Isaak Babel: Biography and Creativity

Babel Isaak Emmanuilovich, whose biography is presented in the article, is a prose writer, translator, playwright, essayist. His real name is Bobel, he is also known under the pseudonyms Bab-El and K. Lyutov. This man was shot by the Bolsheviks in 1940. In 1954, Isaac Babel was posthumously rehabilitated.

His biography begins on June 30 (July 12) in 1894. It was then that Isaak Emmanuilovich was born in Odessa. His father was Emmanuel Isaakovich Bobel.

Childhood, period of study

In the years of early childhood, the future writer lived in Mykolayiv, near Odessa. At the age of 9 he entered the local Commercial School. Count Witte. A year later he transferred to the Odessa Commercial School named after Nicholas I. Babel graduated in 1911. By this time, his learning to play the violin. Lessons Babel gave PS. Stolyarsky, a famous musician. Also, the future writer was fond of works of French authors. At the insistence of his religious father at the same time, Babel seriously engaged in the study of the Hebrew language. He read Jewish holy books. Isaak Emmanuilovich received the title of honorary citizen after the successful completion of training in the Odessa Commercial College. Then he applied for admission to the economic department of the Kiev Commercial Institute. Babel was admitted to the Institute and for several years resided in Kiev. He graduated with honors in 1916, having received the title of candidate.

The first printed work, life in Saratov

In the Kiev magazine "Ogni" was published the first work of Babel - the story "Old Shloyme." After the Russo-German war broke out, Isaak Emmanuilovich was enlisted in the militia, but did not take part in the hostilities.

In 1915, Babel was enrolled in the fourth year of the Petrograd Psychoneurological Institute (Law Faculty). However, he did not finish this school. In 1915 Babel spent some time in Saratov. Here he created a story called "Childhood, with Grandma", and then returned to Petrograd.

The first meeting with M. Gorky

The meeting with Maxim Gorky took place in the autumn of 1916 in the editorial office of the journal "Letopis". In November 1916 two stories of Babel were published in this magazine: "Mama, Rimma and Alla" and "Elia Isaakovich and Margarita Prokofievna". In the same year, in the Journal of Journals, a Petrograd publication, a cycle of essays appeared, united under the title "My Leaflets."

In the "Autobiography" created in 1928, Isaak Emmanuilovich, speaking of the first meeting with Gorky, noted that everyone owes her and still pronounces the name of this writer with gratitude and love.

The life of Babel "in people"

I.E. Babel, whose biography is noted for his friendship with M. Gorky, wrote that he taught him very important things, and then, when it became clear that several of his youthful experiences were fortuitous luck, that he wrote badly, Maxim Gorky sent him "into people." Babel noted in the Autobiography that he "went into the people" for 7 years (1917-24). At this time he was a soldier, was on the Romanian front. Babel also worked in the foreign department of the Cheka as an interpreter. In 1918 his texts were published in the newspaper "New Life". In the same year, Isaak Babel took part in food expeditions organized by the People's Commissariat of Food.

Between the end of 1919 and the beginning of 1920 Isaac Babel lived in Odessa. A brief biography of the writer is supplemented by new important events. The writer served in the State Publishing House of Ukraine, where he was in charge of the editorial and publishing department. In the spring of 1920, under the name of Liutov Kirill Vasilyevich, correspondent of Yugrost, Isaak Emmanuilovich went to the First Cavalry Army. Here he stayed for several months. The writer kept diaries, and also published his essays and articles in the newspaper "Red Cavalryman". After suffering typhus, in late 1920, Isaak Emmanuilovich returned to Odessa.

New publications, life in Moscow

In the years 1922-1923. Babel began to actively publish his stories in the newspapers of Odessa ("Sailor", "Izvestia" and "Silhouettes"), as well as in the journal "Lava". Among these works, the following stories should be noted: "The King", included in the cycle "Odessa stories", and "Grishuk" (cycle "Cavalry"). Practically the whole of 1922 lived in Batumi Babel. His biography is also noted by visiting other Georgian cities.

In 1923, the writer established links with Moscow literary men. He began to publish in the "Red Novi", in "Lef", in the "Projector", as well as in Pravda ("Odessa stories" and short stories from "Cavalry"). While still in Odessa, Isaak Emmanuilovich met Vladimir Mayakovsky. Then, after Babel finally moved to Moscow, he brought together many of the writers who were here - with A. Voronsky, S. Yesenin, D. Furmanov. Note that the first time Isaak Emmanuilovich lived in Sergiev Posad (near Moscow).

Popularity, creativity of the second half of the 1920s

In the mid-1920s he became one of the most popular writers in the USSR. Only in 1925 three collections of his stories were published as a separate publication. The first set of Babel-created short stories from the "Cavalry" was released next year. In the future, he replenished. Isaac Babel conceived to write 50 novels, but 37 were published, the last of them is called "Argamak".

