function is also impaired. Other toxic substances in cigarette smoke can also harm the individual's normal physiological state of body and thus increase the stress on the body. This stress is a cause of diabetes mellitus in individuals (Radzeviciene & Ostrauskas 2009). The cigarette smoke results from the burning of tobacco and it contains Tar which is a brown substance and is made up of more than 4000 chemicals. Lung diseases are commonly caused by smoking which contains Tar, such as emphysema which is a long term, progressive disease of lung tissue which causes shortening of breath and the lung tissues are destroyed and become unable to support the proper physical structure and functions of the lungs. Cigarette smoking also causes chronic bronchitis, which is the inflammation of air passages to the lungs. The inflammation of the air ways makes way for excess production of mucus which blocks the passages for air making it difficult to respire (Dentener et al 2007). The cigarette smoke also affects our heart tissue and makes it weak. The cigarette smoke causes atherosclerosis which is the thickening and hardening of blood vessels by the deposition of fats on the vessel walls, which causes coronary heart diseases and strokes. The presence of carbon monoxide in cigarette smoke lowers the affinity of blood for oxygen lowering the quantity of oxygen carried by the blood to different parts of body and heart causing angina and heart attacks. Nicotine in the cigarette smoke has...The primary focus of the government should be on the reduction of smokers to first create a smoke free environment but it should also secondarily work towards ways and methods to prevent non smokers from smoking. Increasing the number of taxes on cigarettes as well as the i mplementation of bans can prove to be useful for the purpose of discouraging the smokers from smoking and this fact has been proven as many smokers have quit smoking following these regulations. On the other hand proper education regarding the harmful effects of smoking among certain age groups can also prove to reduce the number of non smokers from smoking. Parents of school going children should be advised and taught to keep a proper watch on the children and discourage them from smoking. Smoking is a global issue which alone accounts for the death of 440,000 people annually in the United States. It poses health risks not only for those individuals who smoke but also for those who come into contact with this smoke. Many countries across the globe have taken a stand against this problem and states are justified to take measures to limit the spread of this wide spread issue.

Comparison of Toc vs Lean Essay Example for Free

Comparison of Toc vs Lean Essay Even though each improvement methodology contributes valuable concepts, ideas and techniques to every organization not all of them serve to the needs of organization if leadership doesn’t actively involve to the efforts of the improvement teams. Theory of Constraints (TOC) At his book Goldratt (2004) defines the primary goal as to make money. This can be achieved by simply identifying and eliminating the constraints that limits the output of the entire system. As a result of the organizational change, he aims to see an increase on throughput and decrease on operational expense and inventory. Theory of constraints (TOC) is based on the premise that the rate of goal achievement is limited by at least one constraining process. Only by increasing flow through the constraint can overall throughput be increased where throughput is the rate at which the system generates money through sales. Inventory is all the money that the system has invested in purchasing things which it intends to sell. Operational expense is all the money the system spends in order to turn inventory into throughput. He recommends a five step process: 1. Identify the constraint. 2. Exploit the constraint. 3. Subordinate other processes to the constraint. . Elevate the constraint. 5. Repeat the cycle. Line Manufacturing (Thinking) Lean is a total operating system for manufacturing plants and has broad application in product or service businesses. On the contrary to TOC, Lean focuses to create a value to customer by the removal of waste, which is defined as anything not necessary to produce the product or se rvice. Lean manufacturing measure the performance of the company by using three dimensions, cost, lead time and value-added percentage. As Reid (2007) says, Lean initiates metric improvement by assessing the system using Value Stream Mapping (VSM). VSM has a standard set of icons and instructions for documenting material and information flows based on actual shop floor observation. Value stream observation starts at the process closest to the customer and follows upstream step-by-step to raw material receiving. Similar to TOC, there are five essential steps in lean: 1. Identify which features create value. 2. Identify the sequence of activities called the value stream. 3. Make the activities flow. 4. Let the customer pull product or service through the process. 5. Perfect the process. Lean involves many people in the value stream. Lean sees an organization as a collection of parts and aims a local optimization system where TOC focuses on a local action with holistic optimization for the organization. The Theory of Constraints (TOC) is a relatively new managerial philosophy that has been steadily evolving since the early 1980s. TOC does advocate buffers at inventory at selected points to ensure that neither the constraint nor the customer is left waiting. Lean aims to reduce lead time and inventory and thus costs by eliminating waste; TOC aims to reduce lead time and inventory in order to gain capacity, increase Throughput (i. . the rate at which money is generated through the sale of products) and provide a competitive edge – thus enabling the business to grow. Thus it is evident that TOC methodology can provide Lean techniques with a high degree of focus which is both in tune with reality and achievable on a practical level, effectively bridging the knowledge gap that can exist between Lean in theory and Lean in practice. Because the bottom line benefits to be gained from increasing Throughput are greater than those likely to be realised via Lean waste/cost reduction alone, TOC provides Lean Manufacturing with a forward-thinking framework which not only directs improvement efforts where they will be most beneficial, but which is also an excellent platform for future growth.

