Mikhail Tsvigun

Mikhail Semenovich Tsvigun (Михаил Семёнович Цвигун, 米哈伊尔・谢苗诺维奇・茨维贡), nicknamed Misha (米沙), Old Misha (老米莎) or Locksmith, was a Soviet General and youngest Director of the 16th Directorate of the KGB, born 4 March 1953 in Chisinau, Moldova. He is a recipient of the Order of the Red Star the Order of Lenin and Russian Federation State Special Allowance, and Hero of Socialist Labor. Mikhail has remained heavily influential in relics matters inside the Soviet Union for many decades, using his mysteriously slow aging process and many connections, among them his own successor in the relics security agency, Viktor Zelinsky. He was also a proponent of Rossartrism.

Mikhail does not appear in Girls' Frontline but works secretely with Havier Witkin, Zelinsky and Griffin Lyons to further their interests during the story.

Not to be confused with ^AR AS ValAS Val 's bear plushie, also called "Misha".

Biography

Early life and military career

Born in a family working for the KGB, Mikhail followed his parents during their work through the various soviet republics, muddling records of his early life. All that is known for certain is that he once worked for the TASS and studied in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan. After his 11 years of mandatory education, he followed his destined path and entered the Dzerzhinsky Higher School of the KGB to study encryption.

Around 1973, several positions within the 16th Directorate of the KGB opened following the OKb-10 incident and Mikhail was selected. Mikhail rose swiftly through the ranks due to his abilities and family background, and he became assistant to the Director in 1976. In this position, Mikhail came into contact with many secrets and successfully protected them all his life. In private, his colleagues called him Locksmith, but his public nickname was Misha, which he was fond of and insisted even his later subordinate call him by. On 7 January 1981, Mikhail directed the special operation to test Pikes at the Khyber Pass under the identity of technical expert Borikin, for which he was awarded the Order of the Red Star.

In 1982, Mikhail’s father passed away along with Second Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union Mikhail Suslov, but his ascension continued unabated despite the loss of two influential backers. The General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union Yuri Andropov placed a great deal of trust in him, and at the end of December 1983, Mikhail was promoted Colonel at an astonishing 32 years old and was made Director of the 16th Directorate despite his young age and low rank compared to other directorate leaders, earning him much jealousy. In the aftermath of the Relic Arms Limitation Treaty, Mikhail was in charge of securing and archiving all data pertaining to relic technology that hadn't been destroyed as part of the Treaty.

1983 was the year the Geneva Gazette was signed between the Soviet Union and the United States, and throughout 1984 devices related to Relic technology were sealed away or abandoned. Mikhail drafted the plan to reuse the OGAS network system as the National Economy Automation System, abandoning its original role as a strategic control network for Pikes, but later in the 1980s concerns were focused on the economic instability provoked by the ELID and oil global crises, taking budget and time away from the progressive demilitarization of OGAS' subsystems. Nevertheless, Mikhail and OGAS project director Viktor Glushkov worked with the benediction of the Central Committee to preserve the history of relic development poured into OGAS while the world was rejecting all Relic technology. Even after the UN passed the Relic Technology Convention on 31 March 1991, Mikhail pushed back the sealing date of OGAS to archive and shut down the system properly, believing that it was key to a revolution in state economy planning.

However, on 19 August 1991, a coup d'état ended the Soviet Union, which was replaced by the Russian Federation. Mikhail and the 16th Directorate's influence waned suddenly, but recovered in 1993 when the global relic technology market picked up again. In a surprising move, Mikhail chose this time to quit his position as director and return to teaching encryption at his alma mater, then renamed FSB Academy.

Secret influence

In the backstage, Mikhail was still heavily involved on all government matters regarding relics thanks to his many proteges occupying key positions. On 10 August 1999, Prime Minister Putin called him the day following his investiture to consult him on relic topics. Following this encounter, the Russian Federation was restrained during the Relic Bubble of 1999-2001 while the West and Japan poured their economy in this market. As Mikhail reached 50 years old, his colleagues noticed he was aging slower than others, and in 2012 he retired completely as a way to appear as old as he was, while still handling relics-related business and searching for his true successor as the person-in-charge of relics in Russia.

Mikhail would find his successor in 2022 during a relics research panel at the Poznan University, when a mathematics student from the University of Warsaw named Viktor Zelinsky approached him with questions about the Khyber Pass operation, having pieced up the full picture from publicly available information and rumors. Due to Mikhail's children having followed his wife during their divorce, and his close friendship with Zelinsky, many viewed them as father and son. In 2023, Mikhail participated in a research conference about the Antarctic Relic cluster. As one of the last gatekeepers of the former Soviet Union’s Relic technology, his suggestions led to good progress in the subsequent explorations of the relic.

Neo-Soviet Union

After the Beilan Island Incident of January 2030, Mikhail declined to help the Russian government in facing the crisis, only handing them some relevant data. In secret, he supported the Neo-Soviet Bolshevik movement, helping them respond meaningfully to the situation while government agencies were left flailing aimlessly in the dark. In early June 2030, Rossartre, trapped in contaminated Japan, used his knowledge gained as a relics scientist and tapped into the Russian nuclear submarines satellite network to contact Mikhail in Moscow and ask for his help in fleeing Japan with the body of Kawasaki Kazusa, an ELID-immune human. Mikhail arranged for the nuclear submarine Alexander III to pick Rossartre and Kazusa's body at sea near Sadoshima and fly them from Vladivostok to Moscow, using the heavy Bolshevik influence in the Russian Far East. On 8 July 2030, Mikhail and Zelinsky met with Rossartre and seized his notes, portable hard drive and recording pen, and duplicated them. They then asked him to relate his experiences in contaminated area of Korea, China and Japan before sending him back on a night flight to London with his personal items and a thousand pounds sterling cash. The Bolsheviks seized Kazusa's body and experimented on it, but concluded that it could not help solve ELID.

As the federal government moved to quash the brewing revolution, Mikhail supported Zelinsky as he suppressed anti-Bolshevik operations, eventually leading to the rise of the Neo-Soviet Union after the Battle of Minsk of March 2032. At this date, Mikhail disappeared from Moscow, and his pension stopped being withdrawn starting April 2032. A report from the Chasniki Frontline Command Center from February 2032 mentioned an old man wearing the bars of a Lieutenant-General of the National Guard, but walking without any difficulty. In 2033, the Rossartrists mentioned Mikhail as an important contact in their plans to save mankind from extinction in World War Three. During the war, in May 2049, Zelinsky contacted Mikhail after discovering a relics data breach caused by Lycoris. Another Rossartrist report from the early 2050s speaks of Misha as a "former comrade".

Mikhail is later credited for Zelinsky's tenure as director of the Bureau of State Security.

Girls' Frontline

After the Paldiski Incident, Havier Witkin reported to the Commander that Mikhail was very pleased with the results of their operation in the base despite the temporary activation of the Starfish.

During her investigations in Berlin, Angelia tried to directly contact Mikhail for help after running out of leads on Paradeus, but she didn't know if her message ever reached him.

During the Fireworks Incident at the western Neo-Soviet Union border, Mikhail called Witkin to confirm the trap planned against General Carter's military rebellion was ready, and he authorized Havier to take further action to save Berezovich Kryuger, Helian and Persica from the attack on the Griffin and Kryuger base.