ColonelAlexei Nikolayevich Zaysen (March 1, 1938-1988) He is a brutal and most likely psychopathic Soviet commander that runs a prison camp during the Russian occupation of Afghanistan, and is also a proficient and gifted helicopter pilot.Zaysen sees his base as a freakshow and uses the torture of prisoners of war as his own personal enjoyment and entertainment.
Biography[]
Zaysen graduated from the Soviet Military Academy in 1960. Zaysen worked with the Soviet Military Administration in Prague, Czechoslovakia from 1965 to 1969. While there, he earned his proficient helicopter rating in 1968. While based in Prague, Zaysen went on numerous combat deployments, specializing in resistance suppression. Zaysen was promoted to Major in 1970. From 1970 to 1981, he was stationed as the Regional Commander of the Kazakh province in the Kazakhstan SSR. While there, he was promoted to Lieutenant-Colonel in 1978 before being sent to Afghanistan to be the Regional Commander at a remote medieval mountain base 22 kilometers from the Pakistani border. From there, his job was to stage raids against the Mujahideen rebels. He was then promoted to full Colonel in 1982. Zaysen began his notorious brutality in February of 1985, when the rebels began getting a stronghold. Zaysen's standard operating procedure was to capture, interrogate, torture and then execute. He even went as far as to disguise mines as toys, so Afghan children would pick them up and be killed or horribly injured. Thanks to this strategy, Zaysen quickly had the rebel forces diminished. Some time before 1988, word of Zaysen's brutality spread, and the rebels had been all but crushed from Zaysen's tactics. Around this time, the United States government became aware that Zaysen was behind many of the Soviet atrocities in Afghanistan, and made plans to arm the rebels to give them more of a fighting chance. Zaysen was informed of this and made plans to crush the rebellion once and for all.
Confrontation with Rambo[]
Nicknamed "Comrade Colonel" by his fellow Russian soldiers, Colonel Alexei Zaysen was a deeply feared and respected Soviet military official that ran a military outpost in Eastern Afghanistan. He was first mentioned by Thailand U.S. Embassy field officer Robert Griggs as an "exceptionally brutal" Soviet commander who has managed to stop all humanitarian aid from coming in to help the starving, injured Mujahideen rebels. This is seen as quite a difficult achievement to make. Griggs says that Zaysen has used every new weapon the Red Army has at its disposal, including land mines, heavily armed gunships and chemical warfare, to smother the rebellion so the USSR can annex the poor country of Afghanistan. Although Rambo is moved by these images, he can't bring himself to come along on the mission to supply FIM-92A Stinger missiles to enemy forces with Colonel Sam Trautman. Colonel Zaysen abducted Colonel Sam Trautman when he caught him trying to supply weapons to enemy Mujahideen rebels. Zaysen appears in a gunship and begins shooting the soldiers accompanying Trautman with the helicopter's machine guns, killing at least five people and causing several explosions. Zaysen hovers over the ground and uses a speaker to order Trautman to surrender, saying that he doesn't wish to hurt him. With no other choice, Trautman lowers his weapons. Trautman first meets Zaysen face-to-face when Sergeant Kourov, Zaysen's top Russian soldier, drags Trautman into Zaysen's office, which is decorated with a small desk, a mirror, and a bookshelf that contains pictures of Zaysen's apparent family and a portrait of Vladimir Lenin, a communist Soviet ruler. Zaysen is casually drinking Scotch whisky and playing chess with himself when he introduces himself to Trautman.
Zaysen is angered that Trautman is attempting to supply weapons to the enemy and demands to know the location of the missiles, supposedly to negotiate and "provide a way out of this for us both". Zaysen then says that all everyone really wants is peace, but Trautman doesn't buy it, and tells Zaysen that he has a sense of humour. Zaysen is confused and asks him to explain. Trautman says that he is a hypocrite because he is practicing mass murder of local Afghans nd preaching about peace at the same time. Zaysen accuses Trautman of believing in "absurd American propoganda" and claims to have killed nobody.
Again, Trautman doesn't believe this and launches into a tirade about how the Soviets will just have to deal with the war they created. Zaysen is infuriated by how brave Truatman is and says that he is glad that Trautman is testing his patience. He tells Kourov to grab.Trautman and he drags him by the neck into the torture chamber. Later on, Zaysen decides to interrogate Trautman through gruesome methods of torture alongside Kourov. Zaysen ties a rope to Trautman's arms and has Kourov yank Trautman into the air, slowly and painfully ripping his arms out of his sockets, similar to the rack. Trautman appears to be willing to comply, but he insults Zaysen instead. Zaysen, his patience running thin, cocks his PM-63 submachine gun and holds it to Trautman's throat. Zaysen is then interrupted and told by a Pakistani informant of an rescue attempt planned by a man named John Rambo and the Mujahideen. Also being aware of the village that Rambo is currently residing in, Zaysen and two more soldiers head out in helicopters and zero in on the location of the village, killing dozen of people in the process. Zaysen had absolutely no reservations on doing this, and was perfectly happy to kill everyone who he felt were in the way of him getting total control of the sector. However, Rambo manages to destroy one of the helicopters, killing several of Zaysen's men onboard, much to Zaysen's anger. Zaysen then retreats back to his base, knowing that the village is now in ruins.
Back at the camp, Zaysen smokes a cigarette while examining the cells. He looks at Colonel Trautman and says that he will soon be his guest down the hall. At that point, Rambo came by to initiate his rescue plan. The first attempt fails, even though many of Zaysen's men are killed. After having Trautman beaten up, Zaysen demands to know who attacked his camp, but Trautman refuses to comply, stating that Rambo will find Zaysen instead. The next morning, Rambo makes a second attempt, this time succeeding in rescuing the captive Trautman before escaping along with other captive Afghan civilians and hijacks a Soviet Mil Mi-24 gunship. Zaysen enters the torture room only discovered the torturer on the floor dead and he bangs the door in anger. After being severely damaged by the gunfires, the helicopter downed. But they're manages to escape the crash and decided to separate while Rambo escapes with Trautman. Furious, Zaysen then orders a manhunt for Rambo and Trautman, who are hiding in the mountains on the Pakistan border.
They hide in a cave and Rambo uses his compound bow to kill approaching soldiers, and faces Kourov in one-on-one fight. But Rambo gains upper hand by detonating Kourov's grenade, killing him. Before Trautman and Rambo can escape into Pakistan, Zaysen corners them with his remaining men. It looks like they are goners until Mujahideen forces arrive in a surprise attack to help Rambo and Trautman out. All of Zaysen's men are killed and Zaysen flies into a rage, swearing vengeance on Rambo, who commandeers a hijacked Soviet T-72 tank alone. Rambo and Zaysen get into a game of chicken and Rambo fatally wounds Zaysen when he fires the tank's machine guns through the.helicopter's windshield, but Zaysen, using his last amount of strength, attempted to kill Rambo one final time by slamming head on to Rambo's tank. Rambo rams the tank's 125mm gun onto the helicopter and blows it to pieces, finally killing Zaysen and his helicopter crew. Rambo, despite being seriously injured, managed to survive. In the novelization, Zaysen instead tries to cowardly run from the battle, only for Rambo to catch up with him on horseback and kill him by impaling him through the head with his knife. This was later incorporated into the fourth film with the death of Major Tint, who Rambo disemboweled with his knife as he tried to flee.