Josip Hrvoje Peruzović (October 14, 1947 – July 29, 2018),better known by his ring name Nikolai Volkoff, was a Croatian-American professional wrestler from Yugoslavia. A fellow Croatian-native played the first Soviet Volkoff character in American pro-wrestling. Steve Gobb, born Gobrokovich, wrestled as USSR's Nicoli Volkoff in the 1960s before the character was picked up by Josip.

In 1970 he began wrestling in Vince McMahon Sr.'s World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF). Wrestling as Bepo Mongol, managed by "Captain" Lou Albano and partnered with Newton Tattrie (as Geeto Mongol) as the Mongols. In 1971, Peruzovic left the WWWF and went on to singles competition under the name "Nikolai Volkoff".

In 1974, Volkoff returned to the company and appeared in a memorable match at a sold out Madison Square Garden and wrestled one of the sport's most famous champions, Bruno Sammartino. In 1976, he was masked as an Executioner as he became the third member along with Killer Kowalski and Big John Studd. They captured the World Tag Team Championship, but it was vacated due to a third member interfering. Later he reverted to the Volkoff name. During this time in the WWWF, he had a very successful feud with Bruno Sammartino. During this tenure, he began crushing fresh apples with one hand as a sign of what he would do to his opponents. He later had a feud with Bob Backlund during Backlund's tenure as champion.

In July 1984, Volkoff returned to the renamed WWF and teamed with the Iron Sheik with the pair being managed by the "Hollywood fashion plate" "Classy" Freddie Blassie. It was at this point that Volkoff began to sing the national anthem of the Soviet Union before every match after which the Sheik would grab the microphone and proclaim "Iran number one, Russia number one" before exaggeratedly spitting after saying "USA", in order to gain even more heat for being foreign heels. The new team of Volkoff and the Iron Sheik captured the WWF Tag Team Championship from the U.S. Express (Mike Rotundo and Barry Windham) at the first WrestleMania, on March 31, 1985, after the Sheik had knocked out Windham with Fred Blassie's cane. Volkoff began to wrestle more in singles competition. He faced Hulk Hogan for the WWF World Heavyweight Championship on several occasions in 1985 and 1986.

In late 1987, Volkoff was teamed with Boris Zhukov, another purported Russian (played by American James Harrell), to form the Bolsheviks. In 1990, Volkoff turned face and defected to America.

This skin was made for me by Yondee.