Isaak Babel, Konarmiya [Red Cavalry]

Philip Ross Bullock (University of Oxford)

Ed. by Neil Cornwell, University of Bristol
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 2.2.2.00: Post-1917 Writing and Culture in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus, 1917-present.
Vol. editors: Neil Cornwell (University of Bristol), Roman Koropeckyj (University of California, Los Angeles), Andrei Rogatchevski (UiT - The Arctic University of Norway)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1923 - 1937

Places

Russia (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Story Collection

Resources

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“A Jew who climbs onto a horse stops being a Jew and becomes a Russian.” This statement – from Isaak Babel''s play

Zakat

[

Sunset

] – expresses the central dilemma of

Konarmiia

[

Red Cavalry

]. For in 1920, Babel' – a myopic, asthmatic Jew from Odessa – was despatched as a correspondent to cover the Soviet Union's first foreign military adventure, the Soviet-Polish war, where he observed the infamously anti-Semitic Cossacks of General Budyonny's cavalry. Babel' kept a record of his experiences (published in English in 1995 as the 1920

Diary

), but soon realised that his gifts were not those of a historian: “in the process of writing, my aim of keeping within the parameters of historical truth began to shift, and I decided instead to express my thoughts in a literary form”.…

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2227 words

Citation: Bullock, Philip Ross. "Konarmiya". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 27 September 2006 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=11550, accessed 19 April 2024.]

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