Short answers, pulled from the story.
Zangief is a fictional character in Capcom's Street Fighter series, a Russian professional wrestler who fights to prove his country's superiority over other nations. He debuted in 1991 as one of eight playable characters in Street Fighter II: The World Warrior.
Zangief was initially named Vodka Gobalsky as a placeholder while he was planned as a very strong but extremely slow character. His name was later changed to Zangief after a wrestler from the Soviet Union.
Zangief primarily fights using grappling moves in Street Fighter II, making him the first grappler-type character in a fighting game. He was originally planned as a strong, slow character before he became a grappler following his name change from Vodka Gobalsky to Zangief.
One unnamed player won 85 games in a row with Zangief on a test cabinet Capcom placed in a Kyobashi arcade. Street Fighter II creator Yoshiki Okamoto later said the character was nerfed so heavily in response that the same player would occasionally lose.
Wataru Takagi voiced Zangief in the Street Fighter Alpha and Street Fighter EX series, Tesshō Genda voiced him in the Capcom vs. SNK series and Capcom Fighting Evolution, and Street Fighter IV split the role between Kenta Miyake in Japanese and Peter Beckman in English.
Andrew Bryniarski portrayed Zangief in the live-action Street Fighter film. Dutch bodybuilder and actor Olivier Richters is set to play the character in an upcoming reboot.