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Prime universe
(Capcom's primary storyline)

For the Anderson universe counterpart, see Sergei Vladimir (Anderson).
"Russia's such a peaceful place, don't you agree? A perfect place for your final resting spot."

Sergei Vladimir (セルゲイ・ウラジミール Serugei Urajimīru?, Russian: Сергей Владимир) was a Colonel in the Soviet Army, member of the Communist Party and, in later life, an executive in the Umbrella Corporation. Born in Sumy Oblast to a Russian family, Vladimir was raised with the prospect of becoming a mining engineer and an active member of the Communist Party like his father. Vladimir served in the Soviet–Afghan War, where he became a Colonel in the Spetsnaz GRU and was the donor to a top-secret project exploring the viability of human cloning. With the 1991 dissolution of the Soviet Union and the dismantling of the Soviet Army the following year, Vladimir became disillusioned with the politically unstable and increasingly capitalistic transition in Russia and Ukraine. He quickly accepted an offer by Oswell E. Spencer to lead the Umbrella Corporation's secret paramilitary as Colonel of the Guard, and for the next decade was a strong ally to Spencer, establishing a secret police force within the company for identifying traitors which he modelled on the KGB. Vladimir died in February 2003 in combat with Dr. Albert Wesker, who had instigated a viral outbreak in the Caucasus which neutralised his USS garrison.

Biography[]

Early life[]

Sergei was born in the small mining village of Yabluchne in the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic at the height of Soviet state power. From a young age, Vladimir sought the approval of his father, a strict man and admirer of Joseph Stalin, who took pleasure in the unconditional worship of his son and rewarded his loyalty by patting young Sergei on the head.[1]

In his youth, Vladimir attended the local mining school where he befriended an elder classmate, Viktor Petrov. The two of them often had heated exchanges about the concept of impending world revolution, yet Vladimir was always full of admiration for Petrov's wisdom and intelligence.[1]

One day, Petrov would lead the young Vladimir on a trek to a dilapidated building on the outskirts of town, where Vladimir would stumble upon the maggot-ridden cadavers of several children whom Petrov had been luring to the abode and killing. Petrov would then restrain and sadistically torture the young Sergei using a series of utensils, explaining his view of the world of being that of rulers and slaves with the stated goal of transforming Vladimir into a "perfect slave". Eventually, Petrov's activities were discovered by the KGB (КГБ) and he was abducted in front of Sergei's eyes, however Petrov's words would remain forever engrained and become prevalent within Vladimir's own worldview, as his loyal self-sacrificial and altruistic nature had transformed into to a masochistic one and he secretly idealized the perfect death, this determinism eventually secured him the recognition of the Party.[1]

As a student, Sergei took to studying academic Marxism-Leninism, he enthusiastically participated in party activities and frequently sent unsolicited articles on patriotism and morale to various newspapers. Sergei soon came to believe that he himself would drive the Soviet Union into the future, becoming a "hero" that would surpass the likes of Vladimir Lenin. During his time in the Soviet Army, he submitted a motion for membership of the CPSU and cheered with joy when he was finally accepted into the party.[1]

Soviet-Afghan War (1980s-1991)[]

During the Soviet-Afghan War, Vladimir served in one of the many Spetsnaz GRU military-intelligence forces. A loyal patriot, Sergei became known for his stern albeit modest self-confidence in the face of insurmountable odds and, in stark contrast to many of his cold and bureaucratic superiors: his empathy towards each of his subordinates, who in-return, deeply loved and venerated him.[1] At some point during his service, he became close friends with Nikolai Zinoviev, whom he held in high regard, admiring his work there.[2] Some time later, Vladimir was enlisted to be part of a top-secret Soviet research project in human cloning, becoming the genetic father to ten humans: each with their growth accelerated to appear roughly his own age. The unit fought together as a special unit against the Mujāhidīn (مجاهدين). Sergei remained an active combatant in Afghanistan until the official withdrawal of the troops in 1989, where he was promoted to the rank of Polkovnik (полковник) at the end for his service.[1]

