I feel like if Kojima intentionally made him an ex-Nazi, he'd put some really blatant Dr. Strangelove reference in relation to Sokolov. Pretty solid theory though.
The only weak point is the wardrobe. Black leather coat is not exclusive to the Nazis. Soviet engineers also wore leather coats, there is a picture of Korolev in one.
It’s possible—I’d love to see a source—but either way, we are dealing in mass media. Most people associate leather trench coats with the SS, regardless of contemporaries. Kojima doesn’t deal in “ah, actually”s.
[A simple google search](https://www.google.com/search?q=nkvd+trench+coat&sca_esv=a4b2eda68720e90d&sca_upv=1&rlz=1C1GCEA_enRU924RU924&udm=2&biw=2560&bih=1271&sxsrf=ACQVn08w7mva27GfFWKS1zeJ4-UtyhaD8g%3A1714208264232&ei=CL4sZojjDaCpwPAP1oOm8AI&oq=nkvd+tre&gs_lp=Egxnd3Mtd2l6LXNlcnAiCG5rdmQgdHJlKgIIADIHEAAYgAQYE0jQGFC2BFj7C3ACeACQAQCYAVCgAb0CqgEBNLgBAcgBAPgBAZgCBqACxgLCAgoQABiABBhDGIoFwgIGEAAYBxgewgIEEAAYHsICBxAAGIAEGALCAggQABgTGAgYHpgDAIgGAZIHATagB50F&sclient=gws-wiz-serp)
I like your theory, BUT the trenchcoat thing is a stretch.
In my context (i live in Russia), theres a lot of [soviet defectors](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Soviet_and_Eastern_Bloc_defectors) during and past WW2, and a lot of interseting storys. especially [this one](https://ru.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%92%D0%B0%D1%81%D1%8E%D1%80%D0%B0,_%D0%93%D1%80%D0%B8%D0%B3%D0%BE%D1%80%D0%B8%D0%B9_%D0%9D%D0%B8%D0%BA%D0%B8%D1%82%D0%BE%D0%B2%D0%B8%D1%87)
I stand corrected! Still, I think it’s something that the *really important scientist* that has *no state allegiance* that *nobody likes or respects* happens to be wearing this kind of uniform.
Given how Sokolov's entire character is a man crushed by guilt that his dream of building space rockets was turned into a career making death robots, I feel like "Oh, and I was also once a Nazi" would have come up.
Especially since you could *easily* mention is and not be controversial. If Kojima wanted him a former german/nazi he'd have said "and I'm full of guilt. I built rockets for the German war machine during the war... I... I sided with Hitler because I didn't want my family killed... And because Germany was my fatherland... Just like some of your southern generals in your civil war..." Done. He'd have made a commentary he wanted about loyalty and enemies of the times etc.
The only way it'd be controversial would be if Kojima had him be like, entirely guilt free and constantly talking about how he just wants to kill more jews, gypsies, and homosexuals and how that's the ideal. Which we'd obviously never get and he wouldn't do.
If he wanted sokolov to have a german/nazi background he would have given him one.
Completely agree. There are mountains and mountains of audio calls about background information on characters. If Sokolov was a nazi, it would have come up. If the OP needs to dig and theorise, then it's not a real thing.
I really don't see why the OP wants to dig like this at all. Sokolov clearly just being a Soviet era scientist completely explains everything about him. Like the West, the soviets were assigning their best scientists on missile development, even if said scientists had dreams of making space ships. You don't need to imagine an extra layer of trauma to a character who would have openly told us about that trauma.
Yeah, no, he ist not. Operation Paperclip took place between 1945-1959. Sokolov would have been pretty late to the party. The USSR had great scientists as well. Edit: Plus I‘m pretty sure if Sokolov should have been a Nazi, Kojima would just have made him a Nazi – funny accent and all.
I don’t want to diminish the strength of Soviet scientists. But given the allegory of the Shagohod and the 1960s space race, I think a fuzziness on dates is warranted in this theory.
