The Survivalist is the generic title of Jerry Ahern's long-lived series of 29 pulp novels centering around John Rourke, an ex-CIA officer turned weapons and survival expert, in the aftermath of a nuclear war.
[1] The first few books cover Rourke's attempts to find his family, on the way fighting invading Soviet troops as well as typical post-apocalyptic villains such as biker gangs, mutants and cannibals in extended scenes of graphic violence.
Fond of his looted Browning Hi-Power 9 mm pistol and vintage WW II "Schmeisser" MP-40 submachine gun.
After her surrogate parents died in a road accident, Natalia trained as a KGB agent, reaching the rank of major by the beginning of the war.
Married to the unpredictable and often exceedingly ruthless Vladimir Karamatzov—the head of the KGB in the U.S.—whom she eventually left after being beaten and otherwise mistreated—she developed a close relationship with Rourke.
Varakov is at his best when he spews withering insults upon one of his country's intelligence assets who has survived to become a person of importance in the remnants of the U.S. federal government.
Rourke manages to crash-land the plane near Albuquerque, New Mexico and teams up with Paul Rubenstein, another survivor of the crash.
Searching for a NASA astronaut who knows about a mysterious "Eden Project", Rourke enters Soviet-occupied Athens, Georgia, and is captured.
To save themselves from war-induced climate change (specifically, the ionization of the atmosphere due to unexplained side effects of the nuclear exchange), the KGB loot Eden Project cryonics research from the Johnson Space Center, while Rourke and Natalia fight through Soviet troops, feral dogs, and cannibals to discuss the coming 'end of the world' with Varakov in Chicago.
Rourke and Natalia break into 'The Womb', a Soviet survival habitat in what used to be NORAD, to prevent the KGB from destroying the Eden Project shuttles on their return to Earth.
The two take cryonics equipment allowing the Rourkes, Paul, and Natalia to survive the impending climatic catastrophe.
Having planned a five hundred year cryogenic sleep to await the returning Eden Project shuttles, Rourke awakens Annie and Michael early, raising them until their late teens.
Michael explores the post-apocalypse world, finding tribes of cannibals surrounding a pre-war fallout shelter where the occupants rigorously maintain a limited population, sending excess workers outside to die.
The Soviet Union has survived in massive underground shelters and continues their conflict with the Rourke family across the globe.
Such detail regarding the brands and specific products endorsed by Rourke extends to all sorts of items that appear in the series.