Following the Soviet defeat in Afghanistan, economic stagnation and a failed coup d'état resulted in the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. No longer financially capable of funding such a massive military, the newly emerged Russian Federation began a two-year re-organization and dismantling effort, which saw many Soviet soldiers discharged and left unemployed. For Sergei, this event turned his world upside down and he retreated into the wilderness to live in solitude as he grew increasingly disillusioned with the changes that had taken hold in his country which he saw as a product of the gluttony of capitalism.[1][2]

Joining Umbrella (1992-97)[]

"When my country was destroyed, I had no place left to call home. Spencer gave me a home and a purpose!"

Not long after the Soviet collapse, the Umbrella Corporation took advantage of mass unemployment of soldiers to expand its paramilitary organizations. Vladimir soon received a letter from Zinoviev upon being approached by the company, among others, due to their talents. Zinoviev had seen the dissolution of the Soviet Union as a positive change and embraced the ruthlessness of capitalism as a means for his own hedonistic endeavors. Zinoviev urged Vladimir to join him in accepting the companies offer.[2]

Vladimir was initially skeptical of the corporation, as it seemed to embody much of what he had detested, but would soon meet the company's CEO and founder Dr. Oswell E. Spencer and over the course of several intellectual conversations, learned of Spencer's true worldview and ambition for godhood, after which, Vladimir would become undyingly loyal to Spencer to the point of often bowing to him on a single knee.[1] Finding that Vladimir was one of a small group of people genetically compatible with the experimental ε strain, Spencer insisted he hand over his clones to take part in preliminary human research for their Tyrant Project, which planned to create a new superior lifeform that would double as mass-produced super-soldiers for the United States military. The decision was a painful one for Sergei, as he had grown a very close bond to the men and saw them as extensions of himself, nevertheless, he sold them to Umbrella, seeing their sacrifice as an unfortunate but necessary evil in Spencer's greater goals of changing the world order.[2]

During the early 1990s, Vladimir led the expansion of these paramilitaries with the founding of the Umbrella Biohazard Countermeasure Service (U.B.C.S.). Vladimir remained dedicated only to Spencer, and in keeping with the lessons he had learned during his time in the Soviet Union, would enforce obedience to the company through the use of "Monitors", a private security force of agents handpicked by Sergei and operating within Umbrella's paramilitaries.[3] Following the surrender of his clones for Tyrant research, Vladimir became closely tied to the Tyrant Project as it moved on to production models,[3] and would even lead the proposal for the T-A.L.O.S. Project, a next-generation B.O.W. to succeed the T-002, using microprocessors linked to the brain.[4] He also became a rival of Albert Wesker, a former member of the Tyrant Project who had moved to Umbrella's Intelligence Division, and sensing Wesker's lack of respectful etiquette and disloyalty to Spencer's agenda, treated him with heavy suspicion.

Reclaiming T-A.L.O.S. (1998)[]

"Pain is the bond that unites us human beings with the gods."

In May 1998, the ε strain escaped containment in the Arklay Laboratory, causing a number of civilian casualties as well as contaminating other facilities in the Arklay Mountains. Behind closed doors this represented a major scandal within the corporation, and the possibility of having the Monitors purge disloyal executives became realistic. In July, Umbrella HQ received the findings from the Raccoon Disaster Contingency Committee, and the Intelligence Division was given orders to blow up the laboratory in a mission dubbed "X-Day". In a letter from Zinoviev reporting this development, Vladimir was reminded that it would result in the destruction of T-011, their T-A.L.O.S. Project candidate.[5] By then, the unfinished T-002 had already been superseded by the T-103 mass-production series, but T-A.L.O.S. was still of research significance.

