MAJOR DEEJ UNIVERSE

Vladimir Smolkemptin was once a highly decorated Starshina (Master Sergeant) in the Soviet Red Army.  He had married his childhood sweetheart, Sasha, and several years after their marriage brought their daughter, Svetlana, into the world.  Vladimir was always away on 'overseas' duties; duties too secret for him to talk about to his wife or anyone else. 

 

One several occasions, Vladimir returned home injured, all the while complaining about the 'new' Russian Federation officers and their stupidity and ignorance. During this time, the military itself was barely able to feed itself nonetheless pay the troops, leaving Vladimir having to drag his family to a military base where they lived in abject poverty for the next few years. After Svetlana got sick, Vladimir went to find other work to get her medicine; work as an 'enforcer' for a local 'loan shark' outside the base.  Vladimir would beat up the people who didn't pay the loan shark in a 'timely' manner, even going so far as killing several people. Vladimir earned enough to get his daughter the medicine she needed, but sadly, Vladimir was caught 'moonlighting' for the loan sharks; a criminal act that put him in prison for 10 years. He never saw his family ever again.

 

While in prison, he hooked up with other criminals there that heard about his skills as an enforcer, and as such, with no hope of getting released anytime soon, Vladimir figured he'd earn money to send wife and daughter on the side.  Altogether, Vladimir 'talked' to several dozen fellow prisoners with his fists, killing even a few more. Vladimir soon began liking doing what he was doing.  He considered what he was doing was okay, since he was beating up or killing 'guilty' people anyway and earning money for his family. The day came when the prison warden had enough of Vladimir and his boss and threw them both in solitary...for four months each. At the end of each month, the warden allowed Vladimir to 'write a letter home'.  At the end of the four months, Vladimir's boss was found dead in his solitary confinement cell.  Vladimir was once again visited by the warden who maliciously tossed a pile of his letters on the cell floor before Vladimir.  They were all addressed to Sasha, his wife; they were the letters he'd written to her over the years from prison.  They were all marked with 'Return to Sender' and opened...with all the money that had originally been in the envelopes...gone.  The Warden cackled about how his new home could not have been paid for if not for his 'generous' letters to his wife.  The Warden mentioned that after the seventh letter was 'returned', he decided that since Vladimir's money wasn't going to his family, he'd put Vladimir's ill-gotten gains to his own use.

 

Vladimir killed the Warden before the Warden could finish his statement.

 

Vladimir was then sent to the deepest, darkest gulag in Siberia, a place where they put political prisoners, rebels and hard-core anti-communist criminals to die under a double-life sentence.  There, in that prison, Vladimir met the famous Soviet General Semyon Budennii AKA the Generalissimus of the heroic Soviet Red Guard Special Forces Unit.  Vladimir had always dreamed of being accepted to the Red Guard and considered it an honor just to be in the cell next to so great a Soviet leader.   Over the next few weeks, Vladimir and the Generalissimus struck up a few conversations. When the Generalissimus needed something that was not 'normally' available, Vladimir made it available, usually by beating up whomever had that 'something'. They soon learned to rely on each other and make a quick friendship in the process.

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One night, the Generalissimus told Vladimir that 'soon', an opportunity would present itself to help those wanting to bring back the Soviet Union to its former glory and power, and that if Vladimir truly wanted to be part of such a thing, he would need to be called on during the opportunity to perform as a proper Soviet soldier and comrade. Not only did Vladimir agree, he swore his life to the Generalissimus right there.

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Hours later, the gulag was rocked with explosions and gunfire as Red Guard troops loyal to the Generalissimus performed a massive jail break for him and his followers. When a guard showed up at the Generalissimus' cell to shoot him dead, Vladimir reached out and grabbed the guard, put him in a choke hold and killed him on the spot, even though Vladimir got shot with three bullets in the process.  When the Red Guard's special forces came and broke the locks on the Generalissimus' cell, Vladimir was on the floor of his locked cell, dying.  The Generalissimus ordered his men to get Vladimir and bring him along on the escape and tend to Vladimir's wounds. That's when Vladimir passed out...

