Nikolai Ivanovich Zabelkin is the leader of Kostanay, bandit prince of Kazakhstan and a former Soviet military commander.
History[]
Nikolai Ivanovich Zabelkin is a man who was lost, but now has been found. Originally an officer renowned for his heroism in the Red Army, Zabelkin had no trouble forming a small clique of loyal soldiers around himself as the Soviet Union's political state became more and more precarious. When the country disintegrated in the wake of the Nazi victory, Zabeikin led his ragtag army to his native Kazakhstan, becoming one of the dozens of bandit princes who rose in those tumultuous years. And just like many of his rivals, he and his brigade soon met an inglorious end. His soldiers were ambushed, his officers were betrayed, his men were slaughtered, and he was left buried up to his neck in the desert. How he was saved, nobody knows. Zabelkin claims it was God himself.
When he staggered into a nearby village, sunburnt and delirious, he requested to be brought to an imam rather than a doctor. As he recuperated in the mosque, Zabelkin told the imam that Allah, in His infinite mercy, had lifted him out of the sand and led him to the village. Zabelkin swore that this gift of a life renewed was a debt he could never afford to repay to God, but the best he could do was to pledge a life dedicated to His will.
The imam believed him, and so did many others in the village. When he had recuperated, Zabelkin rounded up a dozen of his most fervent followers and set out to kill the minor warlord who claimed the village as his dominion. Against all odds, Zabelkin would triumph, and he would repeat this victory again and again until all of Kostanay was liberated. But while the region is once again living by Allah's will, there is still much wickedness and apostasy that thrives in the lands of the faithful, and that cannot be tolerated.