Arriving in the United States of America, Vladimir travelled to the Arklay Mountains with his two Ivan bodyguards - two T-103s trained to follow his orders. Vladimir's first venture was not, however, to the lab, but to the nearby Umbrella Executive Training School. The building, once used by Umbrella co-founder Dr. James Marcus for the training of new employees, had been abandoned for twenty years and was undergoing a survey ahead of re-opening when it was contaminated by the virus. Placed in charge of the reclamation of the facility, Wesker and Dr. William Birkin instead declared the facility lost and made plans to detonate the building's self-destruct mechanism and proceed with the X-Day preparations. Skeptical of his activities, Vladimir warned Wesker about the ramifications of this decision, as it had not been proposed or approved by Spencer, and ordered one of his Ivans to fight him.[6] When time ran out, he left with the Ivans to the Arklay Laboratory, leaving Wesker to escape from the facility on his own.[7]

Vladimir evacuated the facility with T-011 in tow and secured the U.M.F.-013 core: a supercomputer located in the lab underneath the Spencer Mansion which contained all of Umbrella's archival research data. Vladimir also activated the RED QUEEN artificial intelligence and revoked Wesker's access to all company databanks as of July 25, thus rendering his true objectives on X-Day (obtaining the S.T.A.R.S. combat data for a rival company), a complete failure. Walking straight outside, the Ivan protected Vladimir from the escaped pack of Cerberus which had made the forest their territory.[8] Unknown to Vladimir his departure was witnessed by surviving S.T.A.R.S Bravo team members, Rebecca Chambers, and Richard Aiken who saw him enter the forest from the second-floor window of the mansion's entrance hall.

Raccoon City (1998)[]

"The people who go down in history as its heroes are never stable. In any case, the word applies more to me than to Lenin."

In September, increasing concern about Raccoon City's safety led Vladimir to mobilize the U.B.C.S. placing the platoons on drill and ready for mass deployment. This intuition proved correct when a modified ε strain incidentally contaminated the city's drinking water the following week, causing a massive outbreak which mutated thousands into Zombies. The city was quickly locked down on orders from the Pentagon, and the U.B.C.S. was deployed into the city.

Officially, the mission statement of the U.B.C.S. was to assist in the reclamation of key infrastructure, the establishment of safe zones and the rescue and evacuation of civilians. In reality, they were merely expendable guinea pigs deployed by Umbrella to take advantage of the disastrous situation and obtain combat data of Umbrella's products effectiveness against trained paramilitaries in a "worst-case" urban environment. Per Zinoviev's "Bravo 16" orders,[excerpt 1] Monitors within the U.B.C.S. were instructed by Vladimir to destroy incriminating evidence and medical data, assassinate liable personnel and potential whistleblowers (such as Greg Mueller and Brian Irons) and assist in the evacuation of key assets (such as the Nyx bioweapon).[9][10] However, the situation on-the-ground was far worse than even Umbrella could have anticipated and many of the mercenaries were massacred within the first twenty-four hours of landing, with Zinoviev going rogue and killing several other monitors with the goal of stealing their data.

On the night of September 28, only two days after drop, Vladimir made preparations to take direct control of all surviving equipment and personnel, effective at midnight on the 29th. When a helicopter returned from dropping off several T-103s into the city,[11] Vladimir boarded it and flew to a secretive facility in which he had stored the U.M.F.-013 months earlier. The operation was a success, and he evacuated with it alongside an executive on the early hours of October 1st, moments before the city was obliterated in its totality by the United States government's sterilization operation.[12]

The Twilight of Umbrella (1998-2002)[]

In the aftermath of Raccoon City, the United States was forced to turn on Umbrella, federalizing its assets and holding the international conglomerate liable in the deaths of hundreds of thousands. The events had dealt a killing blow to the company's public relations and plunged the company into a lengthy and expensive high-profile legal battle known as the Raccoon Trials. Umbrella's ability to enforce control its own workforce also deteriorated, and with all hands expended, several of Umbrella's facilities fell to accidental leaks, raids by authorities and takeovers by rogue agents: such as the installations at Sheena Island and Rockfort Island.

