The birth of a new type of man in the fire civil war based on the work of Babel "Konarmiya"

cavalry babel civil war

Before our eyes in the Cavalry, an unrequited bespectacled man turns into a soldier. But his soul still does not accept the cruel world of war, no matter what bright ideals it is fought for. In the short story "Squadron Trunov" the hero does not allow to kill captured Poles, but he cannot kill in battle either ("After the battle"). Akinfiev, a former Revolutionary Tribunal carriage driver, says: “... I want to blame anyone who gets confused in a fight, but doesn’t load cartridges in a revolver .. the attack was on,” Akinfiev suddenly shouted to me, and a spasm spread around his face, “you walked and didn’t load cartridges ... where is the reason for this? What Akinfiev cannot understand is clear to the reader: Lyutov is more than anything in the world afraid of killing a person and avoids everything that can lead to this. Even though he could die at any moment. No one will reproach him for cowardice, but this also irritates the fighters: it is the misunderstanding of why he does this that irritates.

As a matter of fact, such a misunderstanding is not surprising to me: seventy percent of the population of Russia at that time did not have a little education, they were in spiritual savagery, so they did not even want to understand such psychological subtleties.

The hero of Babel is experiencing moral discord. The birth of a new man goes painful and slow. Lyutov, sharing the goals of the revolution and civil war, cannot accept the methods by which they are achieved.

Here are the moments of such soul-rending experiences for the hero: “Against the moon ... I sat in glasses, with boils on my neck and bandaged legs. With vague poetic brains I digested the struggle of classes ... I am sick, it seems that the end has come to me, and I am tired of living in your Cavalry ... "

But, however, nearby the cavalrymen are fighting in the name of life, and a star is drawn on their banner and it is written about the Third International ("Dolgushev's Death"). This short story is about death, laughing at the life of Afonka Bida. A true cavalryman, every minute he sacrifices his life with gaiety immortal being: “Circled by a halo of sunset, Afonka Bida was galloping towards us. “We scratch a little,” he shouted cheerfully. - What kind of fair are you having here?

A halo is a clear sign of immortality and holiness, a fair is a world of habitual fun, closed in itself, which has become a kind of ritual. Afonka - the same Afonka who, in one of the following short stories "At St. new faith. Pushkin also said that "rapture in battle" - "immortality can be a guarantee." If so, then Afonka's ecstasy is quite understandable.

However, Babel's hero is not alone: ​​the coachman Grischuk, it turns out, also thinks and feels the same way as Lyutov. Life is meaningless for them if death lies in wait for a person everywhere: “A Polish patrol jumped out from behind the graves and, throwing up their rifles, began to beat at us. Grischuk turned. His tachanka yelled with all four of its wheels. - Grischuk! I shouted through the whistle and the wind. "Pampering," he replied sadly. “We are lost,” I exclaimed, seized with a fatal rapture, “we are lost, father!” Why do women work? he replied even sadder. - Why matchmaking, weddings, why godfathers walk at weddings ... "

As you can see, Lyutov's "disastrous delight" is not quite the same as "rapture in battle." As a result of the story, a different attitude towards death has forever separated the characters to different poles. “Today I lost Afonka, my first friend,” Lyutov grieves.

The character of Afonka, in my opinion, deserves attention for its depth. Afonka is a type of that new person who burned sacrificially in the inferno of the civil war, and in theory, such people should have survived and started building new life. In Afonka's soul there was moral strength for the future creative impulse. I remember how he, who, of necessity, took part in the killing of bees, said: "... deprived of bread, we extracted honey with sabers," that is, killing for Afonka was not an end in itself. Under other circumstances, he probably wouldn't hurt a fly. “Come on, the bee will be patient. And for her, I suppose, we are tinkering ... ”- he argues further. This faith in the need for revolution and war, blood and death - for the future of all living things, sincere, makes both Afonka and cavalrymen like him truly immortal.

So subtly and at the same time naturally, Isaac Emmanuilovich Babel indicated the birth of a new type of people in the fire of civil war.

