#isaac babel

[chantssecrets]

Isaac Babel, writer

[jawbonejoe]

Need my wire family mutuals to read Odessa Stories by Isaac Babel so we can all convene on archetypes of gangsters across world lit and media

[madonnamadeofasphalt]

The most parasocial I allow myself to be is getting particularly offended at historical regimes having murdered writers I happen to really like. Like, you know, Nazis murdered a lot of people, including some members of my own family, but it's kind of especially personally enraging that they murdered Bruno Schulz. Fucking Bruno Schulz, can you imagine? Shot him dead right in the middle of the ghetto street while he was on his way home with a loaf of bread. Probably the greatest artist in the history of Polish prose, bleeding to death in the street aged 50, just like that, because he was walking too slow to make the curfew. The dipshit who did it probably never even found out who he killed, and even if he did, he wouldn't be able to comprehend it. And not just him! Fucking cunts killed Tadeusz Boy-Żeleński! What kind of asshole do you have to be to murder Boy? One hour of Boy's time on this Earth was worth more than the entire lifetime of any Wehrmacht motherfucker. And Korczak! My God, Korczak! How do you send Janusz Korczak to a gas chamber and not kill yourself immediately out of sheer shame? And the thing is that this post was triggered by stumbling upon the final mugshot of Isaac Babel again, all bruised-up, shortly before the NKVD shot him. That's not even the right regime, but I got so distracted by being mad at Nazis that I've almost forgotten to mention it. Fucking Isaac Babel, can you imagine?

[sherbertilluminated]

I'm an influencer (telling my friends to read Isaac Babel)

[anthropologistfromentropy]

Being a Marcel Proust factive in 2026 is funny. Especially in a system that is very heavily Slavic, and mostly Russian.

I'm still a huge fan of Ballet Russes, and enjoy French music and some classic music. (I'm fond of Tsaikovsky and Romantic waltzes).

But most of the time I'm listening to Russian post-punk and musicals 😅 Also a big fan of anarchist klezmer! Like Daniel Kahn, and the In Ale Gasn/Daloy Politsey song. Also Leonard Cohen and Tamino.

Other alter's random music tastes:

Sergey Razumovsky: Skillet (especially Russian covers), Call Me Karizma, "War of Change", "Demons" etc

Ilya Rozanov: happier and more energetic Russian music. Ivanushki International, Stromae. The song МазеLOVE by Lida and DK.

Vaslav Nijinsky: Vincent by Donald McLean, Arcade by Duncan Lawrence. Tango/jazz version of Ochi Chernye. Sometimes Russian folk music. Rite of Spring is his favorite ballet (his own).

Felix Yusupov: Some modern pop songs, like "Primadonna" by Marina and "Мулен Руж"(?) by Bianka. Romani influenced jazz/tango, Ochi Chernye, some French music (both old and new), some classical. Loves the title song of Karamora.

Also loves Oscar Wilde, especially Dorian Gray.

Mishka Bachynskyi: Mostly Ukrainian and Russian rap. Also klezmer, old Odesa jazz, some Leonid Utyosov (Yaponchik and Odesa related songs, not patriotic ones). His own and Noel's songs from Ride the Cyclone. We headcanon that he's into 90s East coast rap, but we haven't listened to it yet.

Also a fan of Harlem Renaissance poetry, especially queer ones. Loves the Odessa Stories by Isaac Babel.

[marykk1990]

My next post in support of Ukraine is:

Next site, is Ukrainian Isaac Emmanuilovich Babel (Ісак Еммануїлович Бабель), a "soviet writer, journalist, playwright and literary translator." He was born in Odesa in 1894 to a Jewish couple, Manus and Feyga Babel. After graduating from the Kiev Institute of Finance and Business he moved to Petrograd (now Saint Petersburg) in defiance of the Pale of Settlement laws that restricted Jews from living outside of that area in Ukraine. He eventually moved back to Odesa and wrote a series of short stories called "Odessa Stories." (Remember, this was when Odesa was still part of the soviet union & was spelled with the "russian" spelling.) He later wrote a play, "Maria," which was "a portrait of the sordid underbelly of soviet society during the "russian" Civil War." Not surprisingly, the NKVD canceled the performances of the play while it was still going through rehearsals. The play "Maria" was never performed in "russia" until after the collapse of the soviet union. In the 1930s, after stalin passed a decree that soviet writers and artists had to conform to "socialist realism," Babel quit writing as much and "was publicly denounced for low productivity." It was a scary time for writers in the soviet union and many soviet writers were rewriting their earlier works, but Babel didn't. In 1939, Babel was arrested by the NKVD on "fabricated charges of terrorism and espionage." At first, he vehemently denied the charges, but after three days, he confessed and supposedly named others. Of course, he was probably horrifically tortured during those three days. He later recanted his confession and stated that he "had slandered several people" in it. In January 1940, he was sentenced to death by shooting. His trial was on January 26, 1940. The trial lasted about 20 minutes. He was then shot on January 27, 1940.

#StandWithUkraine

#СлаваУкраїні 🇺🇦

Anyone out there still wondering why Ukrainians are fighting so hard for their freedom and sovereignty, it's because of history like this. Isaac Babel is only one person out of thousands and thousands of Ukrainians over decades and centuries with stories just like his.

[tootalltech]

nikolai yezhov circa 1940 when isaac babel starts talking about a soldier who wonders if he can be gay anywhere

[feignedremote]

But father was too trusting; he offended people with the raptures of first love, and they never forgave him for this, deceiving him mercilessly. And so father came to believe that his life was governed by some malicious fate, an enigmatic creature that dogged his every step and with which he had nothing in common.

Isaac Babel, "The Story of My Dovecote," in Odessa Stories, trans. Boris Dralyuk