Yuri
Actor: Udo Kier
Name: Yuri*Nationality / origin:* Unknown*Affiliations:* Soviet Union, then Yuri's Army*Roles:* Advisor to Romanov, Commander of the Psychic Corps*Speciality:* Telepathy, mind control and psychic technologies*Related technologies:* Psychic beacons, Psychic Dominators, cloning, genetic mutations*Original superior:* Alexander Romanov*Games:* Red Alert 2, Red Alert 2: Yuri's Revenge
Status: Varies depending on the campaign; captured in the Allied ending of Yuri's Revenge.
Yuri is a powerful Soviet telepath who became one of Prime Minister Alexander Romanov’s chief advisers during the Third World War. His origins remain particularly obscure, but he possesses psychic abilities powerful enough to directly control the human mind.
In the service of the Soviet Union, Yuri heads the Psychic Corps, a specialist branch tasked with developing and deploying mind-control technologies.
His powers enable him, in particular, to influence individuals from a great distance. From the very start of the invasion of the United States, he took control of Lieutenant Jerry Boyd in order to sabotage the American nuclear response.
The Red Army then exploits Yuri’s work on a much larger scale using Psychic Beacons, capable of placing entire populations under Soviet control.
Washington is thus temporarily subjugated, until the Allied Forces destroy the beacon controlling the capital.
The real power behind Romanov
Romanov publicly displays great confidence in Yuri, but this relationship gradually becomes far more troubling.
Yuri uses his powers directly on the Premier and eventually exerts considerable influence over the Soviet government. The line between adviser and the regime’s true Mastermind becomes increasingly blurred.
General Vladimir, in particular, bears the brunt of this. When he becomes a hindrance, Yuri manipulates the situation to bring about his downfall and elimination.
Romanov himself eventually realises that he has lost control.
Before his death, he manages to secretly record a message in which he reveals that Yuri is controlling his mind and asks the Soviet Commander to avenge him.
In the Soviet campaign, this tape sparks a full-scale uprising against Yuri and leads to the storming of the Kremlin.
Yuri appears to have been eliminated.
But he has not.
The Birth of Yuri's Army
Whilst the Allies and the Soviets are fighting each other, Yuri is secretly preparing his own conquest of the world.
He diverts some of the Psychic Corps’ resources and gradually builds up an independent army, based on mind control, cloning and genetic experimentation.
In particular, he acquires Soviet cloning technology, which he refines to produce numerous psychic clones in his own image.
His objective now extends far beyond control of the Soviet Union.
Yuri wants to control the whole of humanity.
To achieve this, he has a network of gigantic Psychic Dominators built all over the Earth. These super-weapons are intended to enable him to take control of entire populations simultaneously.
Yuri's Revenge
A few weeks after the defeat of the Soviet Union, Yuri finally reveals his plan to the US President,Michael Dugan.
He announces that his network of Dominators is ready and that much of the world will soon belong to him.
The Allies immediately attempt to destroy the Dominator on Alcatraz.
The attack damages its power supply and delays its activation, but Yuri’s other installations function as planned.
A large part of the world’s population falls under his control.
The Allies then use Albert Einstein’s time machine to travel back in time, before the network is fully operational.
In the Soviet campaign, the Soviet Union also seizes this technology and attempts to rewrite history to its advantage.
In both cases, Yuri becomes the common enemy of the two former superpowers.
An army built around the human mind
Yuri's Army fully reflects his philosophy.
His Yuri Clones, Masterminds and Psychic Towers turn enemy units against their own allies.
The Cloning Vats allow him to reproduce infantry, whilst his Grinders directly convert captured units into resources.
He also develops the Genetic Mutator, capable of transforming infantry into gigantic Brutes.
This psychic doctrine is complemented by chemical, genetic and experimental weapons: Viruses, Magnetrons, Floating Discs, Chaos Drones and Boomer Submarines.
Yuri therefore does not merely seek to destroy the enemy: he transforms enemy Soldiers, populations and even technologies into resources for his own Army.
Yuri’s clones
Yuri makes extensive use of Soviet cloning technology.
His laboratories produce numerous psychic clones, physically similar to their originals but endowed with combat-specific abilities.
The most powerful is Yuri Prime, an enhanced version capable of taking control of enemy units and buildings.
This proliferation of the character also reinforces the ambiguity surrounding his identity: during the war against his army, it sometimes becomes difficult to determine whether the opponent encountered is actually Yuri or one of his clones.
The Fall of His Empire
Allied and Soviet operations gradually destroy Yuri’s facilities.
His bases in America, Europe, Australia and Egypt fall one after the other, whilst his network of psychic Dominators is neutralised.
In particular, the Allies discover a massive cloning facility in Sydney, evidence of the industrial scale his army has reached.
Yuri also attempts to exploit the intellect of Albert Einstein to enhance his psychic network, but the Allies manage to free the scientist.
His last major stronghold is in Antarctica.
It is here that the final showdown of the Allied campaign in Yuri's Revenge takes place.
The Allied Forces and Soviet forces cooperate to eliminate his last defences, his final Psychic Dominator and his Genetic Mutator.
Yuri is finally captured alive.
To prevent him from ever using his powers again, he is locked away in a chamber specially designed to isolate him from any mental contact with the outside world.
The Soviet Alternate Ending
In the Soviet campaign, Yuri meets a far more ironic end.
He attempts to use the time machine to escape.
However, Zofia alters the travel coordinates.
Instead of being sent to a time when he could rebuild his empire, Yuri finds himself transported millions of years into the past, face to face with a Tyrannosaurus rex.
This conclusion belongs to the Soviet branch of Yuri's Revenge and must therefore be distinguished from his capture in the Allied campaign.
Exceptional Power
Yuri is probably one of the most powerful human telepaths known in the Red Alert saga.
His powers, however, are not limited to controlling nearby Soldiers.
He is capable of influencing government officials, controlling Romanov over a long period, and even establishing a remote mental link with Eva Lee in order to extract the Emplacement of a diplomatic summit from her.
This is what makes Yuri far more dangerous than a mere General:his main battlefield is the opponent’s mind.
Yuri and Stalin
Yuri’s exact origins remain unknown. Some sources link him to the psychic research undertaken under Stalin, but his past prior to his appearance alongside Romanov remains largely a mystery.