Boris Nikolaevich Polevoy (or Polevoi) (russian: Бори́с Никола́евич Полево́й; – 12 July 1981) was a

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

writer. He is the author of the book '' Story of a Real Man'' about Soviet

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

fighter pilot

Aleksey Maresyev Aleksey Petrovich Maresyev (russian: Алексей Петрович Маресьев; 5 May 1916 – 19 May 2001) was a Russian military pilot who became a Soviet fighter ace during World War II despite becoming a double amputee. Biog ...

Biography

Boris Polevoy was a pseudonym for Boris Nikolaevich Kampov. He was born in Moscow in 1908, the son of a lawyer from a Russian Orthodox priest family. His parents were Nikolay Petrovich and Lidiya (Vasilyevna) Kampov. He was a graduate of the Tver Industrial Technical College (now Kalinin Industrial College)."Boris Nikolayevich Kampov," ''Contemporary Authors Online'', Thomson Gale, 2007. 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 Alexei Maximovich Peshkov (russian: link=no, Алексе́й Макси́мович Пешко́в; – 18 June 1936), popularly known as Maxim Gorky (russian: Макси́м Го́рький, link=no), was a Russian writer and social ...

. His ''nom de plume'' has several variations based on transliterations. It was derived from translating Latin ''campus'' to Russian ''pole'' (″a field″). He is perhaps best known for his reporting on the atrocities at

Auschwitz Auschwitz concentration camp ( (); also or ) was a complex of over 40 concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland (in a portion annexed into Germany in 1939) during World War II and the Holocaust. It con ...

soon after its liberation, which were the first to have been published in ''

Pravda ''Pravda'' ( rus, Правда, p=ˈpravdə, a=Ru-правда.ogg, "Truth") is a Russian broadsheet newspaper, and was the official newspaper of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, when it was one of the most influential papers in the co ...

''. 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 The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army (Russian: Рабо́че-крестья́нская Кра́сная армия),) often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and, after ...

as a lieutenant colonel. He would eventually attain the rank of colonel. He continued as a war correspondent for the newspaper until 1945. ''Story About a True Man'' (also translated as ''Story of a Real Man''), based on the life of

Alexey Maresyev Aleksey Petrovich Maresyev (russian: Алексей Петрович Маресьев; 5 May 1916 – 19 May 2001) was a Russian military pilot who became a Soviet fighter ace during World War II despite becoming a double amputee. Biog ...

, 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 An asteroid is a minor planet of the inner Solar System. Sizes and shapes of asteroids vary significantly, ranging from 1-meter rocks to a dwarf planet almost 1000 km in diameter; they are rocky, metallic or icy bodies with no atmosphere. ...

named for him. He also served as a deputy to Supreme Soviet Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic (R.S.F.S.R.) from 1951 to 1966 and was a member of the

Communist Party of the Soviet Union "Hymn of the Bolshevik Party" , headquarters = 4 Staraya Square, Moscow , general_secretary = Vladimir Lenin (first) Mikhail Gorbachev (last) , founded = , banned = , founder = Vladimir Lenin , newspaper ...

from 1940 until his death. As such he was involved in party politics as a member of various organizations. He was chief editor of the literary youth magazine ''

Yunost ''Yunost'' (russian: Ю́ность, ''Youth'') is a Russian language literary magazine created in 1955 in Moscow (initially as a USSR Union of Writers' organ) by Valentin Kataev, its first editor-in-chief, who was fired in 1961 for publishing Va ...

'' () from 1962 until his death and was a board member of the Union of Soviet Journalists from 1959. He also served on the Soviet Peace Committee and Bureau World Peace Council. For years, Polevoy exchanged a series of letters with

Howard Fast Howard Melvin Fast (November 11, 1914 – March 12, 2003) was an American novelist and television writer. Fast also wrote under the pen names E.V. Cunningham and Walter Ericson. Biography Early life Fast was born in New York City. His mother, ...