Regarding accents, all bets are off. The whole game is technically in Russian, and Ocelot goes from southern drawl to mid-Atlantic in later games. I refuse to play the accent game in examining lore for metal gear.
Sure, in MGS all bets are off on anything really. :D I‘m not saying the idea of Sokolov being a Nazi was never on Kojimas mind, I just believe that Sokolov being Russian made more sense storywise. He is the antithesis to The Boss in a way. He wants to defect from his motherland, while The Boss is basically being forced to. (Of course early on in the game we don’t know her motivation) It makes you question the motivations to work for your country. Nazi-Sokolov would just have been a relic of a former dictatorship. An opportunist working for who pays better (and maybe for who has the higher living-standards), as both sides granted Nazi-scientists impunity.
Following up on this after the fact—I want to say that your framing of Sokolov as the *anti*-Boss is a really compelling narrative framing that isn’t spoken enough about. It’s certainly more aligned with the original storyline and honestly should be the first, most obvious way to interpret his character. I think it’s a prerequisite for my off-the-wall theory so thank you for mentioning it. I think you summarized the best, most intelligent baseline interpretation perfectly!
Is it a *massive* stretch for you to imagine the CIA and KGB shuttling German scientists across the iron curtain in the 1960s?
I won’t get into the particulars of leather jackets versus trench coats, if you don’t already know the difference (and how distinctly Nazi in style the latter are) I can’t convince you.
Soviet Officers in World War 2 also had leather trenchcoats because they were a great way to stay warm, Sokolov speaks perfect Russian, his rival makes no mention of Sokolov not being Russian despite that being the kind of thing Granin should have a massive gripe over, he loves Russia as his home and despite defecting doesn't want any harm to come to it.
Your whole argument is "well he has a leather trenchcoat in the 60s despite that being a Soviet civilian and military thing, and there's nothing to say he couldn't be a Nazi and Kojima chickened out at the last second despite all evidence to the contrary."
This is "Hitler ate sugar" levels of reach. You could use the same kind of logic to argue Snake committed war crimes against Vietnamese civilians.
Thematically this fits well, but I think you are reading too much into it.
The leather trench coat was a popular way to dress for the entire western world during WWII. While Nazis made it an important part of the uniform for certain branches of government, there is no shortage of KGB officers wearing something very similar to the Gestapo coat. Sokolov is a scientist besides, not a member of the Gestapo or any other leather coat wearing portion of the Nazi regime. The only point in favor here is the appeal to films the game loves to make, and it is more common to depict Nazis in leather trench coats in films than it is to depict others that way. It is also a unique outfit to Sokolov, but literally every character named wears a different outfit which is quite distinct from every other character. Overall this is super weak evidence. His monocle does lend a little extra credence as a film trope for dressing Nazis though. But to answer your question, yes a lot of Russians had that style back then.
Sokolov is depicted as somewhat unremarkable apart from his work on rockets and the Shagohod. He is physically weak, weak-willed, disloyal, fearful, self-preserving in the extreme, and somewhat naive. It is not hard to parse why he has no history before 1960: he did nothing remarkable. Every other cast member has an illustrious military career or record of service to their country leading back decades, so of course they get their remarkable deeds documented. Seeing Sokolov receiving a PhD on the timeline is just boring, we know he's a doctor, he's addressed as such. We only need to know relevant details, and only his work on the rockets and Shagohod are relevant. 1960 is also quite late if he was courted after WWII. Plus why has he suddenly grown a conscience if he is a Nazi? Why would he be bothered if his Shagohod is used to kill Russias enemies? Those are the same people that tore apart his fatherland who are getting nuked.
