Status
Available
Call number
Collections
Publication
Yale University Press (1995), Hardcover, 184 pages
Library's review
Babel’s dagboek is van een ver doorgedreven puurheid. Schetsmatig, vol korte, rake, minimale beschrijvingen van mensen, dorpen, pijn (van anderen), ongeloof, vermoeidheid. Stuk voor stuk dwingende aantekeningen waarin Babel zichzelf lijkt te verplichten om alles rond hem heen, tot in de kleinste
Het heet het dagboek van 1920 te zijn, maar meer dan een drietal maanden worden er niet door omsloten. Van dorp tot dorp, van gevecht naar gevecht rijdt Babel als correspondent mee met het Rode Leger. Tussen plunderende en moordende en veroverende kameraden, van nederlaag naar overwinning, … Ze verdrijven de Polen, of worden verdreven door de Polen, … Babel schildert de bevolking wanneer zij er om vragen een rooskleurige (communistische) toekomst voor, maar zijn aantekeningen zijn cynisch. Plunderingen, verkrachtingen, jodenhaat, massamoorden, … zijn ook bij het Rode Leger schering en inslag. Hij beschrijft machtswissels, militaire manoeuvres, vernietigingen, angstige burgers, nachtelijke terugtochten, maaltijden, … Hij beschrijft de vermoeidheid van een leger dat niet kan rusten. De gruwelen van zijn ‘medestanders’.
De inleiding vooraf is lang, maar helpt het dagboek te kaderen en vult een leemte die het onderwijs dat ik genoot niet wenste te vullen.
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details, vooral niet te vergeten. Er gaat geen dag voorbij of hij wordt beschoten, geconfronteerd met anti-semitisme, gruweldaden, wanhoop … maar hijzelf observeert, en noteert, onverstoord, – gejaagd en nagelhard – wat hij rond zich heen ziet.Het heet het dagboek van 1920 te zijn, maar meer dan een drietal maanden worden er niet door omsloten. Van dorp tot dorp, van gevecht naar gevecht rijdt Babel als correspondent mee met het Rode Leger. Tussen plunderende en moordende en veroverende kameraden, van nederlaag naar overwinning, … Ze verdrijven de Polen, of worden verdreven door de Polen, … Babel schildert de bevolking wanneer zij er om vragen een rooskleurige (communistische) toekomst voor, maar zijn aantekeningen zijn cynisch. Plunderingen, verkrachtingen, jodenhaat, massamoorden, … zijn ook bij het Rode Leger schering en inslag. Hij beschrijft machtswissels, militaire manoeuvres, vernietigingen, angstige burgers, nachtelijke terugtochten, maaltijden, … Hij beschrijft de vermoeidheid van een leger dat niet kan rusten. De gruwelen van zijn ‘medestanders’.
De inleiding vooraf is lang, maar helpt het dagboek te kaderen en vult een leemte die het onderwijs dat ik genoot niet wenste te vullen.
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User reviews
LibraryThing member setnahkt
Isaac Babel had an interesting life – disillusioned with Communism early on but became a reasonably successful author. He was eventually (1939) picked up and shot by the NKVD while having an affair with the wife of an NKVD major. (It’s not what you think; Babel wasn’t shot because the major
At any rate, Babel is most famous for Red Cavalry, which is about the 1920 Russo-Polish war. (This was one of the “neatening up” wars that took place after the end of WWI). 1920 Diary was the raw material for that book, and it reads like a diary – short notes to himself interspersed with complete sentences that he may have intended to transcribe later.
The 1920 campaign started when the Poles advanced deep into Russia. The Poles, of course, thought they were restoring Poland to its natural boundaries, and that with Russia distracted by conflicts between Reds, Whites, Anarchists, and miscellaneous other parties it would be easy. The Soviets turned around and unleashed the First Cavalry Army on them. The First Cavalry Army had just finished smashing the Whites and was now sent west. It was composed mostly of Kuban Cossacks.
The diary – which would have got Babel in serious trouble in any of the commissars had gotten hold of it – has a lot of sad observations on the situation of Polish Jews, who went through pograms by Russians, then Ukrainians, then Poles, then Cossacks. Babel’s comments on these are sometimes almost comic understatements - “Sometimes Cossacks are not very nice” - and sometimes spookily prophetic (of Jews in the town of Dubno) – “Can it be that ours is the century in which they perish?”.
Babel’s Jewishness is at the forefront in most of his writing here. He admitted he was a Jew if asked, but he didn’t go out of his way to publicize it in front of his Cossack comrades. His embarrassment is profound when he has to explain to groups of Jews how wonderful the Revolution is while Cossacks are raping their wives and daughters and looting their property in the background.
A quick read, nicely hinting what Babel is going to produce later.
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found out about the affair; instead the major fell out of favor with the higher ups, so they shot him. And, in the Stalinist tradition of doing a thorough job they also shot the major’s family, including his wife’s lover.)At any rate, Babel is most famous for Red Cavalry, which is about the 1920 Russo-Polish war. (This was one of the “neatening up” wars that took place after the end of WWI). 1920 Diary was the raw material for that book, and it reads like a diary – short notes to himself interspersed with complete sentences that he may have intended to transcribe later.
The 1920 campaign started when the Poles advanced deep into Russia. The Poles, of course, thought they were restoring Poland to its natural boundaries, and that with Russia distracted by conflicts between Reds, Whites, Anarchists, and miscellaneous other parties it would be easy. The Soviets turned around and unleashed the First Cavalry Army on them. The First Cavalry Army had just finished smashing the Whites and was now sent west. It was composed mostly of Kuban Cossacks.
The diary – which would have got Babel in serious trouble in any of the commissars had gotten hold of it – has a lot of sad observations on the situation of Polish Jews, who went through pograms by Russians, then Ukrainians, then Poles, then Cossacks. Babel’s comments on these are sometimes almost comic understatements - “Sometimes Cossacks are not very nice” - and sometimes spookily prophetic (of Jews in the town of Dubno) – “Can it be that ours is the century in which they perish?”.
Babel’s Jewishness is at the forefront in most of his writing here. He admitted he was a Jew if asked, but he didn’t go out of his way to publicize it in front of his Cossack comrades. His embarrassment is profound when he has to explain to groups of Jews how wonderful the Revolution is while Cossacks are raping their wives and daughters and looting their property in the background.
A quick read, nicely hinting what Babel is going to produce later.
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Subjects
Language
Original language
Russian
Original publication date
1995 (English translation)
1989/90
Physical description
184 p.; 8.53 inches
ISBN
0300059663 / 9780300059663