The Council of Ministers of the USSR, by its resolution of June 3 of this year, approved the proposal of the Supreme Military Council of June 1 on the dismissal of Marshal of the Soviet Union Zhukov from the post of Commander-in-Chief of the Ground Forces, and by this same resolution relieved Marshal Zhukov of the duties of Deputy Minister of the Armed Forces.

The circumstances of the case are as follows.

The former Commander of the Air Forces, Novikov, recently directed to the government a statement concerning Marshal Zhukov, in which he reported on facts of unworthy and harmful conduct on the part of Marshal Zhukov toward the government and the Supreme High Command.

The Supreme Military Council at its session of June 1 of this year examined the said statement by Novikov and established that Marshal Zhukov, despite the high position created for him by the government and the Supreme High Command, considered himself aggrieved, expressed dissatisfaction with decisions of the government, and spoke hostilely about it among subordinates.

Marshal Zhukov, having lost all modesty and carried away by a sense of personal ambition, considered that his merits were insufficiently appreciated, attributing to himself in conversations with subordinates the planning and execution of all the principal operations of the Great Patriotic War, including those operations to which he had no connection whatsoever.

Moreover, Marshal Zhukov, being himself embittered, attempted to group around himself those commanders who were discontented, had failed, and had been removed from their positions, and took them under his protection, thereby setting himself against the government and the Supreme High Command.

Having been appointed Commander-in-Chief of the Ground Forces, Marshal Zhukov continued to express his disagreement with decisions of the government in the circle of persons close to him, and certain measures of the government aimed at strengthening the fighting capacity of the Ground Forces he assessed not from the point of view of the interests of the defense of the Motherland, but as measures directed against his, Zhukov's, person.

Contrary to the aforementioned statements of Marshal Zhukov, it was established at the session of the Supreme Military Council that all the plans of all without exception the significant operations of the Patriotic War, as well as the plans for their support, were discussed and adopted at joint sessions of the State Defense Committee and the members of the Stavka in the presence of the corresponding front commanders and chief staff members, and often the chiefs of arms of service were also brought into the matter.

It was further established that Marshal Zhukov had no connection with the plan for the elimination of the Stalingrad group of German troops and the execution of this plan, which he attributes to himself: as is well known, the plan for the elimination of the German troops was worked out and the elimination itself was begun in the winter of 1942, when Marshal Zhukov was on a different front, far from Stalingrad.

It was further established that Marshal Zhukov also had no connection with the plan for the elimination of the Crimean group of German troops or with the execution of this plan, although he attributes them to himself in conversations with subordinates.

It was further established that the elimination of the Korsun-Shevchenko group of German troops was planned and carried out not by Marshal Zhukov, as he had declared, but by Marshal Konev, and that Kiev was liberated not by a strike from the south from the Bukrin bridgehead, as Zhukov proposed, but by a strike from the north, since the Stavka considered the Bukrin bridgehead unsuitable for such a large operation.

Finally, it was established that, while acknowledging Marshal Zhukov's merits in the taking of Berlin, one cannot deny, as Marshal Zhukov does, that without the strike from the south by the troops of Marshal Konev and the strike from the north by the troops of Marshal Rokossovsky, Berlin would not have been encircled and taken at the time when it was taken.

In the end, Marshal Zhukov declared at the session of the Supreme Military Council that he had indeed committed serious errors, that conceit had appeared in him, that he, of course, cannot remain in the post of Commander-in-Chief of the Ground Forces, and that he would try to eliminate his errors in another place of work.

The Supreme Military Council, having examined the question of Marshal Zhukov's conduct, unanimously recognized this conduct as harmful and incompatible with the position he occupied and, proceeding from this, decided to request the Council of Ministers of the USSR to relieve Marshal Zhukov from the post of Commander-in-Chief of the Ground Forces.

The Council of Ministers of the USSR on the basis of the foregoing adopted the aforementioned decision on the dismissal of Marshal Zhukov from his posts and appointed him Commander of the Troops of the Odessa Military District.

The present order is to be announced to the Commanders-in-Chief, members of the military councils, and chiefs of staff of groups of troops, and to the commanders, members of the military councils, and chiefs of staff of military districts and fleets.

Minister of the Armed Forces of the USSR
Generalissimo of the Soviet Union
I. Stalin