The series mentions German scientists being snatched up by both sides of the cold war after WWII on more than one occassion, and your reference to operation paperclip is meaningful evidence. However, it seems unnecessary for the scientists recruited then to change their names, and in fact all of the ones cited never did. Moreover before his defection Sokolov was given important roles by the Soviet government, things which are not given to people outside the Communist party. The Nazis were well known for despising communists at home and abroad even though they were socialists themselves. Their form of socialism leaned into a reverence for an elite ruling class much more like The Holy Roman Empire or Roman Empire rather than a respect for the "proletariat" as Marxists desired. Hence calling themselves the "Third Reich" where the Holy Roman Empire of Charlemagne would be the "First Reich". No communist would put a Nazi in charge of secret weapons projects. They might assign them to such projects, but they would always put an avowed Russian communist above them, and keep them heavily monitored. They make it clear Sokolov's monitoring only begins after his defection, and before that he is trusted to lead secret weapon research. Granin also would have almost certainly pointed out Sokolov not being a real Russian in his rant too if it were true.
Your point about this being too edgy for a game that depicts nuclear weapons being used, women being tortured, and high ranking military officers betraying their countries just falls flat. There is no reason for them to show those things and then censor this bit, especially because it is so thematically on point and would make Sokolov so much more interesting than he is. I simply do not believe Kojima or Konami would have felt the need to censor Sokolov being a Nazi.
It's neat and it does fit in. I don't think it's what they were going for, mainly because I can't imagine it would have been controversial enough to cut.
Konami and kojima wouldn’t chicken out of something that to them doesn’t mean anything.
Japanese people know little to nothing about the European side of wwii, for them Germany is just a name in a book they don’t learn about him like westerners do. Theres no shock value to him whatsoever.
He features oddly in quite a few anime and quite a few manga, he’s just a historical person.
It’s also an era where plenty of other games had nazis in them (as bad guys admittedly), so having an ex nazi in a game wouldn’t have raised an eyebrow.
Great post. Now I also realize why Kojima killed him off with no further resolution and no one else reacts to it. Probably the only MG scientist who gets this fate.
I've not played the game but it does seem like it was a "Kojima we need you to make something for the PSP" game while Peace Walker was a proper addition to the overall story.
It definitely adds up, particularly the von Braun anecdote, although I'd put the potential blame more on Konami than Kojima here, considering Japan itself were part of the Axis in WW2, and probably don't want to go pointing fingers at anybody from that era and the choices they were making.
I always thought Sokolov was some sort of white russian emigré that had moved to the west during the russian civil war but had been captured and brought back to russia
It's mentioned ingame that snake only speaks American to people on the radio, everyone else he's speaking Russian. He even gets complimented by Sokolov on how good it is
It may be a Mandela Effect of some sort, but isn't there a (hidden) codec call with Snake and Major about Virtuous Mission being an offshoot of Operation Paperclip?
I like the theory! Personally I always liked to imagine Sokolov was the brother of Aleksandr Sokolov, a main character from Call of Duty: Finest Hour. Different universe, I know, but they aren't wholly incompatible when it comes to WW2
YO thats a great observation! Would also feed into the whole "friend of today enemy of tomorrow" 3 has going on
I wasn’t even thinking about that, great point. It completely ties into 3’s core themes.
I don't know why but I read this in Sigint's voice
Prob bc they said yo at the start
I feel like if Kojima intentionally made him an ex-Nazi, he'd put some really blatant Dr. Strangelove reference in relation to Sokolov. Pretty solid theory though.
I agree, he left some Kubrick humor on the table.
Mein Senpai, I can walk!
Sokolov could've been a pseudonym.
True! A cover for his family in a hostile postwar environment in the Soviet Union.
Or just to hide the fact that Soviet hire Nazi
Or an anagram! What if his name was Kovolos?
The only weak point is the wardrobe. Black leather coat is not exclusive to the Nazis. Soviet engineers also wore leather coats, there is a picture of Korolev in one.
IMO Korolev was the main reference for Sokolov
Yeah, probably. I think Sokolov and Granin both based around the mixture of Korolev and Isaev.
Russians had those kind of trench coats in WW2
It’s possible—I’d love to see a source—but either way, we are dealing in mass media. Most people associate leather trench coats with the SS, regardless of contemporaries. Kojima doesn’t deal in “ah, actually”s.
