Russian man taking girl and boy back (6)
I believe the answer is:
leonid
'russian' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'girl and boy back' is the wordplay.
'girl' becomes 'Di'.
'and' says to put letters next to each other.
'boy' becomes 'noel' (I've seen this before).
'back' says the letters should be written in reverse.
'di'+'noel'='dinoel'
'dinoel' written backwards gives 'LEONID'.
'man taking' acts as a link.
I am not very happy about this link. Some or all of it may be part of another bit of the clue.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for leonid that I've seen before include "bit of a shower" , "Part of swarm" , "-- Brezhnev, former Soviet leader" , "Small meteor" , "- Brezhnev, Russian president" .)