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Why Boris Shaposhnikov heads STAVKA at the start of campaigns and scenarios in June 1941?
I guess it should be Zhukov or Timoshenko.

Zhukov - Chief of the General Staff (January-July 1941)

Timoshenko – People's Commissar for Defense(8 May 1940-July 1941),Chairman of Red Army's General military council,Chairman of Stavka (23 June – July 1941)

Shaposhnikov became Chief of the General Staff in July 1941. At start of war he was in the Main Military Engineering Department, his main task was construction of fortified regions.From 23 June he became adviser at Stavka.

If German supreme HQ in game is OKH (Halder) then Halder's opponent should be Zhukov.

In game terms, how useful is the supreme commander? I have always thought that putting a exceptionally good commander such as Zhukov in command of STAVKA is a waste, as his skills will rarely have any impact in game terms. He would only be effective if a combat was taking place involving a STAVKA unit/HQ that was within 5 hexes of Moscow or chained HQ's no more than 5 hexes apart leading to Moscow. Same thing with OKH in Berlin. So it would be a hardship for the USSR to have Zhukov in STAVKA to start.

It's only my first game but I put Zhukov in at Stavka early on and it only served to saddle him with a ton of losses and eventually he was replaced, lowering his political rating. Won't do that again.

"In game terms, how useful is the supreme commander? I have always thought that putting a
exceptionally good commander such as Zhukov in command of STAVKA is a waste, as his skills
will rarely have any impact in game terms. He would only be effective if a combat was
taking place involving a STAVKA unit/HQ that was within 5 hexes of Moscow or chained HQ's
no more than 5 hexes apart leading to Moscow. Same thing with OKH in Berlin. So it would be
a hardship for the USSR to have Zhukov in STAVKA to start."

The best way I can answer this would be to recommend you check the applicable rules again...
that way would be more concise than me giving an explanation here. [8D]

Exceptionally good commander in STAVKA can give you a few percent bonus to every unit roll you have vs huge bonus to just a few units (remember successful rolls are very important as best random CV is about 500 times better than worst random CV for a given base value, and this depends mostly on leader rolls). The second way may be more important when you're defending crucial place in 1941, but later on it's better to have overall stronger army. As always when such questions arise - "Better CV" mode and roll details on unit supply screen are your best friend to determine that impact. Try to move STAVKA closer to crucial parts of the front, this will increase bonus from your commander.

Indeed, taking a lot of lossess is hurting your leader, but remember not every reported loss counts against sacking/execution. The higher the leader in hierarchy and depending on what date it is, most wins/losses may not be affecting that leader at all. Certainly, you can spare Zhukov the first few weeks of the onslaught in 1941, but after that it should be possible to install him in STAVKA without risking too much.

Morvael can this strange situation be fixed? I mean Zhukov must be leader of the main soviet HQ from the 1st turn.
From 14 January 1941 he is Chief of the General Staff.
Shaposhnikov became Chief of the General Staff again in 29 July 1941.