ABSTRACT

on the topic: “Revolution and the Civil War in Russian Literature:

I.E. Babel and M.A. Sholokhov

THE REVOLUTION OF 1917 AND THE CIVIL WAR IN RUSSIAN LITERATURE

The revolution of 1917 in Russia ended the ideological struggle at the beginning of the 20th century. The materialistic worldview won with its installation that a person must create his own new life, destroying the old way of life to the ground and pushing aside the expedient laws of evolution.

A. Blok, S. Yesenin, V. Mayakovsky joyfully greeted the great event: “Listen, listen to the music of the revolution!” (Block),"Be glorified four times, blessed" (Mayakovsky),"What do we saliva icon in our gates to the heights?" (Yesenin). Romantics, they did not heed the warnings of Pushkin, Dostoevsky, Tolstoy and did not read the Holy Bible, in the prophecies of Jesus Christ:

“For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines and pestilences and earthquakes in places... Then they will betray you in torment and kill you... And then many will be offended; and they will betray one another, and hate one another; And many false prophets will arise and deceive many... (Gospel of Matthew, ch. 24, p. 6-12)

And everything came true: people rose up against people, brothers against brothers, “famine”, devastation, persecution of the church, the multiplication of lawlessness, the triumph of false prophets from Marxism, the seduction of the ideas of “freedom, equality, brotherhood”, which were reflected in the work of the most talented, most chosen . And the ending of these chosen ones is tragic. The revolution "sprayed around, accumulated la and disappeared under the devil's whistle," and Blok, Gumilyov, Yesenin, Mayakovsky and many others were gone.

M. Gorky in " untimely thoughts"and I. A. Bunin in" cursed days” testified to the general brutality, mutual hatred, anti-people activities of Lenin and his “commissars”, the death of centuries-old culture and human in the process of revolution.

The Russian philosopher Ivan Ilyin in his article “The Russian Revolution Was Madness” gave a general view of it and analyzed the position and behavior of all segments of the population, groups, parties, classes in the event. “She was madness,” he wrote, “and, moreover, destructive madness, it is enough to establish what she did with Russian religiosity of all faiths ... what she did with a Russian education ... with a Russian family, with a sense of honor and dignity, with Russian kindness and patriotism ... "

There are no parties, classes, Ilyin believed, which would fully understand the essence of the revolutionary break and its consequences, including among the Russian intelligentsia.

Her historical guilt is unconditional: “Russian intellectuals thought “abstractly”, formally, in an egalitarian way; idealized someone else's, not understanding it; “dreamed” instead of studying the life and character of their people, observing soberly and holding on to the real; indulged in political and economic "maximalism", demanding in everything immediately the best and greatest; and everyone wanted to be politically on par with Europe or outright surpass it.”

3. N. Gippius, brought up on the old, Christian morality, left the following lines about the essence of what was happening:

Devils and dogs are laughing over the slave dump, Cannons are laughing, opening their mouths. And soon you will be driven into the old barn with a stick, People who do not respect the shrines.

These lines deepen the problem of guilt before the people of all "athletes" and "amateurs" from the revolution and predict a new serfdom under the Soviet regime.

Maximilian Voloshin was not included in the literature of the “left front”. his poem "Civil War" dictated by the Christian view of events and great love to Russia.

And the roar of battles does not stop All over the expanses of the Russian steppe Among the golden splendors Horses trampled reapers.

And here and there between the rows

The same voice sounds:

“Whoever is not for us is against us.

No one is indifferent: the truth is with us.”

And I stand alone between them

In roaring flames and smoke

And with all your might

I pray for both.

According to Voloshin, both the Reds and the Whites are to blame, who believed your truth the only true one. These lines are also interesting in the poet’s personal attitude to the warring parties: both of them are apostates, they let demons into Russia (“The demons danced, roamed / / Throughout Russia far and wide”), for them, obsessed with anger, you need to pray, they need regret.

Romantic poets E. Bagritsky, M. Svetlov, J. Altauzen, M. Golodny, N. Tikhonov assessed the events in the country in a completely different way, convinced that in “ sunny edge unfinished” can also come through fratricidal bacchanalia, terror.

