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Title: I. Babel' letters
Date (inclusive): 1925-1939
Collection Number: 2006C32
Contributing Institution: Hoover Institution Library and Archives
Language of Material:
Russian
Physical Description:
2 manuscript boxes
(0.8 Linear Feet)
Abstract: Letters to family members relating to Russian literature and personal affairs. Includes typed transcripts. Photocopy.
Creator:
Babelʹ, I. (Isaak), 1894-1940
Physical Location: Hoover Institution Library & Archives
The collection is open for research; materials must be requested in advance via our reservation system. If there are audiovisual
or digital media material in the collection, they must be reformatted before providing access.
For copyright status, please contact the Hoover Institution Library & Archives.
Acquired by the Hoover Institution Library & Archives in 2006.
[Identification of item], I. Babel' letters, [Box no., Folder no. or title], Hoover Institution Library & Archives.
Isaak Babel', Russian/Soviet writer, was born in 1894, in Odessa. In 1915 he moved to Petrograd, where he met Maksim Gorky,
who became his friend and mentor. He published Babel's two short stories in the
Letopis' magazine. Gorky advised the aspiring writer to gain more life experience. According to one of Babel's stories,
Doroga (The Road), he served on the Romanian front until early December 1917. He resurfaced in Petrograd in March 1918 as a reporter
for Gorky's newspaper,
Novaya zhizn (New Life). During the Russian Civil War, Babel' worked for the publishing house of the Odessa Gubkom (regional CPSU Committee),
in the food procurement unit in the Narkompros (People's Commissariat of Education), and in a typographic printing office.
After the end of the Civil War, Babel' worked as a reporter for
Zaria Vostoka (The Dawn of the Orient).
Babel' married Yevgenia Gronfein on August 9, 1919, in Odessa.
In 1920, Babel' was assigned to the First Cavalry Army and witnessed a military campaign in the Polish-Soviet War of 1920.
He documented the horrors of that in the
Konarmeiskiy Dnevnik, 1920 God (1920 Diary), which he later used to write
Konarmiya (Red Cavalry), a collection of short stories.
In 1924, his mother and sister with her family immigrated to Belgium; in 1925 his wife immigrated to Paris. Babel' visited
them several times during his trips to France; in 1929, his daughter Natalie was born. Babel' wrote letters to his family
from 1925 through 1939, when he was arrested and put in prison.
Babel' was arrested in May 1939; his writings were confiscated and disappeared. He was tortured during interrogations. In
January 1940 he was executed, and his name disappeared from literary life: it was removed from literary dictionaries and encyclopedias
and taken off school and university syllabi. He was rehabilitated in 1954.
Scope and Content of Collection
Letters relating to Russian literature and personal affairs from Babel' to his family members: mother, Fania Babel'; sister,
Mera Chapochnikoff, and her husband Grigorii; and Babel's wife and daughter. Includes typed transcripts. Photocopy.
It should be noted that some original letters do not have corresponding transcripts, while some transcripts were made from
letters unavailable in this collection.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Russian literature