Bereznik

Bereznik is a rouge nation from the TV Century 21 magazine.

History

Carved out of civil war-torn central Europe, the state of Bereznik occupies an area covering Eastern Germany, parts of Czechoslovakia, Ukraine and virtually all of Poland. Its capital city is named Katannia, after the daughter of their dictator General Berenora. Their continued efforts to undermine the safety and security of the World Government nations often place them and their agents in direct conflict with International Rescue and their London operative, Lady Penelope Creighton-Ward.

Biography

The Tracy family's first documented encounter with the forces of Bereznik was during 'Operation Depthprobe' where scientist Professor Spencer attempted to sabotage a rocket in the Nevada Desert, which was to be used to safely ignite an unstable rocket fuel, called pentatholeum, in space, as part of a plan to wipe out Western America. He failed, and was captured by base security. (TV21: Operation Depthprobe)

The next occurrence was during the rescue of Katania Benenora from the aftermath of an attack on a Bereznik research station, orchestrated by the Universal Security Service's chief to force International Rescue to rescue their trapped spy with exclusive knowledge of secret installation - a political conflict that Jeff Tracy had initially refused to participate in, until Katania became involved. This joint rescue resulted in Gordon Tracy being captured by the rogue state's head of secret police, Tobolsk, who used his International Rescue uniform to throw suspicion off his assassin for General Berenora. Fortunately, the murder was prevented by a timely communique from Scott Tracy, who rescued his brother from the dungeons and killed Tobolsk in self-defence during the raid. Both Katania and the trapped spy were rescued from their respective danger zones - but the latter's stolen papers were destroyed by Scott, before the World Government soldiers could arrive to collect them. (TV21: The Trapped Spy)

Parthal, the creator of an earthquake machine responsible for the city of Tashfar's devastation - and the murder of a detective investigating the site of his underground complex at Peskula - boasted that he would soon be richly rewarded by the Bereznik government for his services in the Persian region. The destruction of his complex by Scott spurred him to try and destroy Thunderbird 1, in a head-on collision by his own escape craft. However, he succeeded in little more than damaging his own left wing and plunging into a chasm of his own devising. (TV21: The Earthquake Maker)

Professor Volzac used his mechanical animals to destroy the transoceanic highway linking Australia and Antarctica - and the convoy traversing it - on behalf of Bereznik, which had supplied his installation with a garrison of soldiers from their nation-state as part of a plot to obliterate a mineral refinery plant on the southernmost continent. Scott's destruction of an electronic control device employed by Volzac resulted in the mad scientist's demise when, in the ensuing chaos, he was murdered by one of his own deranged creations. (TV21: The Antarctic Menace)

Bereznik forces afterwards took over the Pacific Marine Production Farm, and injected lobsters with a chemical which, when boiled, caused a massive explosion (which had destroyed The Golden Dawn Hotel in Hawaii). The lobsters were then released from the farm, to be swept by summer currents to the doomed Pacific island of Lingor - where the islanders had mutated into cavemen-like beings with savage minds over fifty years previously following the unearthing of a nuclear sludge and gases, and has become a penal colony. The plan is for there to be a massive explosion, spreading the gases across America. Despite the commander freeing the beastmen, Scott and Virgil captured the lobsters in a giant net. The commander afterwards confronted Scott on the island, but a beastman appeared behind him and attacked him, the pair falling into the burning wreckage. The lobsters later detonated in the empty ocean. (TV21: The Hawaiian Lobster Menace)

At one point, Bereznik agent Hermutt Clinger was instructed to kill the World Government defence minister during his stay in Paris to sign a treaty - plotting to frame Lady Penelope's agent, Roger Lyon, in a manipulated murder-suicide. Lady Penelope's image was transmitted to Clinger's superiors in Bereznik for confirmation prior to the assassin's death. (TV21: The Assassination Threat)

Appearances

Comics

Thunderbirds

• Operation Depthprobe
• The Trapped Spy
• The Earthquake Maker
• The Antarctic Menace / Into the Heart of the Iceberg
• The Hawaiian Lobster Menace
• Danger in the Deep / Danger on the High Seas

Lady Penelope

• Behind Enemy Lines
• Dangerous Fashion!
• "Story 8"
• The Assassination Threat / Kill Lady Penelope!
• Down Under!
• "Story 13"
• "Story 17"
• "Story 18"

Trivia

• The name Bereznik is an allusion to Leonid Brezhnev, who in 1964 became General Secretary of the Central Committee (CC) of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, and so de facto leader of the country.