Boris Polevoy Boris Nikolaevich Polevoy ( or Polevoi ) ( ; 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 . Polevoy was said to have been a journalist , although more recently , he has been seen as a propagandist . " Polevoy had few equals in depicting German savagery or in glorifying Soviet heroism . His numerous writings on the war , published in the most influential newspaper of the USSR , not only epitomized Soviet propaganda but also influenced Soviet behavior , " wrote Don Heddesheimer in " The Journal of Historical Review " . 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 . 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 Soviet Union Communist Party 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 " ( ) 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 , 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 and awarded the Stalin Prize for literature , three Orders of Lenin , two Red Banners , the Red Star , and the Gold Medal of the World Peace Council . "