Georgy Zhukov was born in 1896 to an incredibly poor peasant family in the Kaluga Province, roughly 80 miles from Moscow. His family had a small house in the relatively poor town of Strelkovka, which Zhukov was quoted once as saying “looked the worst in the village”. His family was rather tough when it came to discipline, and floggings with a belt by his father Konstantin, were quite common in order to whip his boy into the shape he wanted.