Yeah, this was a lot more important than most people realize. I wrote about it here, in the context of Zhukov's rise as a general and what he'd later do on the Eastern Front after Hitler invaded —

https://medium.com/the-strategic-review/background-ops-5-the...

Incidentally, Zhukov's Autobiography is extremely insightful and the uncensored version has only been out in English for ~20 years now:

https://www.amazon.com/Marshal-Victory-Autobiography-General...