A child survivor of the Red Skull's attack on the Russian village of Kronas, Lukin came under the care of Russian General Vasily Karpov.

Upon the death of Karpov, the General's secret KGB-developed weaponry and technology, including the Winter Soldier, who was in stasis at the time, passed to Lukin. Lukin orchestrated the assassination of the Red Skull, and took the Skull's Cosmic Cube for himself.

It is later revealed that the Red Skull did not die, and had instead used the last trickle of power remaining in the Cosmic Cube to transfer his conciousness into Lukin's body. The two now inhabit the same body, and wage a constant battle for control.

Aleksander Lukin is also the owner of the Kronas Corporation, a powerful conglomerate with offices in every metropolitan center across the globe, political immunity, and a corporate-owned country along the China-Mongolia border.