Lev Kravchenko

"You again... I should have killed you in Vorkuta..."

- Lev Kravchenko to Alex Mason in "Payback", before his death.

Soviet Colonel Lev Kravchenko is the secondary antagonist in Call of Duty: Black Ops. He is Dragovich's second in command, and he is the reason why the SOG were deployed to Vietnam.

In any other regime, Colonel Kravchenko would be locked away if not executed. Often referred to as Dragovich's lap dog, Kravchenko is a cold-hearted sadist. Staying mostly silent, he carries out his master's orders without question. A rumor originating from his village outside of Leningrad tells of Kravchenko's mutilation and murder of his sister Irina, who spurned the romantic advances of his mentor, Dragovich. This act of loyalty, as the rumor goes, led directly to his commission as an officer under Dragovich's command.

Much like Dragovich, Kravchenko detests Viktor Reznov. His reasons however, are much more mundane than those of Dragovich: Kravchenko is a sycophant and takes his lead wholly from his General.

Kravchenko is a powerful figure of a man, built for war. He is a sociopath, and must fulfill his bloodlust no matter the cost. He is murderous but not vengeful. He does not see past his next action, and therefore will always be a weapon of war, and not an orchestrator. Kravchenko enjoys the suffering of others; it is one of the few things that can incite anything resembling a human feeling inside the man.

Kravchenko is killed in Payback when Woods literally back stabs Kravchenko before he is about to kill Mason, he then attempts to kill Mason and Woods even if it costs Kravchenko his life by pulling the pins on Woods' belt, leaving Woods with no choice but to throw Mason to the ground and tackle Kravchenko out a window, after which an explosion is heard, leaving the player to presume both Kravchenko and Woods were killed.

Kravchenko is voiced by Andrew Divoff.

Gallery
thumb|300px|right|Young Kravchenko in the mission "Project Nova"

Trivia

 * Unlockable intel states that a cousin of Kravchenko took part in the destruction of Der Reise; this is confusing because only Tank Dempsey, Nikolai Belinski, Takeo Masaki, and Edward Richtofen are known to visit the factory. On the other hand, there is no proof that they actually destroyed Der Reise-- perhaps the group was eventually rescued by Soviets who demolished it.
 * Referring to the above, the intel also mentioned that American soldiers went to the factory too, resulting in their deaths. It is unknown whether they perished by the zombies, or the Soviets themselves.
 * Kravchenko has a picture that can be found in the command post (mission "Victor Charlie") and his office (mission "Payback"), which is taken during the "Project Nova" mission - from left to right: Dimitri, Kravchenko, Steiner, Dragovich and Reznov.
 * Andrew Divoff, the voice over of Kravchenko, acted in the series "Lost" as a Mikhail Bakunin, a former Soviet communique/medical officer who served in the SAF before being recruited by "the Others". Besides the fact Bakunin was a Soviet soldier, he dies in a similar fashion to Kravchenko: both are pierced by a blade/blade-like object (Kravchenko a knife, Mikhail a spear), and both attempt to take one of the protagonists with them to their deaths by pulling the pin on grenades, attempting to take the intended target with them to their graves (though only Mikhail would succeed).
 * Andrew Divoff had previously acted with Gary Oldman (the voice over of Reznov) in Air Force One as a similar Russian villain and one of Oldman's character's henchmen.
 * It could be possible that Divoff was picked to voice Krachenko due to his reputation for playing villains, specifically Russian villians such as a henchman in Air Force One and another henchman in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (which the film was also set during the Cold War just like the game Black Ops).
 * In the level ' Victor Charlie ', Mason said ' General Kravchenko ' despite his rank to be a Colonel.
 * During the Project Nova mission after you meet Steiner,and you are walking to the large boat,you can look to your right and see Kravchenko executing soldiers,when he gets to the last soldier his pistol magazine runs out and instead he slits the soldier's throat.
 * In the mission Rebirth it appears as though Mason/Reznov is wearing Kravchenko's clothing.
 * It seems that Kravchenko is always loyal to Dragovich, because they have been together since WWII, and Reznov says to Dimitri in "Project Nova:" "Dragovich and his lap dog Kravchenko."
 * Dragovich and Kravchenko also could be close friends.
 * According to the intel unlockable in mission "Crash Site", Kravchenko, under the orders of Dragovich, used the villages in the border regions at Laos for field-testing the Nova 6, and after the tests littered the site with dead SOG operatives to make the carnage on civilian lives were the work of Americans.
 * Kravchenko has stepped on Mason 9 times: Once in the endings of "Crash Site" and "Operation 40" and seven times near the end of "Payback".
 * Other than in the level "Project Nova" Kravtchenko bears an uncanny resemblance to Imran Zakhaev from Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare.
 * Kravchenko almost kills Mason in "Payback" solely by punching and kicking him.
 * Kravchenko cannot be killed through the glass no matter how many times the player shoots at it. It can be assumed that the glass was bulletproof.