By the end of the year, Vladimir had moved his primary base of operations to a large facility situated below an old Soviet oil refinery in the Caucasus Mountains which had been purchased by Umbrella several years prior. There, Vladimir spent years refurbishing the sprawling tunnels underneath the refinery (which had initially been dug as a government deep earth expedition for rare minerals from meteor impacts) into a massive underground hive-shaped laboratory suitable to begin a mass-production of cheap B.O.W.s such as the Licker, Chimera and Hunter δ, many of which had previously been considered accidents or failures. With the loss of the United States military as it's primary investor and customer, these bioweapons were instead created for explicit widespread distribution on the international black market, attracting the attention of many new and existing buyers (such as Javier Hidalgo).[13] Elsewhere in the facility, Vladimir personally oversaw the completion of the T-A.L.O.S. Project.

Several years later in 2002, Albert Wesker discovered that Sergei had been operating in Russia and soon began poaching his business deals, offering rarer, higher-quality bioweapons for cheaper prices than Vladimir and encouraging customers to terminate their communications with Umbrella and it's Russian trade routes.[14] By this point, Umbrella was on the verge of financial collapse due to the numerous business sanctions and suspensions enacted on the company across the globe. Likewise, at least one case of a rogue Umbrella employee selling bio-weapons on the black market was publicized after the Spencer Rain, a luxury cruiser used by the company to host potential buyers,[15] was taken hostage by an ex-Umbrella eugenicist fanatic which had the warheads of ballistic missiles targeted at China and the United States in exchange for $50 billion, the international incident sparked widespread attention to Umbrella's continued deals in the years since the Raccoon City disaster, further damning the corporation and limiting Vladimir's ability to keep the company alive through the black market alone.[16]

Caucasus Outbreak and Death (2003)[]

"It's good that we can be honest with each other. That's the sign of a healthy relationship. It's a shame that this friendship has to end."

In February 2003, Wesker reached out to Elroy, a disgruntled employee within the Caucasus facility, and hired him to get past the RED QUEEN's security systems and leak the t-Virus throughout the premises, offering him protection through an injection of an anti-virus (in reality, merely a saline solution mixed with food coloring). As a result, Elroy, alongside 98% of his fellow research staff were infected and became zombies, with many of the bioweapons escaping captivity in the chaos.[17]

Over the next two weeks, several Hunter δ would escape into the wilderness surrounding the refinery, causing a rash of mysterious deaths and fervor about "monsters" from the region's traditional folklore to spring up.[18][19] A Cerberus would also find it's way to a nearby village (secretly a storage depot for the main Umbrella laboratory) which would quickly fall victim to the t-Virus.[19][20] The resulting chaos presented a window of opportunity for Wesker, who had been seeking information on the location of the U.M.F.-013 drive, and following close in Wesker's trail came Chris Redfield and Jill Valentine: now members of a privately owned anti-B.O.W. unit which had been funded by Umbrella's rivals in the Federation of Pharmaceutical Companies. While Wesker failed to obtain a hard drive containing a backup of the facility data due to an explosive trap set by Anna's deceased father, he did successfully procure blueprints to the underground laboratory that would aid him in his infiltration of the facility.[21]

Not long afterwards, Wesker released information about the T-A.L.O.S. project to the paramilitary group, ensuring a raid of the facility in an effort to further distract Vladimir whilst Wesker snuck into the premises through the maintenance tunnels.[22] Nevertheless, the RED QUEEN AI took notice of Wesker almost immediately upon arrival and Vladimir deployed his two Ivans to deal with him, unaware that Wesker had himself gained superhuman abilities since their last encounter.[23] Ultimately, Vladimir was forced to unleash the T-A.L.O.S. upon Chris and Jill and before encountering Wesker, who was unharmed from his battle against the two tyrants. As a last resort, Vladimir injected himself with a modified t-Virus strain. Being compatible with the virus, he mutated into a powerful creature with his arms fused together into a dangerous claw, resembling himself in bondage.[24] Despite Vladimir's immense strength, agility and organic weaponry, Wesker quickly destroyed him, putting an end to Sergei's delusions that T-A.L.O.S. and the RED QUEEN would usher in the return of Umbrella's glory.

