Origins & Early Life

Isaac Emmanuilovich Babel (13 July [O.S. 1 July] 1894 – 27 January 1940) was a Russian and Soviet writer, journalist, playwright, and literary translator. He is best known as the author of Red Cavalry and Odessa Stories, and has been acclaimed as "the greatest prose writer of Russian Jewry". Babel was arrested by the NKVD on 15 May 1939 on fabricated charges of terrorism and espionage, and executed on 27 January 1940.

Pivotal Works & Achievements

Isaac Babel was born in the Moldavanka section of Odessa in the Russian Empire (present-day Ukraine), to Jewish parents, Manus and Feyga Babel. Soon after his birth, the Babel family moved to the port city of Nikolaev. They later returned to live in a more fashionable part of Odessa in 1906. Babel used Moldavanka as the setting for Odessa Stories and the play Sunset. Although Babel's short stories present his family as "destitute and muddle-headed", they were relatively well-off.

Enduring Legacy & Impact

According to his autobiographical statements, Babel's father, Manus, was an impoverished shopkeeper. Babel's daughter, Nathalie Babel Brown, stated that her father fabricated this and other biographical details in order to "present an appropriate past for a young Soviet writer...

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