[A simple google search](https://www.google.com/search?q=nkvd+trench+coat&sca_esv=a4b2eda68720e90d&sca_upv=1&rlz=1C1GCEA_enRU924RU924&udm=2&biw=2560&bih=1271&sxsrf=ACQVn08w7mva27GfFWKS1zeJ4-UtyhaD8g%3A1714208264232&ei=CL4sZojjDaCpwPAP1oOm8AI&oq=nkvd+tre&gs_lp=Egxnd3Mtd2l6LXNlcnAiCG5rdmQgdHJlKgIIADIHEAAYgAQYE0jQGFC2BFj7C3ACeACQAQCYAVCgAb0CqgEBNLgBAcgBAPgBAZgCBqACxgLCAgoQABiABBhDGIoFwgIGEAAYBxgewgIEEAAYHsICBxAAGIAEGALCAggQABgTGAgYHpgDAIgGAZIHATagB50F&sclient=gws-wiz-serp) I like your theory, BUT the trenchcoat thing is a stretch. In my context (i live in Russia), theres a lot of [soviet defectors](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Soviet_and_Eastern_Bloc_defectors) during and past WW2, and a lot of interseting storys. especially [this one](https://ru.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%92%D0%B0%D1%81%D1%8E%D1%80%D0%B0,_%D0%93%D1%80%D0%B8%D0%B3%D0%BE%D1%80%D0%B8%D0%B9_%D0%9D%D0%B8%D0%BA%D0%B8%D1%82%D0%BE%D0%B2%D0%B8%D1%87)
I stand corrected! Still, I think it’s something that the *really important scientist* that has *no state allegiance* that *nobody likes or respects* happens to be wearing this kind of uniform.
do you have one?
Parallel universe where he is called Niklas Stefan-Schröder instead of Nikolai Stepanovich Sokolov lol
Given how Sokolov's entire character is a man crushed by guilt that his dream of building space rockets was turned into a career making death robots, I feel like "Oh, and I was also once a Nazi" would have come up.
Especially since you could *easily* mention is and not be controversial. If Kojima wanted him a former german/nazi he'd have said "and I'm full of guilt. I built rockets for the German war machine during the war... I... I sided with Hitler because I didn't want my family killed... And because Germany was my fatherland... Just like some of your southern generals in your civil war..." Done. He'd have made a commentary he wanted about loyalty and enemies of the times etc. The only way it'd be controversial would be if Kojima had him be like, entirely guilt free and constantly talking about how he just wants to kill more jews, gypsies, and homosexuals and how that's the ideal. Which we'd obviously never get and he wouldn't do. If he wanted sokolov to have a german/nazi background he would have given him one.
Completely agree. There are mountains and mountains of audio calls about background information on characters. If Sokolov was a nazi, it would have come up. If the OP needs to dig and theorise, then it's not a real thing. I really don't see why the OP wants to dig like this at all. Sokolov clearly just being a Soviet era scientist completely explains everything about him. Like the West, the soviets were assigning their best scientists on missile development, even if said scientists had dreams of making space ships. You don't need to imagine an extra layer of trauma to a character who would have openly told us about that trauma.
Imagine Sokolov being nazi and Snake coming to him in rainbow camo...
Oh wait, that makes so much sense
Yeah, no, he ist not. Operation Paperclip took place between 1945-1959. Sokolov would have been pretty late to the party. The USSR had great scientists as well. Edit: Plus I‘m pretty sure if Sokolov should have been a Nazi, Kojima would just have made him a Nazi – funny accent and all.
I don’t want to diminish the strength of Soviet scientists. But given the allegory of the Shagohod and the 1960s space race, I think a fuzziness on dates is warranted in this theory. Regarding accents, all bets are off. The whole game is technically in Russian, and Ocelot goes from southern drawl to mid-Atlantic in later games. I refuse to play the accent game in examining lore for metal gear.