Plot "Ballads of Four Brothers" J. Altauzen but it is simple: the civil war made the brothers enemies, only one returned home. He spoke about himself:

The longboat brought me home.

The shepherd rattled the cow's horn.

Four brothers were us, -

I enter alone on the threshold.

He needs to confess to his mother and sister how he persecuted his junker brother, a former shepherd:

Beyond Chertoroy and Desna

I fell off the steep three times

So that the brother swings under the pine

With an old yellow face.

Mikhail Golodny writes about a similar tragedy in the poem "Judge revolutionary tribunal".

The table is covered with judicial cloth

At an angle.

Gorba himself sits in a jacket

At the table.

“Forty barrels of prisoners!

Guilty...

If I'm not mistaken,

Are you my brother?

Sleep together, eat together

They went out - apart.

Before death, then

I had to meet.

The will of the party is the law,

And I am a soldier.

To headquarters, to Dukhonin!

Stay straight, brother!

Judge Gorba judges alone and justifies his arbitrariness will party and the duty of a soldier.

The cult of the Cheka entered the flesh and blood romantic hero 20s The Chekist among poets is unshakable, possesses steel endurance, iron will. Let's look at the portrait of the hero of one of the poems N. Tikhonova.

Above the green tunic

Black buttons cast lions,

A pipe scorched with shag,

And steel blue eyes.

He will tell his bride

About a funny, lively game,

How he smashed the houses of the suburbs

From armored train batteries.

Romantic poets of the 20s. stood at the service of the new government, preaching the cult of force from the positions of proletarian internationalism in the name of the "liberation" of mankind. Here are the lines of the same Tikhonov, conveying the ideology of alienation of the individual, conscience in favor of the idea.

The untruth ate and drank with us.

The bells rang out of habit,

Coins have lost weight and ringing,

And the children were not afraid of the dead...

Then we learned for the first time

Words beautiful, bitter and cruel.

What is this lovely words? The lyrical hero of the poem by E. Bagritsky "TBC" seriously ill and unable to go to the club for a meeting of the worker's circle. In a feverish drowsiness, F. Dzerzhinsky comes to him and inspires him to a feat in the name of the revolution:

The century is waiting on the pavement,

Focused like a sentry

Go - and do not be afraid to stand next to him.

Your loneliness to match the age.

You look around - and there are enemies around,

Stretch out your hands - and there are no friends,

But if he says: "Lie!" - lie.

But if he says: "Kill!" - kill.

"Kill!", "Lie!" Are there any scarier words in the dictionary?

So the irreparable happened: life fed the poet with "cruel ideas", and the poet carried them to the readers.

The revolution divided poets and prose writers not according to the degree of talent, but according to ideological orientation. “We entered literature wave after wave, there were many of us. We brought our personal experience life, your personality. We were united by the feeling of the new world as our own and love for it ”- this is how A. Fadeev characterized the“ left wing ”of Russian literature. Most prominent representatives his - A. Serafimovich, K. Trenev, V. Vishnevsky, E. Bagritsky, M. Svetlov and others. And those who did not dress up in red clothes, who were horrified by the new ideology, paid with exile, non-printing of books and even their lives.

AND. E. BABEL

(1894-1941)

Isaac Emmanuilovich Babel was called the Russian Maupassant for his love for the flesh of the earth, for his flowery, juicy description of nature and man, and his favorite genre - the short story. Novella we call a story in which an exceptional event is at the center, and the plot, short and intense, has an unexpected denouement.

Cavalry is a collection of short stories connected with the theme of the civil war, a single image of the narrator and recurring characters without detailed description their lives. The flickering crowd is justified by the everyday life of the First Cavalry - someone dies, someone is lost on the roads of war.

