Shpanov Nikolai Nikolaevich (1896-1961) - Soviet writer, screenwriter and publicist, author of military, detective and fantastic prose. The author of over thirty books, of which the most famous were "The First Strike," "Arsonists," "The War of the Invisible," "The Adventures of Neil Kruchinin." The work "First strike. The Tale of the Future War," published just before the war, in the summer of 1939, was intended to popularize the Soviet military aviation doctrine.