, an American writer who had been a member of the Communist Party for 15 years, and best known as the author of ''Spartacus''. The two had met briefly. Fast attempted to contact Polevoy when he decided to withdraw from the party, but there was no response from Polevoy. Fast decided to make his letters public. Polevoy eventually responded. Whether the delay was the result of the letters being intercepted or the result of Polevoy's reluctance to respond remains unclear. Polevoy writes that when he received Fast's news, that night I could not fall asleep. I kept thinking of your books. Their heroes crowded around me and together with them, as it were, I went over the whole situation. I felt sure that Gideon Jackson, who fought the good fight to the bitter end, would not have been less taken aback than I was by what happened. Neither would Spartacus, even if he did live at a time when there were neither the philosophical theories nor the practical experience that throw light over mankind's path today, a time without the cultural values of today or the progressive intellectuals bearing aloft the banner of peace at all circumstances." His popularity with Soviet readers never diminished. "Polevoy's books, articles, and political commentaries gained him an international readership well before the end of the war. He remained influential until his death in 1981, at which time he was secretary of the all-powerful Union of Soviet Writers," wrote Heddescheimer. During his lifetime, Polevoy was named a

Hero of Socialist Labor The Hero of Socialist Labour (russian: links=no, Герой Социалистического Труда, Geroy Sotsialisticheskogo Truda) was an honorific title in the Soviet Union and other Warsaw Pact countries from 1938 to 1991. It repre ...

and awarded the

Stalin Prize Stalin Prize may refer to: * The State Stalin Prize in science and engineering and in arts, awarded 1941 to 1954, later known as the USSR State Prize The USSR State Prize (russian: links=no, Государственная премия СССР, ...

for literature, three

Orders of Lenin The Order of Lenin (russian: Орден Ленина, Orden Lenina, ), named after the leader of the Russian October Revolution, was established by the Central Executive Committee on April 6, 1930. The order was the highest civilian decoration b ...

, two Red Banners, the

Red Star A red star, five-pointed and filled, is a symbol that has often historically been associated with communist ideology, particularly in combination with the hammer and sickle, but is also used as a purely socialist symbol in the 21st century. I ...

, and the Gold Medal of the

World Peace Council The World Peace Council (WPC) is an international organization with the self-described goals of advocating for universal disarmament, sovereignty and independence and peaceful co-existence, and campaigns against imperialism, weapons of mass ...

Personal life

He married Yulia Osipovna in 1939; the couple had two sons and a daughter.Русские писатели и поэты
Краткий биографический словарь. Москва, 2000.

Select works

* '' Story of a Real Man'' (russian: Повесть о настоящем человеке, 1947) * ''Gold'' (Золото, 1950) * ''Hot workshop'' (Горячий цех, 1940) * ''From Belgorod to the Carpathians. From a Soviet War Correspondent's Notebook'' (От Белгорода до Карпат, 1945). English translation published by Hutchinson, 1945. * ''We Are Soviet People'' (Мы советские люди, 1948). Short stories. Foreign Language Publishing House, 1949. * ''He Came Back'' (Вернулся, 1949). Foreign Language Publishing House, 1957. * ''Contemporaries'' (Современники, 1952) * ''American Diaries'' (Американские дневники, 1956) * ''At a Wild Shore'' (На диком бреге, 1962) * ''In a Great Offensive'' (В большом наступлении, 1967) * ''Doctor Vera'' (Доктор Вера, 1967) * ''Selected Works'' (Избранные произведения, in two volumes, 1969) * ''Creators of Seas'' (Создатели морей, 1975) * ''30 Years Later'' (Тридцать лет спустя, 1975

References

External links

''Story of a Real Man''
at

Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, ...

(full text, English,

DjVu DjVu ( , like French "déjà vu") is a computer file format designed primarily to store scanned documents, especially those containing a combination of text, line drawings, indexed color images, and photographs. It uses technologies such as ima ...

)
The Moscow News

Moshkov's Library
{{DEFAULTSORT:Polevoy, Boris 1908 births 1981 deaths Writers from Moscow People from Moskovsky Uyezd Communist Party of the Soviet Union members Members of the Supreme Soviet of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, 1951–1955 Members of the Supreme Soviet of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, 1955–1959 Members of the Supreme Soviet of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, 1959–1963 Russian male writers Soviet novelists Soviet male writers 20th-century male writers Soviet short story writers 20th-century short story writers Socialist realism writers 20th-century pseudonymous writers Soviet war correspondents Stalin Prize winners Heroes of Socialist Labour Recipients of the Order of Lenin Recipients of the Order of the Red Banner of Labour Recipients of the Order of Friendship of Peoples Recipients of the Order of the Red Star Burials at Novodevichy Cemetery Yunost editors