Cavalry opens with a short story "Crossing the Zbruch":“The division commander reported that Novograd-Volynsk was taken today at dawn. The headquarters set out from Krapivno, and our convoy stretched out along the highway like a noisy rearguard ... ”It would seem that brevity, sketchiness should lead the reader into swift action, but Babel allows himself and us to admire the fields of purple poppy, the play of the wind in the yellowing rye, virgin buckwheat and "pearl mist of birch groves". And suddenly ... "the orange sun rolls like a severed head", "the standards of sunset blow over our heads", "the smell of yesterday's blood and dead horses drips into the evening coolness." The fabric of the narrative forms a complex unity pathos And sorrow, flesh And spirit. This is how these beginnings coexist in the description of an overnight stay in a poor Jewish family. “Everything is killed by silence, and only the moon embraced blue hands his round, shining, careless head, wanders under the window. The woman removes the blanket from her sleeping father, “his throat is torn out, his face is cut in half, blue blood lies on his beard, like a piece of lead.” Such naturalism seems superfluous, sickening, but without this we cannot understand the sorrow and strength of the rebellious spirit in this unfortunate woman: "And now I want to know, I want to know where else on earth you will find such a father as my father." The manner of writing seems to be dispassionate (the author does not comment on what he saw), but in fact his position is active: do not tear your hair, do not scream, but, gritting your teeth, understand any person caught in a historical blizzard, to distinguish in him the high and the low, the heroic and the cruel.

Composition on the topic “Civil War in the work of I. Babel.” Cavalry” 5.00 /5 (100.00%) 1 vote

The theme of revolution is one of the most topical in Russian literature of the last century. After all, she changed the life of society in many ways. Many writers were forced to emigrate, because they could not write lies, and they were forbidden to write the truth. The theme of the civil war is on a par with the theme of the revolution. Now the attitude to these events, their role in the history of Russia is being rethought, and then a different opinion was considered hostile. Many writers saw the civil war as a national tragedy, a fratricidal war.

Isaak Emmanuilovich Babul met October revolution with the expectation of change. He was romantically disposed and considered the revolution just, but the devastation made him doubt it. The writer himself saw what was happening at the front during the civil war. In the spring of 1920, he went to the front as a correspondent for the First Cavalry Army. In addition to articles and a diary of military operations, he also kept Personal diary, where he recorded his complex thoughts and feelings about what was happening, described military events. With horror, the writer noticed that violence had become commonplace for the Cossacks. The war destroyed the personal dignity of people, deprived them of pity for their own kind.
In his collection of short stories Cavalry, created in 1926, the writer, relying on his field experience, describes a man at war, in the midst of horror and the constant smell of blood.
The collection highlights the duality of the image of the Cavalrymen. They are healthy, cheerful, heroically behave in battles, but are also ready for bestial cruelty. The writer wants to portray the Cossacks in self-knowledge, with all their contradictory properties, in order to show the reader that their behavior is dictated by the war.
The author himself is against murder. A man capable of compassion cannot reconcile himself to bloodshed. But reality is sometimes so unexpected that it combines cruelty and mercy in one person.
The author's words "the chronicle of everyday atrocities oppresses me tirelessly, like a heart defect" were perceived as condemnation, rejection of such a revolution. From the very first publication of short stories from Cavalry, the novel caused controversy. He was considered a slander against the valiant Red Army, the first equestrian, "the poetry of banditry." Against the background of her constant glorification, they simply did not expect a different look. Babel said that he did not set himself the task of singing heroic story The first equestrian, but the disputes continued. M. Gorky stood up for the writer, "Cavalry" was reprinted more than once.

Renowned for his work Soviet writer and playwright Isaac Babel. "Cavalry" ( summary see below) - his most famous work. This is primarily due to the fact that it initially contradicted the revolutionary propaganda of that time. S. Budyonny and took the book with hostility. The only reason the work was published was the intercession of Maxim Gorky.

Babel, Cavalry: a summary

Cavalry is a collection of short stories that began to be published in 1926. The work is united by a common theme - the civil war of the early 20th century. The basis for writing was diary entries the author during the service in which S. Budyonny commanded.

"My first goose"

The Cavalry collection opens with this very story. Main lyrical hero and the narrator Lyutov, who works in the newspaper "Red Cavalryman", falls into the ranks of the 1st Cavalry Army under the command of Budyonny. The 1st Cavalry is at war with the Poles, therefore it passes through Galicia and Western Ukraine. Next comes the image of military life, where there is only blood, death and tears. Live here for one day.

