Benya Krik, the Gangster and Other Stories

Isaac Babel was born in 1894 in that part of Odessa called Moldavanka. A protege and friend of Maxim Gorky, Babel came to prominence in the early 1920's with the publication of Red Cavalry, but as Stalin's repressive regime made the position of the creative writer increasingly difficult during the next decade, Babel published less and less. In 1939, he was arrested, and his papers, which were seized by the police, vanished with him. The charge against him is not known. A certificate delivered to the family shortly after Stalin died gives March 17, 1941, as the data of Babel's death, but mentions neither its cause nor where it had occurred. He was "rehabilitated" in 1954. His complete works were re-issued in Moscow in 1957.