Yevgeny Borisovitch Volgin

"Kuwabara, Kuwabara!"

- Volgin

"Welcome to my country, and to my unit."

- Volgin

Yevgeny Borisovitch Volgin, better known as either Colonel Volgin, or Thunderbolt is the main antagonist in the video game; Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater. He is a Stalinist GRU colonel, who attempted to seize control of the Soviet Union.

In the game Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, Volgin returns, revealed to have been comatose (not killed), after the events of Metal Gear Solid 3. Despite this, his humanity was all but gone, and he had to be controlled by Tretji Rebenok.

Past
Born sometime in the late 1900’s to early 1910’s, Volgin became a boxing champion as a young man. In World War II, he participated in the Katyn Forest Massacre, where 20,000 Polish soldiers were massacred and Volgin would often remove the Poles’ blindfolds before he beat them to death. He also served in the Soviet Secret Police, the NKVD, and was given the job of punishing anyone who tried to desert the Red Army, blaming prisoner revolts to alleviate fear. Volgin aided in putting down the East Germany Uprising and Hungarian Revolution and has stated that he personally killed over 100,000 anti-communist activists.

At some point before 1964, Volgin’s father, Boris Volgin, died, allowing him to illegally acquire the Philosopher’s Legacy, an enormous cache of money collected from China, the Soviet Union, and the US. With it, he built a huge fortress, Groznyj Grad, in the Tselinoyarsk mountains. Volgin also obtained the blueprints for the Objekt 279 tank after the project to build it was deemed too expensive and was able to construct at least 8 with the Philosopher’s Legacy. Volgin then conspired with the army and the Brezhnev faction to bring down Khruschev After Khruschev joined forces with Sokolov’s Shagohod, Volgin hired Alexander Leonovitch Granin, hoping to have him construct a Metal Gear. But it soon became clear Granin wasn't getting the results Volgin wanted and thus he turned to the Shagohod idea.

Metal Gear Solid 3
Volgin contacted The Boss in 1964, using the spy network of a Philospher and suggested that she defect to the Soviet Union so as to overthrow Khruschev without endangering his own position. The Boss accepted, but unbeknownst to Volgin, this was actually part of a plan by the US government to obtain the Philosopher’s Legacy from him and expose Shagohod’s development.

A month later, Volgin supervised the Boss’ official defection and ordered her to kill Naked Snake since he saw Volgin’s face, as well as the fact that the Boss wouldn’t let him join them. However Volgin, having not anticipated the US government’s actions, fired an American-made nuclear warhead at Sokolov’s research facility. He intended to frame the US government for this, but in actuality the DCI had manipulated Volgin into doing this as part of a plan to assassinate the Boss. This set off a whole international incident and started Operation Snake Eater. During the operation, Snake's constant intervention in his plans, as well as the presence of a spy in his ranks, angered Volgin greatly. However he didn’t realize the spy was Tatyana, who he constantly abused, but did think that Granin was a spy. Volgin arrested and tortured him by trapping him in an oil drum, then striking it with his enormous strength and electrical powers.

However he killed Granin in the process before he said anything and found a transmitter in his shoes, which meant he either was a spy or it was planted on him. Volgin called in a Hind helicopter and additional soldiers to help guard Krasnogorje, so as to make sure Snake didn’t get into Groznyj Grad. After The Pain, The Fear, and The End were killed, Volgin sent in Flame Troops to avenge them by burning Snake alive. While in his fortress, he managed to catch Snake, who’d disguised himself as Ivan Raidenovitch Raikov, to find Sokolov.

Enraged that he hurt Raikov, Volgin beat him senseless and brought him to an interrogation cell where he tortured him with electrocution. However Snake was mentally trained to resist physical torture, but a transmitter fell off of him that the Boss had put there, supposedly to make it easier for the Cobra Unit to find him. Volgin ordered the Boss to cut out Snake’s eyes to prove she wasn’t the spy but Tatyana intervened. Major Ocelot threatened her with his revolvers and Snake kicked Ocelot to save Tatyana. However the muzzle flash blinded Snake in one eye and satisfied, Volgin left while Snake was brought back to his cell.

But he managed to escape his prison, while Shagohod was completed, allowing Volgin to give his scientists and engineers some time to rest. However it seemed that he planned to eventually execute them so they didn’t reveal Shagohod’s existence. Volgin found Snake putting C3 explosives on Shagohod’s fuel tanks so as to destroy the weapon and managed to capture him again with help from Ocelot and the Boss. But as this was going on, EVA was stealing the Philospher’s Legacy microfilms from the vaults underneath Groznyj Grad, revealing that she was actually Tatyana. As opposed to his previously sadistic behavior, Volgin said he valued her as a “pet” and that he’d “cared” for her, but now planned to execute her for her betrayal.

Volgin then took on Snake in combat himself, but suffered defeat and found himself betrayed by Ocelot, who refused to obey his orders. He said that he’d promised the Boss not to follow any orders that involved killing Snake, even if they were Volgin’s. As Snake and EVA escaped on a motorcycle, Volgin pursued them in the Shagohod, which hadn’t been destroyed thanks to the technicians draining the fuel tanks. He laid waste to his own fortress in his determination to kill the two and even killed his own men that got in his way. Volgin eventually activated the boosters in an attempt to run Snake and EVA over, as well as incinerate Ocelot, who was behind the boosters at the time.

Finally, the Shagohod was almost completely wrecked and Volgin took what was left of it to attack Snake and EVA. Even after it failed completely, he used his own electrical powers to keep it running, but was finally defeated by Snake with an RPG. As he stood on top of the wrecked Shagohod, Volgin was struck by a bolt of lightning and Snake wondered if that was the Sorrow's doing since he appeared briefly.