The company's final remaining leader defeated, Wesker stole all of the data, compressed into one disc and wiped the memory of the RED QUEEN.[25] Eventually, he anonymously leaked much of the files regarding the companies involvement in the 1998 disaster to the prosecutor, securing a verdict in the ongoing Raccoon Trials.[26][27] The Caucasus base was decommissioned and Umbrella Japan Co., Ltd. shut their doors by March of the following year, sealing the fate of both Vladimir and Umbrella Pharmaceuticals.[28][29][30][31] Wesker would later ponder if Sergei's final mutated form (along with that of James Marcus) was a physical representation of his true desires.[32]

Further Notes[]

  • Moments before Chris and Jill's second battle with T-A.L.O.S. he gave a speech regarding how it was mutating out of control, however he was fighting Wesker at the same time and never comments on T.A.L.O.S during the battle. This is possibly an error.
  • During Wesker's reunion with Vladimir, he wields a Mauser C96 (Red9). The weapon was not featured as usable in The Umbrella Chronicles, but may have been a leftover import from the scrapped Resident Evil 4 retelling, which would've seen Luis Sera as a playable character.

Gallery[]

Sources[]

  1. Excerpt from biohazard archives, p.344: "ニコライ・ジノビエフの作戦コード名。 ファイル「監視員への辞令」 に記述がある。"
  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 Makino, BIOHAZARD UMBRELLA CHRONICLES SIDE B (2008), "Wesker 19".
  2. 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles (2007), file: "Letter from Sergei to Nicholai".
  3. 3.0 3.1 Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles (2007), file: "Sergei Vladimir Profile".
  4. Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles (2007), file: "Talos Project Proposal".
  5. Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles (2007), file: "Sealed Letter to Sergei Vladimir".
  6. Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles (2007), scene: "Beginnings 2 scene".
  7. Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles (2007), scene: "Beginnings 2 ending".
  8. Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles (2007), scene: "Nightmare 2 scene 1".
  9. Resident Evil 3: Nemesis (1999), file: "Written Order To The Supervisors".
  10. Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles (2007), file: "Monitor Notes".
  11. Resident Evil 2 (1998), scene: "Enter: T-00".
  12. Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles (2007), scene: "Death's Door 1 ending".
  13. Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles (2009), file: "Javier's Private Messages".
  14. Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles (2009), file: "Communications from Wesker (Faxed Documents)".
  15. Resident Evil: Dead Aim (2002), file: "Waiter's Letter".
  16. Resident Evil: Dead Aim (2002), scene: "Opening Cutscene".
  17. Makino, BIOHAZARD UMBRELLA CHRONICLES SIDE B (2008), "Umbrella's End 1".
  18. Wesker's Extra Report (2007).
  19. 19.0 19.1 Makino, BIOHAZARD UMBRELLA CHRONICLES SIDE B (2008), "Umbrella's End 2".
  20. BIOHAZARD UMBRELLA CHRONICLES: Prelude to the Fall (2007), "Issue #1".
  21. BIOHAZARD UMBRELLA CHRONICLES: Prelude to the Fall (2007), "Issue #2".
  22. Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles (2007), scene: "Dark Legacy 1 scene 1".
  23. Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles (2007), scene: "Dark Legacy 1 scene 2".
  24. Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles (2007), scene: "Dark Legacy 2 scene 1".
  25. Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles (2007), scene: "Dark Legacy 2 scene 3".
  26. Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles (2007), file: "Online Interview with Anti-Umbrella Activist".
  27. Makino, BIOHAZARD UMBRELLA CHRONICLES SIDE B (2008), "Epilogue".
  28. BSAA Remote Desktop (2008), file: "Collapse of Subsidiary Umbrella Japan".
  29. BSAA Remote Desktop (2008), file: "News about Umbrella's bankruptcy".
  30. BSAA Remote Desktop (2008), file: "Newspaper Article About the Fall of Umbrella".
  31. Resident Evil 5 (2009), file: "History of RESIDENT EVIL".
  32. Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles (2007), file: "Wesker's Notes on Differing Mutations".
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