Odessa stories. Konarmia. Babel I.

The Odessa Stories ”of Babel is a short story about Odessa and its real inhabitants - Mishka Japanchik, Sonya Golden Handle, who turned into artistically reliable images: Beni scream, Lyubka Cossack, Froim Grach, living in a hyperboological city , in a populated characters, in which, according to the writer, there is "enthusiasm, ease and charming either sad, then a touching sense of life." To plunge into the atmosphere of the described criminal Odessa everyday life, Babel rented a room on Moldavanka by the old Jew Ciris, who was a gunner from the bandits and received his “carbach” from every robbery. According to legend, it was there that Babel spied the plots for these well-known “Odessa stories”.

during his stay in the First Horse Babel, he constantly kept a diary, which became the basis of the cycle of stories about the Konarmia of 1923-1926. Babel’s “Konarmia” was very different from a beautiful legend, which was composed about the official means of information about the Budennovites. The young writer showed unjustified cruelty and animal instincts of soldiers. Without exaggeration, we can say that Konarmia became a document and a literary masterpiece, for the sake of which the writer sacrificed himself. A serious scandal erupted around the book. Stories brought the author fame and at the same time the hatred of the leaders of the first equestrian army of Budyonny and Voroshilov, as well as many official historians. But... the masterpiece survived both blasphemy and praise and remained - a masterpiece.