Hardys Tess of the dUrbervilles - Existentialist Failure to Create an

Tess of the d'Urbervilles - Existentialist Failure to Create and Preserve Meaning      Ã‚  Ã‚   When wilt thou awake, O Mother, wake and see†¹ As one who, held in trance, has laboured long By vacant rote and prepossession strong†¹ The coils that thou hast wrought unwittingly; Wherein have place, unrealized by thee, Fair growths, foul cankers, right enmeshed with wrong, Strange orchestras of victim-shriek and song, And curious blends of ache and ecstasy?†¹ (Hardy, "The Sleep-Worker")    Inherent in the ruthless progress of society, there paradoxically lies a growing moral deterioration. In Tess of the d'Urbervilles, Thomas Hardy "faithfully present[s]" Tess as a paragon of virtue, utilizing her as an instrument of criticism against a society too debauched to sustain the existence "of its finest individuals" (Wickens 104). Unwilling to compromise her strict adherence to personal morals, Tess suffers immensely; her ultimate inability to exist on this "blighted" (21) star exposes the regression of a hypocritically sanctimonious society, whose degraded values catalyze her destruction.    Innocently unaware of "cruel Nature's law[,]" (115) Tess is violated by the response which her sexuality arouses in Alec. Yet, although it is nature which induces Tess to lose her virginity, it is society which renders this loss a sin. Tess's change from "a mere vessel of emotion untinctured by experience" (8) to one stained by a "corporeal blight" (98) elicits a severe social condemnation. Ironically, in its attempt to deny the natural instincts of mankind, social selection takes on the characteristic ethical absence of natural selection, "ensuring that the social relations among people will... ...Hardy, "The Darkling Thrush")    Works Cited Beer, Gillian. "Finding a Scale for the Human." Tess of the d'Urbervilles. Ed. Scott Elledge. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 1991. Hardy, Thomas. Tess of the d'Urbervilles. Ed. Scott Elledge. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 1991. Hardy, Thomas. "The Sleep-Worker." Tess of the d'Urbervilles. Ed. Scott Elledge. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 1991. Hazen, James. "The Tragedy of Tess Durbeyfield." Howe, Irving. "At the Center of Hardy's Achievement." Tess of the d'Urbervilles. Ed. Scott Elledge. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 1991. Hyman, Virginia R. "The Evolution of Tess." Ethical Perspectives in the Novels of Thomas Hardy. Wickens, G. Glen. "Hardy and the Mythographers: The Myth of Demeter and Persephone in Tess of the d'Urbervilles."   