The Cossacks mock and mock the intellectual Lyutov. But the owner refuses to feed him. When he was starving to the point of impossibility, he came to her and demanded to feed himself. And then he went out into the yard, took a saber and cut down a goose. Then he ordered the hostess to cook it. Only after that, the Cossacks began to consider Lyutov almost their own and stopped ridicule.

"Death of Dolgushov"

The collection of stories by Isaac Babel continues the story of the telephonist Dolgushov. Somehow, Lyutov stumbles upon a mortally wounded colleague who asks to finish him off out of pity. However main character unable to kill even to alleviate the fate. Therefore, he asks Afonka to approach the dying man. Dolgushov and the new assistant are talking about something, and then Afonka shoots him in the head. The Red Army soldier, who has just killed a comrade, rushes at Lyutov in anger and accuses him of unnecessary pity, from which only harm.

"Biography of Pavlichenko, Matvey Rodionich"

Much attention is paid to its main character Babel ("Cavalry"). The summary again tells about the spiritual anxieties of Lyutov, who secretly envies the decisiveness and firmness of the Cossacks. His main desire is to become his own among them. Therefore, he seeks to understand them, carefully listens to the general's story about how he dealt with master Nikitsky, whom he served before the revolution. The owner often molested Matvey's wife, therefore, as soon as he became a Red Army soldier, he decided to avenge the insult. But Matvey did not shoot Nikitsky, but trampled him in front of his wife. The general himself says that shooting is mercy and pardon, not punishment.

"Salt"

Reveals the fate of ordinary Red Army soldiers in his work Babel. "Cavalry" (a brief summary confirms this) is a kind of illustration of post-revolutionary reality. So, Lyutov receives a letter from the cavalryman Balmashev, who talks about the incident on the train. At one of the stations, the fighters picked up a woman with a child and let her into their car. Gradually, however, doubts began to creep in. Therefore, Balmashev rips off the diapers, but instead of a child, he finds a bag of salt. The Red Army soldier becomes furious, attacks the woman with indictment and then throws her out of the train. Despite the fall, the woman survived. Then Balmashev grabbed a weapon and shot her, believing that in this way he washed away the shame from the working people.

"Letter"

Not only adult fighters, but also children are portrayed by Isaac Babel. Cavalry is a collection that contains a work dedicated to the boy Vasily Kurdyukov, who writes a letter to his mother. In the message, he asks to send some food and tell how the brothers fighting for the Reds are doing. It immediately turns out that Fedor, one of the brothers, was captured and killed by his own father, who was fighting on the side of the whites. He commanded a company of Denikin, and killed his son for a long time, cutting off the skin piece by piece. After some time, the White Guard himself was forced to hide, having repainted his beard for this. However, his other son Stepan found his father and killed him.

"Prishepa"

The next story was dedicated to the young Kuban Prischepa by Isaac Babel (“Cavalry” tells about this). The hero had to flee from the whites who killed his parents. When the enemies were driven out of the village, Prishchepa returned, but the neighbors managed to plunder all the property. Then he takes a cart and goes through the yards to look for his property. In those huts in which he managed to find things belonging to his parents, Prishchepa leaves hung dogs and old women over wells and icons polluted with droppings.

When everything was collected, he puts things in their original places and locks himself in the house. Here he drinks deeply for two days, cuts tables with a saber and sings songs. And on the third night, a flame engulfs his house. Clothespin goes to the barn, takes out the cow left by her parents, and kills it. After that, he sits on a horse and leaves wherever his eyes look.

"The Story of a Horse"

This work continues the stories of Babel "Cavalry". For a cavalryman, a horse is the most important thing, he is a friend, a comrade, a brother, and a father. Once the division chief Savitsky took white horse from the commander of the first squadron Khlebnikov. Since then, Khlebnikov harbored a grudge and waited for an opportunity for revenge. And as soon as Savitsky lost his position, he wrote a petition for the return of the stallion to him. Having received a positive answer, Khlebnikov went to Savitsky, who refused to give up his horse. Then the commander goes to the new chief of staff, but he drives him away. Then Khlebnikov sits down and writes a statement that he is offended by the Communist Party, which is unable to return his property. After that, he is demobilized, as he has 6 wounds and is considered disabled.