Post-Snake Eater
Despite Volgin's defeat, his desire to have Khrushchev ousted from power and replaced with Leonid Brezhnev nonetheless came to pass. In addition, contrary to reports made as a result of Operation Snake Eater, Volgin had actually survived his battle with Snake, albeit with serious enough injuries to leave him in a comatose state. His body was later recovered by Soviet scientists, where it was kept alive for scientific preservation and presumably experimentation. Ultimately the only thing keeping Volgin alive was his desire for revenge against Big Boss, which also had the side effect of turning him into a literal "demon". Having lost his humanity completely he had to be controlled by Tretij Rebenok. In his new form, Volgin was completely immune to damage by guns or grenades even absorbing a tank blast or six missiles from a helicopter with ease. His only weakness was water. He also became immensely powerful, burning everything in his path, being able to blast fire out of his hands which is powerful enough to bring down a helicopter with ease or destroying even a tank.

Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain
Volgin returns as the Man of Fire but is controlled by Tretij Rebenok.

Rebenok and the Man on Fire appear in the hospital the Boss awakes in, attacking both the Boss and the XOF agents, killing many of them. He is only temporarily stopped when the Boss shoots the sprinklers on the ceiling, extinguishing the Man on Fire for a short amount of time. He appears again in the foyer but is distracted when a tank runs over him and rams him into a wall. After destroying the tank, he approaches Snake but is run over again, this time by Ishmael in an ambulance car. Snake enters the car and both men drive away. When the Boss meets Revolver Ocelot and escapes with him on horseback, they are pursued by the Man on Fire riding a flaming winged unicorn. Eventually, they escape him by crossing a river.

He next appears at the Devil's House. When Skull Face encounters Snake, he does not shoot him, leaving him for the Man on Fire instead who appears and burns the Devil's House and the surrounding area. The Man on Fire attacks Snake who has no choice but to run which eventually leads to the Man on Fire losing sight of Snake. To escape, Snake blows up a water tank which extinguishes the Man on Fire and gives Snake the time to escape by helicopter. During the flight back, Miller tells Snake that the Man on Fire burned everything and everyone in the area, leaving no survivors.

When bringing Snake to the hangar containing Sahelanthropus, Skull Face shows Snake the Man on Fire, telling Snake that he is responsible for his survival. The Man on Fire moves towards Snake with hostile intentions but is stopped by Rebenok. Chaos erupts moments later, wenn Sahelanthropus is activated and crushes the Man on Fire. Later, Miller gets information that states that the Sowjets secured the Man on Fire's body. To find out whether he really is dead Miller sends Snake to the Yakho Oboo Supply Outpost to retrieve the body. He also rightly deduces that the Man of Fire is what is left of Volgin. In the base, Snake tries to extract the Man on Fire but before the Fulton Extraction is complete, the Man on Fire regains consciousness, erupting in a fiery blaze. He pins down Venom Snake and meets him face to face, though he seemingly halts his assault. Mysteriously, Volgin and body momentarily revert to his original appearance. He falls backwards to the ground, dropping several bullets as well, and finally dies in peace. Volgin's corpse is then taken back to Mother Base and put in the one of the quarantine platform's cages. Ocelot then takes the time to look over Volgin's corpse, reflecting that Skull Face must have used his desires for revenge against Big Boss for his goals. Despite being dead, however, a medical machine is seen inside Volgin's cage

Personality
Volgin is merciless and power hungry and wants to overthrow Khruschev so that he can secretly control the Soviet Union. He also has a rather sadistic side, taking enjoyment in torture, but has trouble controlling the high he gets from it. Often times, Volgin kills his victims before they tell him anything, which can often work to his disadvantage and his sadism would rub off on Ocelot, who would also develop a love of torture. Volgin is an extremely arrogant megalomaniac, believing his men should follow his commands without question. But even with all these negative traits, Volgin states that his goal to control the Eastern Bloc is so he can reunite the Philosophers, who’d been warring among themselves, thus ending the Cold War. Volgin had great respect (and possibly even fear) for the Boss, as seen when he backed away from her while torturing Snake when she accused him of not trusting her.

Volgin also seemed to respect Snake to some extent since he said fighting him would be a once in a lifetime opportunity. Volgin is apparently bisexual since he had relationships with both Raikov and EVA, who he knew as Tatyana. He did seem to really care about Raikov, since he became enraged at the thought that Snake had hurt him. Also, even though he was very abusive to EVA, Volgin said he cared for her as a “pet” and it almost pained him to have to execute her. He also has a habit of chanting “Kuwabara, kuwabara”, (Japanese for mulberry bush), when it rains, which according to Japanese superstition, keeps lightning away. Ironically one of the few times he didn’t, he was killed by lightning.

Abilities
Volgin possesses practically superhuman strength, even for a man of his size, and uses a Makarov pistol as a sidearm. However his most notable ability is a physical anomaly in his body that allows Volgin to generate 10 million volts of electricity. He wears a rubber combat suit to protect himself from the electricity, which had previously caused the scars on his face. Volgin can use his electrical powers to their full potential thanks to the suit, such as augmenting his strength.

He has put together a combined attack with his electrical powers, which consists of holding four bullets between his knuckles and punching an enemy. This attack has the damage of the punch, the bullets gunpowder causing a gunshot like effect, and a shock from the metal of the bullets conducting the electricity. Volgin can also electrify metallic objects, send out beams of electricity, create a shield to protect himself from gunshots, and channel his electricity into things. Volgin’s electricity is attracted to metal and his powers can be weakened if he comes into contact with water.

Trivia

 * Volgin’s last name is a common Russian surname that comes from the Volga River.