Marshal Konstantin Konstantinovich Rokossovskiy, Hero of the Soviet Union, Order ofVictory, Knight of the Bath, OBE, victor of Moscow, Stalingrad, Kursk, the destructionof German Army Group Centre and East Prussia, participated in some of the mostsignificant operations in the history of war, let alone the twentieth century. Yet, in theEnglish speaking world Rokossovskiy is unknown, a name, vaguely associated withfamous events. There is no sustained historical analysis of Rokossovskiy’s style ofleadership and operational command in the English language.Rokossovskiy rejected the authoritarian leadership culture of Stalin’s Soviet Union andZhukov’s Red Army. Rokossovskiy was highly demanding and occasionally harsh buthis leadership encouraged initiative, consultation, trust, delegation and toleratedmistakes in a way that made him unusual, indeed exceptional, in the Red Army. It wasprimarily an authoritative style of leadership but Rokossovskiy practised different formsand styles of leadership guided by his own instinctive judgement according to thedemands of the situation and the nature of his subordinates. This was a consideredphilosophy of leadership and command that set him apart from his contemporaries.Rokossovskiy’s style of leadership was intimately connected to his conduct ofoperations. As one of the Red Army’s finest commanders, respected by the Wehrmachtand the Red Army, Rokossovskiy’s operational art was dominated by the idea of depth.Rokossovskiy, the Pole, was the heir to a long Russian tradition, centuries old, of deepoperations, whereas Zhukov, the Russian, was committed to operational encirclementand annihilation, a Germanic concept.Marshal Konstantin Konstantinovich Rokossovskiy had a distinct military style of hisown: his style of leadership challenged the Red Army’s authoritarian culture whilst hisstyle of operations endorsed the historical traditions of the Russian army. It makes himone of the most significant military commanders of the twentieth century.