Planning Functions of Management Essay

WorldCom was a large telecom company that rose during 1990s up to early 2000s when the company encountered some shortcomings which finally led to its collapse.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The collapse arouses questions on the planning role of its management. The Management function basically plans for the company’s future based on the expectations of stakeholders. They expect to make high profits.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   This critical role may have been avoided by the management in favour of taking out excessive salaries and other benefits for themselves leading to company collapse.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Legal issues, ethics and corporate social responsibility have an impact on management planning. Management planning ought to take a legal perspective. For example when the organization collapses, it takes a legal dimension to determine the failure of management planning.   This can lead to long legal battles.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Ethically, management planning operates within ethical frameworks. For example it was unethical for WorldCom to loan executive’s money to purchase shares of the company stock. These could have contributed to the company’s collapse. The failure of corporate social responsibility impacts on the functioning of management planning negatively because it shifts the focus away.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Various factors influence the company’s strategic, tactical operational and contingency planning.   They include legal, ethical and business responsibilities, government law, the desire for more profit, nature and size of the business, the workforce and size of customers, among others.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   For example if the target of the profit is high then the planning ought to be more involving. There is also a variation in planning in connection with the nature of market and the size of the esteemed customers. Also the higher the workforce the more intense is the planning. References Carol, A., (1993) Three Types of Management Planning Making Organizations Work. Management quarterly, 34 Ewing, D. (1969). The Human side of Planning Tool or Tyrant? London: Macmillan Foley, P., Howes, p. (1993) Strategic Human resource Management: An Australian case study. Human Resource Planning, 16.

How Opportunity Structures Affect Your Life

The term opportunity structure refers to the fact that the opportunities available to people in any given society or institution are shaped by the social organization and structure of that entity. Typically within a society or institution, there are certain opportunity structures that are considered traditional and legitimate, like achieving economic success by pursuing education in order to get a good job, or dedicating oneself to a form of art, craft, or performance in order to make a living in that field. These opportunity structures, and untraditional and illegitimate ones too,  provide sets of rules that one is supposed to follow in order to achieve cultural expectations of success. When traditional and legitimate opportunity structures fail to allow for success, people may pursue success via untraditional and illegitimate ones. Overview Opportunity structure is a term and theoretical concept developed by American sociologists Richard A. Cloward and Lloyd B. Ohlin, and presented in their book  Delinquency and Opportunity, published in 1960. Their work was inspired by and built upon sociologist Robert Mertons theory of deviance, and in particular, his structural strain theory. With this theory Merton suggested that a person experiences strain when the conditions of society do not allow one to attain the goals that the society socializes us to desire and work toward. For example, the goal of economic success is a common one in U.S. society, and the cultural expectation is that one would work hard to pursue education, and then work hard in a job or career in order to attain this. However, with an underfunded public education system, high cost of higher education and burdens of student loans, and an economy dominated by service sector jobs, U.S. society today fails to provide the majority of the population with adequat e, legitimate means to attain this kind of success. Cloward and Ohlin build on this theory with the concept of opportunity structures by pointing out there are a variety of pathways to success available in society. Some are traditional and legitimate, like education and career, but when those fail, a person is likely to pursue pathways provided by other kinds of opportunity structures. The conditions described above, of inadequate education and job availability, are elements that can serve to block a particular opportunity structure for certain segments of the population, like kids to attend underfunded and segregated public schools in poor districts, or young adults who have to work to support their families and thus do not have the time or money to attend college. Other social phenomena, like racism, classism, and sexism, among others, can block a structure for certain individuals, while still enabling others to find success through it. For example, white students might thrive in a particular classroom while black students do not, because teachers tend to underestimate the intelligence of black kids, and to punish them more harshly, both of which hinder their ability to succeed in the classroom. Relevance in Society Cloward and Ohlin use this theory to explain deviance by suggesting that when traditional and legitimate opportunity structures are blocked, people sometimes pursue success through others that are  considered nontraditional and illegitimate, like getting involved in a network of petty or major criminals in order to make money, or by pursuing grey and black market occupations like sex worker or drug dealer, among others.