Nikolai Stepanovich Sokolov

Nikolai Stepanovich Sokolov was a Russian scientist who defected to the US shortly after the beginning of the Cold War. He was the head of the OKB-754 before he defected. He designed the Shagohod and later used designs from fellow scientist Granin to build Metal Gear RAXA and the ICBMG.

Biography
In 1960, Sokolov participated in the Soviet Vostok program, designing the multi-motor cluster for the Vostok A-1. He wanted to keep investigating for the Soviet space program, but, instead, he was named the Chief Designer of the Secret Weapons Research Office for the Soviet Union. In 1961, he began designing the Shagohod and its intermediate range nuclear weapons capabilities. He began to worry about the weapon he was developing and its consequences on the world. He decided to defect with his family from the Soviet Union. In 1962, Major Zero helped Sokolov and his family defect to the U.S., but in late October, the Cuban Missile Crisis threatened the world with a nuclear holocaust.

On October 28, America and the Soviet Union reached a compromise. The Soviet Union agreed to remove its missiles from Cuba, but in exchange the Americans had to surrender Sokolov over to the Russians. He was then placed in an abandoned research facility near the OKB-812, and was guarded by KGB soldiers to make him work on the Shagohod.

Sokolov showed fear to his enemies but also presented courage, when Tatyana was being shocked by Colonel Volgin, Sokolov threatened that he would not work on the project if she was hurt, but was proven wrong when Colonel Volgin threatened him. He had no shame for what he did but had guilt that his gifts were being used to bring destruction to mankind. He loved his family and showed affection towards people who were being hurt by others.

Virtuous Mission
American intelligence later discovered why the Soviets needed Sokolov to return, so they later started the Virtuous Mission allegedly in an attempt to rescue him. The agent that they dispatched into Tselinoyarsk, Naked Snake, eventually managed to enter Rassvet, the location of the abandoned research center. Sokolov in the meantime was burning documents that were presumably related to the Shagohod's development. When Snake eventually managed to get to the shack that Sokolov was in, Sokolov initially thought that Naked Snake was one of Volgin's men until he stated that he was a CIA agent who was to escort Sokolov to the other side of the iron curtain, as well as giving him Zero's message. Sokolov then explains that the KGB wasn't holding him hostage, they were actually guarding him, not from America, but from the extremist faction of the Red Army led by Colonel Volgin of GRU. He explained that ever since the Cuban Missile Crisis, Khrushchev intended to try and have a peaceful coexistance with America, even with the hawks in the Red Army as well as the provincial authorities. However, support for Khrushchev had waned significantly after one of his biggest allies, United States President John F. Kennedy, was assassinated, and that a certain extremist group, led by Volgin, is intending to rally over all of the anti-governmental forces, overthrow Khrushchev, and then install Leonid Brezhnev and Aleksei Kosygin in his place. He also explained that the KGB was willing to do anything to keep the extremist faction from getting their hands on him, even if it meant killing him. After Naked Snake succeeded in rescuing Sokolov, he was quickly confronted by The Boss, who told Snake of her defection. The Boss then took Sokolov as a "gift" for Volgin. They also took Tatyana, who was supposedly Sokolov's lover.

Operation Snake Eater
Sokolov, for most of Operation Snake Eater, was forced to complete the Shagohod for Volgin. One time, he tried to resist going somewhere (presumably trying to make the finishing touches of the Shagohod), but Volgin used Tatyana as a lightning rod for his electric abilities to force him to complete it. Ocelot then entered and attempted to scare him by firing off revolvers with only one of the revolvers having a bullet, but The Boss, who had came to alert to Volgin about The Pain's demise by Naked Snake's hands, managed to stop Ocelot and break one of his revolvers in the process. Later on, Tatyana requested the battle data of the Shagohod from him. Sokolov gave it to her, thinking it would be handed over to Khrushchev—unbeknownst to him, it would actually be given to the People's Republic of China. Shortly after that exchange, Snake attempted to rescue him again, but he informed Snake that he was too late, as the Shagohod had already been finished. Snake contradicted him, saying that if the liquid fuel tanks were to be destroyed along with the Shagohod, there would still be hope for the safety of the world. Just when Snake was going to see him out of Groznyj Grad, Sokolov refused, as he would probably sent to a Soviet prison camp, as Khrushchev had abandoned him. Snake asked him about returning to America, but Sokolov told him that he'd only be used for America's nuclear purposes, and instead of being taken anywhere he'd rather just be ensured to be safe. After the Shagohod was completed and Volgin felt that Sokolov had served his purpose, he was shot in the legs and was then beaten to a pulp and placed in a Soviet prison camp. Because Snake's head had been covered in a bag during Sokolov's beating, he assumed that Volgin had brutally murdered Sokolov with his bare hands. Sokolov actually survived with the help of a Fake Death Pill given to him by the CIA, and The Boss helped him escape Groznyj Grad. He was later captured by the KGB.

