Samuel Pokrass

Samuel Yakovlevich Pokrass (Самуил Яковлевич Покрасс) (1894 in Kiev – June 15, 1939 in New York City) was a Russian composer of Jewish origin. During the Soviet civil war in 1920, with poet P. Grigoryev, he wrote combat songs for the Red Army, including "White Army, Black Baron." (The melody of this song was used for the lied Die Arbeiter von Wien (The Workers of Vienna) in Red Vienna.) He later emigrated to the United States, where he worked as a composer in Hollywood from 1934 to 1939. In the USA he was mostly known for the musical The Three Musketeers.