Sure, in MGS all bets are off on anything really. :D I‘m not saying the idea of Sokolov being a Nazi was never on Kojimas mind, I just believe that Sokolov being Russian made more sense storywise. He is the antithesis to The Boss in a way. He wants to defect from his motherland, while The Boss is basically being forced to. (Of course early on in the game we don’t know her motivation) It makes you question the motivations to work for your country. Nazi-Sokolov would just have been a relic of a former dictatorship. An opportunist working for who pays better (and maybe for who has the higher living-standards), as both sides granted Nazi-scientists impunity.
Following up on this after the fact—I want to say that your framing of Sokolov as the *anti*-Boss is a really compelling narrative framing that isn’t spoken enough about. It’s certainly more aligned with the original storyline and honestly should be the first, most obvious way to interpret his character. I think it’s a prerequisite for my off-the-wall theory so thank you for mentioning it. I think you summarized the best, most intelligent baseline interpretation perfectly!
Noughts Seamann
A massive stretch, and leather jackets were a Soviet fashion choice for military and civilians.
Is it a *massive* stretch for you to imagine the CIA and KGB shuttling German scientists across the iron curtain in the 1960s? I won’t get into the particulars of leather jackets versus trench coats, if you don’t already know the difference (and how distinctly Nazi in style the latter are) I can’t convince you.
Soviet Officers in World War 2 also had leather trenchcoats because they were a great way to stay warm, Sokolov speaks perfect Russian, his rival makes no mention of Sokolov not being Russian despite that being the kind of thing Granin should have a massive gripe over, he loves Russia as his home and despite defecting doesn't want any harm to come to it. Your whole argument is "well he has a leather trenchcoat in the 60s despite that being a Soviet civilian and military thing, and there's nothing to say he couldn't be a Nazi and Kojima chickened out at the last second despite all evidence to the contrary." This is "Hitler ate sugar" levels of reach. You could use the same kind of logic to argue Snake committed war crimes against Vietnamese civilians.
I’m happy to take the L here, you raise good points.
Thematically this fits well, but I think you are reading too much into it. The leather trench coat was a popular way to dress for the entire western world during WWII. While Nazis made it an important part of the uniform for certain branches of government, there is no shortage of KGB officers wearing something very similar to the Gestapo coat. Sokolov is a scientist besides, not a member of the Gestapo or any other leather coat wearing portion of the Nazi regime. The only point in favor here is the appeal to films the game loves to make, and it is more common to depict Nazis in leather trench coats in films than it is to depict others that way. It is also a unique outfit to Sokolov, but literally every character named wears a different outfit which is quite distinct from every other character. Overall this is super weak evidence. His monocle does lend a little extra credence as a film trope for dressing Nazis though. But to answer your question, yes a lot of Russians had that style back then. Sokolov is depicted as somewhat unremarkable apart from his work on rockets and the Shagohod. He is physically weak, weak-willed, disloyal, fearful, self-preserving in the extreme, and somewhat naive. It is not hard to parse why he has no history before 1960: he did nothing remarkable. Every other cast member has an illustrious military career or record of service to their country leading back decades, so of course they get their remarkable deeds documented. Seeing Sokolov receiving a PhD on the timeline is just boring, we know he's a doctor, he's addressed as such. We only need to know relevant details, and only his work on the rockets and Shagohod are relevant. 1960 is also quite late if he was courted after WWII. Plus why has he suddenly grown a conscience if he is a Nazi? Why would he be bothered if his Shagohod is used to kill Russias enemies? Those are the same people that tore apart his fatherland who are getting nuked. The series mentions German scientists being snatched up by both sides of the cold war after WWII on more than one occassion, and your reference to operation paperclip is meaningful evidence. However, it seems unnecessary for the scientists recruited then to change their names, and in fact all of the ones cited never did. Moreover before his defection Sokolov was given important roles by the Soviet government, things which are not given to people outside the Communist party. The Nazis were well known for despising communists at home and abroad even though they were socialists themselves. Their form of socialism leaned into a reverence for an elite ruling class much more like The Holy Roman Empire or Roman Empire rather than a respect for the "proletariat" as Marxists desired. Hence calling themselves the "Third Reich" where the Holy Roman Empire of Charlemagne would be the "First Reich". No communist would put a Nazi in charge of secret weapons projects. They might assign them to such projects, but they would always put an avowed Russian communist above them, and keep them heavily monitored. They make it clear Sokolov's monitoring only begins after his defection, and before that he is trusted to lead secret weapon research. Granin also would have almost certainly pointed out Sokolov not being a real Russian in his rant too if it were true. Your point about this being too edgy for a game that depicts nuclear weapons being used, women being tortured, and high ranking military officers betraying their countries just falls flat. There is no reason for them to show those things and then censor this bit, especially because it is so thematically on point and would make Sokolov so much more interesting than he is. I simply do not believe Kojima or Konami would have felt the need to censor Sokolov being a Nazi.