See San Hieronymo Takeover

While imprisoned, the camp was secretly infiltrated by Gene of the FOX unit, who rescued Sokolov and succeeded in bringing him back to the United States and reuniting him with his family. While in the United States, Sokolov's previous assumptions came true, and he was recruited by Gene to design and build the first official Metal Gear project, based on a heavily modified version of the blueprints in Granin's office. Gene brought him to the San Hieronymo Peninsula to build Metal Gear RAXA and the ICBMG, while Sokolov secretly planned to rebel against Gene, who he had realized as a maniac.

When Naked Snake, now known as Big Boss, was captured by the remaining members of FOX, Sokolov saw his opportunity to rebel. After Big Boss escaped and began looking for ways to stop Gene's rebellion, Sokolov contacted him under the name "Prividyenie," (Ghost in English). Ghost thanked Snake for taking care of Volgin six years prior, during the events of Operation Snake Eater.

Sokolov (as Ghost) later contacted the Spy Unit at the Harbor with news that "parts from Metal Gear were located at the ship", and he supplied (with great difficulty, presumably out of guilt) information about how the Metal Gear was to be deployed via the Saturn V Rocket that was modified from plans that were stolen by a Soviet Spy in NASA, as well as giving Snake an early clue about his true identity when requesting that he get the blueprints to the Saturn V.

After Big Boss destroyed RAXA, Sokolov emerged from the shadows and told him that RAXA was only a test model. Gene then realized that Sokolov was the one who was feeding Snake information, someone he did not expect to do so. He was then arrested by his men shortly after Gene massacred both his own men and one member of Snake's unit at the Plant and held prisoner there. A spy unit later uncovered evidence about the suspected area of his imprisonment in the Plant (although they couldn't reveal more due to the risk of blowing their cover. After Snake managed to procure the Saturn V blueprints at the Silo Entrance via an encrypted signal that he learned at the Power substation, he explained why he sent them to get the so-called Saturn V blueprints. It turns out that the blueprints, despite their appearance were not of Saturn V, but in fact the ICBMG's booster rocket, which stealing the plans would have put a significant delay on launching Metal Gear. He also revealed that he couldn't have Snake steal them sooner because he didn't want anyone to know that he was still in weapons development, never mind the fact that he was involved in the development of Metal Gear made from portions of Granin's blueprints, and he couldn't do it himself because he "lacked the guts" to do it, explaining why he ended up creating the alias of Prividyenie, AKA, Ghost. Roy Campbell, after learning his reasoning, was indebted to him for supplying the information and allowed Sokolov to officially join Snake's unit. Later, when Big Boss attempted to disable the ICBMG, Sokolov assisted him, telling where it's armor was at it's weakest. After the mission, Sokolov was presumably reunited with his family and retired from rocket science, for the better of the world.

Known Equipment Developed

 * Saturn V Rocket
 * Shagohod
 * Metal Gear RAXA
 * ICBMG

Trivia

 * Going by what Major Zero says when advising Naked Snake against using the Raikov mask when rescuing him in the Virtuous Mission, he apparently hates Raikov.
 * Like Para-Medic and Sigint, Sokolov comments about rocket engineering and sci-fi movies such as Dr. Strangelove during Portable Ops.

Behind the Scenes

 * According to his stats in Portable Ops, his SNS skill is a 10, which is among the lowest spy score. Ironically, he was able to successfully feed information to Snake and his resistance, surprising even Gene when he was discovered to be the spy.