Leonid ''Lev'' Viktorovich Kravchenko (20 March 1922 - 5 September 1986) was a Colonel of the Soviet Union's Soviet Airborne Troops and was the right-hand man of General Nikita Dragovich during the Cold War, later serving with the KGB and commanding Russian troops in the Soviet-Afghan War. He was killed in the Battle of Khost in 1986 with the Mujahideen.
Biography[]
Early life[]
Lev Viktorovich Kravchenko was born on March 20, 1922, in the city of Petrograd in the Russian SFSR of the Soviet Union as Leonid. An amoral man with intense bloodlust, he served under Nikita Dragovich in the 3rd Shock Army during World War II and was blooded during the intense 1942-1943 Battle of Stalingrad in central Russia. In the war, he became known as Dragovich's adjutant and called his "lapdog" by fellow soldier Viktor Reznov, who developed a rivalry with Dragovich and Kravchenko due to their refusal to send reinforcements to him during the battle in the Red Square of Stalingrad.
Project Nova[]
After the war, Kravchenko served under Dragovich in Unit 45, a special project group created by Joseph Stalin to question the Nazis about their war effort and search for advanced weaponry that they may have hidden from them. The weapon Nova 6, a chemical agent, was revealed to have been shipped in a large transport ship to a Nazi holdout base in the Arctic Circle, so Kravchenko participated in the assault on the outpost along with Dragovich, Viktor Reznov, and other former 3rd Shock Army troops. They were able to retrieve the Nova 6 but their plot to kill Reznov and other internal enemies of their project failed when British commandos stormed the ship and a three-way battle began; Reznov and two others escaped the ship. Kravchenko and Dragovich returned to the USSR with the Nova 6, and they formulated a plan called "Project Nova" in which they could threaten the United States with the Nova 6 weapon.
Further activities[]
In the years between 1945 and 1961, Kravchenko climbed the ranks of the Soviet armed forces and was sent to Cuba along with Dragovich to gain an alliance with Cuba's Prime Minister Fidel Castro to operate in his territory. The CIA organized an initiative in November 1963 to assassinate Dragovich, Kravchenko, and Doctor Friedrich Steiner, along with the "Ascension" group of former Nazi scientists who worked on Project Nova for the Soviets, and sent anMACV-SOG group to Baikonur Cosmodrome on 17 November to kill Kravchenko, Dragovich, and the Ascension Nazi scientists who were overseeing the launch of two Soyuz rockets working on the Soviet space project. The team shot down a Soyuz rocket to punch holes in the Soviet space program and tried to kill Kravchenko and Dragovich, and they nearly killed Dragovich by destroying his limousine, but they could not confirm the kill.
Actions in Indochina[]
Five years later in 1968 during the Vietnam War, Kravchenko was sent to Vietnam to supervise the Soviet Spetsnaz special forces' activities in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia and tested Nova 6 against locals, American troops, and at times his own men. The SOG caught up to him at his compound in the jungle on the Laos-Vietnam border and nearly killed him, with SOG soldier Frank Woods jumping with Kravchenko out of a window, knocking the two unconscious. Kravchenko awoke first, capturing Woods; he was held in the Hanoi Hilton and Da Nang until 1972, when he escaped. The CIA was informed that Kravchenko was still active, with the CIA keeping tabs on him and his activities.
KGB[]
Kravchenko was without a superior after Dragovich was killed on 23 February 1968 in an assault on the Soviet numbers station under the Gulf of Mexico. As a result, he was considered a mad dog by the USSR, though they utilized his skills by transferring him to the KGB in 1981. He assisted the Interior Ministry official Imran Zakhaev with his investigations into a mole in the Lubyanka. The mole, Major Dimitri Belikov, framed General Anton Charkov by passing Belikov's communication with the CIA as Charkov's, giving the information to Kravchenko. Charkov was then taken to the prison under the Lubyanka, though Belikov was eventually revealed to be the true mole.
Kravchenko soon became disillusioned with the Soviet Union, beginning to sell Soviet weapons to Cuba, Angola, and the Third World as the USSR declined. By 1986, he worked with crime lord Raul Menendez in Nicaragua and sold him guns to help revolutions in Africa and the rest of the world. He was stationed in Afghanistan at the time, charged with eliminating Mujahideen strongholds around the country, and soon, the CIA and Guoanbu sent agents to Khost Province to receive information on Menendez from Mullah Rahmaan: the CIA sent Mason, Woods and Hudson, while the Guoanbu sent Tian Zhao.
Death[]

Kravchenko's execution
On 5 September 1986, Kravchenko led an attack on Khost on the Afghan-Pakistan border with heavy tanks, helicopters, and infantry, and the Mujahideen struggled to fight off the Russians. Mason and Woods captured Kravchenko after destroying his tank and took him to the Mujahideen camp for interrogation. They found out about Kravchenko's black market activities and that he had people in the CIA, before Frank Woods shot him in the head.