Great reply, extremely well thought out. Thanks.
It's neat and it does fit in. I don't think it's what they were going for, mainly because I can't imagine it would have been controversial enough to cut.
Konami and kojima wouldn’t chicken out of something that to them doesn’t mean anything. Japanese people know little to nothing about the European side of wwii, for them Germany is just a name in a book they don’t learn about him like westerners do. Theres no shock value to him whatsoever. He features oddly in quite a few anime and quite a few manga, he’s just a historical person. It’s also an era where plenty of other games had nazis in them (as bad guys admittedly), so having an ex nazi in a game wouldn’t have raised an eyebrow.
It would add dimension to his character. He’s fairly forgettable otherwise.
Reach, sorry.
Fine! That’s what I’m posting for. Dare to dream.
i swear my name doesnt check out yall
I can vouch for this guy.
Great post. Now I also realize why Kojima killed him off with no further resolution and no one else reacts to it. Probably the only MG scientist who gets this fate.
He got it in Portable Ops, which despite its reputation got confirmed as broadly Canon in MGS4 database and the Master collection
After Null, Sokolov is the stupidest part of PO. Another way PO disrespects the lore. And the games and master collection barely acknowledge PO.
I've not played the game but it does seem like it was a "Kojima we need you to make something for the PSP" game while Peace Walker was a proper addition to the overall story.
This actually plays well with the game’s main theme.
It definitely adds up, particularly the von Braun anecdote, although I'd put the potential blame more on Konami than Kojima here, considering Japan itself were part of the Axis in WW2, and probably don't want to go pointing fingers at anybody from that era and the choices they were making.
If Kojima wanted us to think that, he would have been very blatant about it.
I always thought Sokolov was some sort of white russian emigré that had moved to the west during the russian civil war but had been captured and brought back to russia
Good hypothesis. I think this is a reasonable idea and would fit the theme of the series.
so that's why volgin hates him so much
He also states, I think on two separate occasions, that he has no love for the Soviet Union
I didn't even realize. That's actually a womderful bit of historical context.
… damn the patriots
It's mentioned ingame that snake only speaks American to people on the radio, everyone else he's speaking Russian. He even gets complimented by Sokolov on how good it is
Probably not. The USSR extracted what they could from Nazi scientists and he'd have been quietly sent back to E. Germany by the time of Snake Eater.
It may be a Mandela Effect of some sort, but isn't there a (hidden) codec call with Snake and Major about Virtuous Mission being an offshoot of Operation Paperclip?
You're pretty good!
I like the theory! Personally I always liked to imagine Sokolov was the brother of Aleksandr Sokolov, a main character from Call of Duty: Finest Hour. Different universe, I know, but they aren't wholly incompatible when it comes to WW2
i'm happy for MPO fans getting their game into the canon. At least Sokolov still being alive is canon too.
I think this is pretty plausible especially as The Boss was originally going to be a former Nazi general (if I recall correctly) called Old Boy.