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...and woke up in a rustic, moldy hospital bed...in Greenland.

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There, shortly after awaking, he was visited by the Generalissimus himself who told Vladimir that he'd 'never forget' what Vladimir did for him that day in the Gulag. He told Vladimir that 'great rewards only comes to those who don't die.  Get better, my Starshina; we have great work ahead of us to do."

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Two months later, Vladimir was back in (relative) fighting trim, enough that he was able to start giving hand-to-hand combat training to dozens of new Red Guard recruits.  In time, Vladimir was finally brought before the Generalissimus. There, the Generalissimus offered the 'great' reward mentioned earlier.  The reward: to become the next version of the Red Guard's famous "Cold Warrior" and wear the ancient magical "Helmet of the Siberian Snowman". After agreeing, Vladimir was taken to a remote site outside of the base to put on the helmet and train.  It was mentioned that previous 'bearers' of the helmet had many issues getting used to how the helmet worked; this was not the case with Vladimir.  Not only did he don the helmet without 'freezing over' and going nearly half mad as others had done when they put on the helmet for the first time, Vladimir instead took to using it like a duck to water.

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Vladimir experimented with the helmet's ice control, and through focused thought, was able to easily adjust the ice thickness and its flexibility such that it wasn't as 'crystallized' as was the armor of previous bearers, but smooth and no where near as constrictive to move or run in. His Ice Swords also became thicker and much more useful. Within a month of unending self-training, Vladimir had mastered the helmet and its mystical powers.  The Generalissimus was thrilled to see Vladimir's progress and set up a ceremony to induct him into the one thing that Vladimir wanted his whole life: to be part of the famous Red Guard.

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Just prior to Vladimir's ceremony, the Generalissimus and Vladimir talked. Although the Generalissimus wanted to carry on the honorable heroic name of the previous helmet bearer, the Cold Warrior, the Generalissumus knew Vladimir was more that any of the previous bearers; he was better than them.  As such, they both tossed new code-names around back and forth until one stuck: "Snegovik (Snowman)".  with that, the Generalissimus hosted the ceremony that made it official for the additional of a new member to the Red Guard: Starshia Vladimir Smolkemptin AKA "Snekovik".  The roars of applause and cheers left Vladimir with the greatest feeling of his life...with the exception of that of once being a loving husband to his wife and daughter, both of whom he, nor anyone else, could find out where they were...or even if they were alive.

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Since then, Vladimir has consistently fought at the side of the Red (now Soviet) Guard.  He is 100% behind the Generalissimus, acting as a good soldier does.  He has achieved more of a 'mean streak' after the events of their failed Lithuanian Invasion in 2010, wherein Vladimir was severely wounded as was his fellow teammates and troops. Sadly, in 2012, he found that his wife, who'd been in hiding for many years, had died of cancer in 1999.  His daughter, though, was witnessed to have left with another unidentified man at her mother's funeral, both of which the unidentified man and Vladimir's daughter have, to this day, not been seen again.

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Today, an aging Vladimir, slower and more short tempered about things, continues his desired duty as a true Soviet comrade and soldier for the good of what will be a new Soviet Union one day.  He still helps train the new recruits/troops, and although he is a tough taskmaster to them, he also encourages them to be good 'comrades' to each other, celebrating birthdays and events with them, and being a godfather to several of the troops' family's children.  He is highly focused in combat and knows how to 'herd' a group to his troops to let the troops cut their targets to pieces with their gunfire.  He is also noted for his 'winter stealth' where he uses his ice form to blend into a snowy location to get past security and work his way closer to his targets, even with his large size.  Vladimir hates the Lithuanians, but mostly, he hates the Western world for continuing their corrupt empire to spread like a virus throughout the world. He never married again, stating that he'd lost the only women he ever cared for due to his life choices and knows that the same would happen again if he was to ever possibly find another woman as good as his Sasha ever was which, according to Vladimir, 'was a once in a lifetime opportunity now lost to time'.

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