Lazar Iosifovich Lagin (Russian: Ла́зарь Ио́сифович Лагин), real name Lazar Ginzburg (4 December 1903, Vitebsk – 4 June 1979, Moscow), was a Soviet and Russian author of children's and science fiction books. Lagin's science fiction novels are set in imaginary Western "capitalist" countries and satirize misuse of scientific inventions in bourgeois society. His novella Major Well Andyou (Майор Велл Эндъю) is a satiric sequel to H. G. Wells' The War of the Worlds. Lagin was also a screenplay writer, producing, for instance, the screenplay for the 1967 animation film Passion of Spies.