"Pan Apolek"

The works of Babel also touch upon the church theme. Cavalry tells the story of Bogomaz Apolek, who was entrusted with painting the Novgorod church in the new church. The artist presented his diploma and several of his works, so the priest accepted his candidacy without question. However, when the work was handed over, the employers became very indignant. The fact is that the artist produced ordinary people into saints. So, in the image of the Apostle Paul, the face of the lame Janek was guessed, and Mary Magdalene was very similar to Elka, a Jewish girl, the mother of a considerable number of fenced children. Apolek was driven out, and another Bogomaz was hired in his place. However, he did not dare to paint over the creation of someone else's hands.

Lyutov, Babel's double from Cavalry, met the disgraced artist in the house of a runaway priest. At the very first meeting, Pan Apolek offered to make his portrait in the image of Blessed Francis for only 50 marks. In addition, the artist told a blasphemous story about how Jesus married a rootless girl Deborah, who gave birth to a son from him.

"Gedali"

Lyutov runs into a group of old Jews who are selling something near the yellowed walls of the synagogue. The hero sadly begins to recall the Jewish life, which is now destroyed by the war. He also recalls his childhood, his grandfather, who stroked the numerous volumes of the Jewish sage Ibn Ezra. Lyutov goes to the bazaar and sees trays locked with locks, which he associates with death.

Then the hero comes across the shop of the ancient Jew Gedali. Here you can find anything: from gilded shoes to broken pans. The owner himself rubs his white hands, walks along the counters and complains about the horrors of the revolution: everywhere they suffer, kill and rob. Gedali would like another revolution, which he calls "the international good people". However, Lyutov does not agree with him, he claims that the international is inseparable from rivers of blood and powder shots.

The hero then asks where Jewish food can be found. Gedali reports that earlier this could be done in the neighborhood, but now there is only crying, not eating.

"Rabbi"

Lyutov stopped in one of the houses for the night. In the evening, the whole family sits down at the table, at the head of which is Rabbi Motale of Bratslav. His son Ilya is also sitting here, his face resembling Spinoza. He fights on the side of the Red Army. In this house there is despondency and one can feel imminent death, although the rabbi himself urges everyone to rejoice that they are still alive.

With incredible relief, Lyutov leaves this house. He goes to the station, where the First Cavalry train is already standing, and the unfinished newspaper "Red Cavalryman" is waiting in it.

Analysis

He created an indissoluble artistic unity of all the stories of Babel ("Cavalry"). The analysis of the works emphasizes this feature, since a certain plot-forming connection is revealed. Moreover, the author himself forbade interchanging stories when reprinting the collection, which also emphasizes the importance of their location.

He combined the cycle with one composition Babel. Cavalry (an analysis allows us to verify this) is an inseparable epic-lyrical narrative about the times of the Civil War. It combines both naturalistic descriptions of military reality and romantic pathos. There is no author's position in the stories, which allows the reader to draw their own conclusions. And the images of the hero-narrator and the author are so intricately intertwined that they create the impression of the presence of several points of view.

Cavalry: heroes

Kirill Vasilyevich Lyutov - central character the entire collection. He acts as a narrator and as an unwitting participant in some of the events described. Moreover, he is a double of Babel from Cavalry. Kirill Lyutov - that was pseudonym the author himself when he worked

Lyutov is a Jew who was abandoned by his wife, he graduated from St. Petersburg University, his intelligence prevents him from intermarrying with the Cossacks. For the fighters, he is a stranger and causes only indulgence on their part. In essence, he is an intellectual who is trying to reconcile humanistic principles with the realities of the revolutionary era.

Pan Apolek is an icon painter and an old monk. He is an atheist and a sinner who blasphemously treated the painting of the church in Novgorod. In addition, he is the bearer of a huge stock of distorted biblical stories, where the saints are depicted as subject to human vices.

