Dmitri Pokras was born on November 7, 1899 in Kiev, Kiev Governorate, Russian Empire as Dmitriy Yakovlevich Pokrass. He was a composer, known for If War Comes Tomorrow (1938), The Ballad of Cossack Golota (1937) and Tractor Drivers (1939). He died on December 20, 1978 in Moscow, RSFSR, USSR.