Babel, Isaak Emanuilovich (1894-1940), was a short-story writer in the early period of Soviet Russian literature. He fought on the side of the Bolsheviks during the Russian civil war. His experiences provided material for Konarmia (1926), a collection of short stories called Red Cavalry in the English translation. He wrote these stories in a striking, ornamental prose style. Another collection, Odessa Tales (1927), depicts the life of Jews in the Ukrainian city of Odesa (then spelled Odessa). Ukraine was part of the Russian Empire, and later of the Soviet Union, in Babel’s lifetime.
Babel was born in Odesa on July 13, 1894 (July 1 on the Russian calendar then in use). He was arrested by Soviet police in 1939 and executed on Jan. 27, 1940.