Gedali is the owner of an antiquities shop in Zhytomyr, a blind Jew with a philosophical disposition. He seems to be ready to accept the revolution, but he does not like that it is accompanied by violence and blood. Therefore, for him there is no difference between counter-revolution and revolution - both bring only death.

Cavalry is a very frank and merciless book. The reader finds himself in the usual harsh military reality, in which spiritual blindness and truth-seeking, tragic and funny, cruelty and heroism are intertwined.

He became known in Russian literature in the 20s of the XX century and still remains a unique phenomenon in it. His novel-diary is a collection short stories about the civil war, united by the image of the author-narrator.
Babel in the 1920s was a war correspondent for the newspaper "Red Cavalryman" and took part in Polish campaign First cavalry army. He kept a diary, wrote down the stories of the fighters, noticed and recorded everything. At that time, there was already a myth about the invincibility of the Bolshevik army. With his clever, truthful and cruel book, Babel destroyed this myth. By the right of an eyewitness and a participant historical events, the writer showed the horror of fratricidal war. He sincerely believed that the Bolsheviks brought freedom to people, but the truth of life he saw did not allow him to remain silent. This was a real act of an honest man, who Marshals Budyonny and Voroshilov did not forgive Babel, who accused the writer of malicious slander against the heroic army.
Babel was amazed by everything he saw in the war. The war itself and the warring people seemed to him not at all like that. The Cossacks came to the service with their horses, equipment and weapons. They had to provide themselves with food, horses and feed for them. This was done at the expense of the civilian population and often led to bloodshed: “There is a groan in the village. The cavalry poisons the bread and changes horses.
Babel's style in stories is the style of a correspondent, primarily collecting facts. The tone of the narration is emphatically even, which makes the narration even more tragic and scary. The author does not single out anyone, he does not have heroes or villains. The civil war corrupted everyone, made murder commonplace, and cruelty business as usual. A person's life is worth nothing. Day after day, observing manifestations of rudeness, cruelty, anarchism, mockery of each other among the fighters, the author asks the question: “Why do I have an ongoing longing?” And he answers himself: “Because we are far from home, because we are destroying, we are going like a whirlwind, like lava ... life is flying apart, I am at a big ongoing memorial service.”
The first story "Crossing the Zbruch" begins with a description of the joy on the occasion of the successful capture of the city. Pictures of peaceful nature contrast with the actions of people: “Fields of purple poppies bloom around us, the midday wind plays in the yellowing rye ...” The victory was obtained thanks to the cruel and terrible deeds of people. Tension and anxiety in the story are growing: "the orange sun rolls across the sky like a severed head", "the smell of yesterday's blood of dead horses drips into the evening coolness." The story ends in tragedy: the sleeping neighbor is stabbed to death.
The story "Letter" shocks the reader with an indifferent attitude to the concepts that are sacred to man. A young fighter, Vasily Kurdyukov, dictates a letter to his mother, in which he tells her how his brother Senka "finished" his "dad" - a White Guard who killed his own son Fedya. The author sees malice, revenge and fierce hatred in this war. Here they fight for power, not for their homeland.
The laws of war give rise to arbitrariness and impunity. The brigade commander Maslak from the story "Afonko Bida" orders the squadron to attack the villagers who helped them in the fight against the Poles. For the killed horse, Afonko leaves to take revenge alone. He sets fire to the villages, shoots the elders, repairs robbery. For the civilian population, both red and white are equally dangerous.
Nikita Balmashev, the hero of the story "Salt", writes a letter to the editor. He describes an incident from his life with a sense of accomplishment. When the soldiers of the Cavalry went to the front, out of pity, he let a woman with a child into the car, guarding her along the way. When it turned out that the package was not a child, but salt, Balmashev threw the woman out of the car and shot her. The letter ended with the words: "... I washed away this shame from the face of the working land and the republic."
Babel was a communist, but honest man and a writer. He fulfilled his civic duty by writing the truth about the revolution and the civil war. In 1939 he was arrested, accused of "anti-Soviet conspiratorial terrorist activities", and in 1940 he was shot. The book "Konarmiya" on long years was banned.