Born to Ludmilla and Ivan Levsky on June 22, 1965, in 2000 Ivan Levsky is 35 years old. As his home town of Prešov, Slovakia is at the foothills of the Carpathian Mountains, Ivan grew up on the slopes. His favorite sport to watch on the TV was skoki; men's individual downhill ski jumping. Summers were spent on his parents' farm just outside of town.

After finishing the University of Bratislava with above average marks, Ivan joined the Czecholslovakian Air Force where he learned to pilot the Mi-24 Hind D. When war erupted in Europe, Captain Levsky was a flight leader on the way to becoming a Major. He was being groomed by the squadron commander to take over his slot when the older officer retired. Ivan saw combat in Germany and Poland.

When the fuel ran out, Captain Levsky's unit was relegated to guarding supply dumps. Later a Soviet General decreed that they would be used in the infantry role. Watching highly trained aviators and aviation technicians die needlessly for Soviet officers in Moscow Ivan deserted, making a statement to a chain of command that forgot that the men come first.

Unable to risk his family by returning to Prešov, Ivan sought refuge in the recently founded Independent Ukraine. His cousin Bogdan lives in Odessa and took his Slovakian cousin in to hide him from the Soviets. Bogdan is a cab driver by trade and Ivan's arrival has allowed Bogdan to be able to take weekends off and spend time with his wife and two daughters, leaving Bogdan's precious LuAZ-969M Volyn taxi in his Ivan's capable hands. Of course since working for the DIA Ivan doesn't drive normal fares around anymore and Bogdan is sometimes hired as a second driver.

Ivan is obsessed with the Old West and the cowboy culture in general. He dreams of settling down with a Texas girl(or two) and living on a small ranch with horses. He often tries to improve his poor English by reading an old western novel by Jeb White, The Lonely Rider. How he's going to go from a cabbie in Odessa to a land owner in Texas he doesn't know, but he often finds time to daydream about life in the West.