 After the Battles of Khalkhin Gol , the Soviet high command had divided into two factions . One side was represented by Spanish Civil War veterans General Pavel Rychagov representing the Red Air Force , Soviet tank expert General Dmitry Pavlov , and Stalin 's favorite general , Marshal Grigory Kulik , chief of artillery . The other side was led by Khalkhin Gol veterans General Georgy Zhukov ( Red Army ) and General G. P. Kravchenko ( Red Air Force ) . Under this divided command structure , the lessons of the Soviet Union 's " first real war on a massive scale using tanks , artillery , and aircraft " at Nomonhan went unheeded . As a result , during the Winter War , Russian BT tanks were less successful and it took the Soviet Union three months and over a million men to do what Zhukov did at Khalkhin Gol in ten days . 
