Zhukov was an American named Jim Harrel, who had spent the previous few years of his wrestling career portraying a Russian.
The team made their debut on the October 24, 1987 edition of 'WWF Superstars of Wrestling', defeating Lance Allen and Sonny Rodgers.
The Bolsheviks began the new year on NBC television, as they received a title opportunity against WWF World Tag Team Champions Strike Force on the January 2 edition of Saturday Night's Main Event XIV.
They accumulated multiple losses to Blair and Brunzell that month, then rebounded in February and secured several wins against The Rougueau Brothers, Killer Bees, and Young Stallions.
[9] During the spring Zhukov and Volkoff began to sustain more losses than wins in continuing house show encounters with The Young Stallions and The Killer Bees.
While gearing up for a pivotal televised match against The Powers of Pain at SummerSlam they began a house show series with The British Bulldogs that saw both teams secure victories.
A month later, the duo was once again a part of the 10 team elimination match held at Survivor Series '88, this time captained by Demolition (who would end the night turning babyface.)
In Volkoff's absence Zukhov became an opening card singles wrestler mostly working as a jobber and faced much of the WWF roster as the year progressed.
Finally on September 29, 1989, Nikolai returned, and he Zhukov reformed the Bolsheviks,[4] and began to face The Rockers in losing efforts on house shows.
On the October 30 edition of Prime Time Wrestling The Bolsheviks finally obtained their first victory of the year when they defeated Trent Knight and Reno Riggins.