Boris Polevoy

Boris Nikolaevich Polevoy (or Polevoi) (Russian: Бори́с Никола́евич Полево́й; March 17 [4], 1908 – July 12, 1981) was a notable Soviet writer. He is the author of the book Story of a Real Man about a Soviet World War II fighter pilot Alexei Petrovich Maresiev (or Alexej Petrovich Maresjev).

Boris Polevoy was a pseudonym for Boris Nikolaevich Kampov (1908–1981). He was born in Moscow in 1908, the son of a physician and a Jew, born "beyond the Pale of Settlement." His parents were Nikolay Petrovich and Lidiya (Vasilyevna) Kampov. He was a graduate of the Tver Industrial Technical College (now Kalinin Industrial College).

Prior to starting his career as a writer, he worked as a technologist at a textile factory in Kalinin. As he began his journalism career in 1928, his talents were such that he was chosen to be patronized by Maxim Gorky.

His nom de plume has several variations based on transliterations. He was thought to have chosen the name in homage to Nikolai Polevoy, a nineteenth-century Russian editor and writer known for writing historical novels very loosely based on facts.

He is perhaps best known for his reporting on the atrocities at Auschwitz soon after its liberation, which were the first to have been published in Pravda. His accounts reportedly differ from what others found, including a description of a conveyor belt that first electrocuted, then transported inmates' corpses into a furnace.

Polevoy began reporting for Pravda in 1939 or 1941. At the time, he was still serving in the Red Army as a lieutenant colonel. He would eventually attain the rank of colonel. He continued as a war correspondent for the newspaper until 1945.

He married Yuliya Osipovna in 1939; the couple had two sons and a daughter.

Story about a True Man (also translated as Story of a Real Man), based on the life of Alexey Maresyev, was an immensely popular novel. It was eventually made into an opera. It was first published in English in 1952, and was reprinted in 1970. The protagonist was also honored by having an asteroid named for him.

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