In no way Zhukov was a Western-style military leader but situations you have described weren’t so common.
Also Zhukov was a subject of both Stalinist and Khruschev’s propaganda aimed to taint his popularity. He was generally portrayed as a sort of Napoleon and un-Soviet. The media once in a while relayed witness on him abusing troops or stealing war loot in Germany but it never progressed into something serious.
One grandfather had fought and survived WWII. When staying with his grandparents he said they were sometimes awakened by his screams in the night. One time they found him cowering on top of an armoire muttering that the German tanks were coming.
The Soviets executed more than 158,000 soldiers for desertion in WW II.
“It takes a very brave man to be a coward in the Red Army.”
Marshal Georgy Konstantinovich Zhukov