1920 Diary
1920 Diary by Isaac Babel, published by Yale University Press in January 2002, is a revised edition comprising 126 pages. This diary captures Babel’s experiences with the Cossack cavalry during the Polish-Soviet war of 1919-1920, detailing the devastation of the conflict and the harsh realities faced by the Jewish population in Ukraine and eastern Poland. Babel’s reflections reveal his complex identity as both a Soviet revolutionary and a Jew, providing a unique perspective on the tumultuous events of the time.
Readers will find a vivid account of revolutionary brutality through Babel’s concise and impactful prose. The diary serves as a foundational text for his renowned work, Red Cavalry, and offers insights into the historical context of the era. With themes of history and the experiences of Jewish communities during wartime, this edition presents a significant exploration of the human condition amid conflict.
Official synopsis Publisher
This diary by the famed twentieth-century Russian writer recounts Babel’s experiences with the Cossack cavalry during the Polish-Soviet war of 1919-1920. The basis for Red Cavalry, Babel’s best-known work, it records the devastation of the war, the extreme cruelty of the Polish and Red armies alike toward the Jewish population in the Ukraine and eastern Poland, and Babel’s own conflicted role as both Soviet revolutionary and Jew.
“Babel’s 1920 Diary, the source for many of his remarkable Red Cavalry stories, is itself as remarkable as the stories, particularly when one considers that the diarist was a journalist of only twenty-six. The staccato sentences in which Babel rapidly describes the horrific details of revolutionary brutality have the impact of an accomplished style, one that in its spontaneously elliptical way is strangely no less artful than the artfully nuanced directness that is the triumph of Red Cavalry.”–Philip Roth
“An electrifying translation accompanied by an indispensable introduction. . . . Babel’s journey is a Jewish lamentation . . . a tragic masterwork.”
–Cynthia Ozick, The New Republic
“A precursor of Holocaust literature, and more powerful in its effect than any Holocaust literature that I have managed to read.”–Harold Bloom, New York Times Book Review
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