In 1925, Isaak Emmanuilovich began to work on the creation of the script "Benya Creek", and also graduated from the play "Sunset". In the second half of the 1920s, Isaac Babel wrote (at least, published) practically all of his best works. The further 15 years of Babel's life were added only very little to this main his heritage. In 1932-33, Isaak Emmanuilovich worked on the play "Maria". He created a number of new "comic" novellas, as well as short stories, mostly autobiographical (Guy de Maupassant, Awakening, etc.). At this time, the writer also completed the screenplay "Wandering Stars" on the prose of Sholom Aleichem.

"Cavalry"

In the mid-1920s, his entry into literature was sensational. Created by Babel, the novels of "Cavalry" were unusual even for that time directness and sharpness of the depiction of the atrocities and bloody events of the Civil War. At the same time his works are characterized by a rare elegance of the word, elegance of style. Babel, whose biography shows that he was familiar with the Civil War firsthand, with special sharpness passes her bloody events. Three cultural strata were involved in them, hardly prior to this they intersected in the domestic history. We are talking about the Jews, the Russian intelligentsia and the people. The effect of this collision shapes the moral and artistic world of Babel's prose, full of hope and suffering, insights and tragic mistakes. "Cavalry" immediately aroused a very sharp polemic, within which different points of view collided. In particular, the commander of the First Horse SM. Budyonny perceived this work as a calumny on the Reds. But A. Voronsky and M. Gorky believed that the depth of the image of human destinies in the collisions of the Civil War, true, and not propaganda - is the main task of the writer.

"Odessa stories"

Babel in his "Odessa stories" portrayed the romanticized Odessa Moldovan. Her soul was Benya Creek, a "noble" bandit. The book is very colorful, lyrically and ironically pathetically represented the life of Odessa merchants and raiders, dreamers and sages. It is depicted, as if a passing epoch. "Odessa Stories" (the play "Sunset" became a variant of the second book) is one of the most significant events of Russian literature of the mid-1920s. They had a great influence on the work of a number of writers, among them I. Ilf and E. Petrov.

Travel around the USSR and abroad

Since 1925, Isaak Emmanuilovich travels a lot around the USSR (the south of Russia, the Voronezh province, Kiev, Leningrad). He collects materials about the recent events of the Civil War, serves as secretary of the village Soviet in the village of Molodenovo, located on the Moskva River. In the summer of 1927 Babel was sent abroad for the first time. His biography was marked first by a trip to Paris, then to Berlin. Departures abroad from this time become almost annual until 1936. In 1935, Isaac Emmanuilovich presented a report in defense of culture at the Paris Writers' Congress.

Meetings with Gorky

Many times Babel met Maxim Gorky, who closely followed his work and supported him in every possible way. After the death of Gorky's son, Maxim Peshkov, Alexei Maksimovich invited Isaak Emmanuilovich to his home in Gorki. Here he lived from May to June 1934. In the same year, in August, Babel delivered a speech during the First All-Union Congress of Soviet Writers.

Babel: biography and work of the second half of the 1930s.

In the second half of the 1930s, the work of Isaak Emmanuilovich is mainly connected with the literary processing of the work of other writers. In particular, Babel worked on the following screenplays: on the product "How the Steel Was Tempered" by N. Ostrovsky, according to the poem "The Duma of Opanas" Sun. Bagritsky, and also on the script of the film about Maxim Gorky. He also created an adaptation of Turgenev's work for cinema. It's about the script of a film called "Bezhin Meadow" for SM. Eisenstein. This film, I must say, was banned and destroyed as "ideologically vicious". However, this did not break down such a writer as Isaac Babel. Biography and his work show that he did not pursue fame.

In 1937, Isaak Emmanuilovich told the press about the completion of work on the play about G. Kotovsky, and two years later on the script "The Old Square". During the life of the writer, however, none of these works were published. In the autumn of 1936 the last collection of his stories was published. The last speech of Babel in the press is New Year's wishes, which were published on December 31, 1938 in Literaturnaya Gazeta.

Arrest, execution and rehabilitation

Babel's biography continues by the dates that on May 15, 1939, a search was carried out at the Moscow apartment of Isaak Emmanuilovich, as well as at his dacha, located in Peredelkino (where he was at that time). During the search, 24 folders with his manuscripts were confiscated. Subsequently, they were not found in the archives of FGC. June 29-30, after a series of continuous interrogations, Babel gave evidence. Subsequently, in several statements, he refused them. In a speech delivered at the trial, Isaak Emmanuilovich asked for an opportunity to complete his last works. However, he was not destined to do it. Isaak Emmanuilovich was sentenced to be shot. January 27, 1940 was executed by Babel. A brief biography of him ends with the fact that the writer's body was cremated that same day in the Donskoy monastery.

After 14 years, in 1954, Isaak Emmanuilovich was fully rehabilitated, since he did not find any crime in his actions. After this, the controversy surrounding his fate and creativity resumed. They do not stop to this day. Babel, whose biography and creativity were examined by us, is a writer whose works, of course, are worth getting acquainted with.