Information about ex. editor of the volume:
Natalya V. Kornienko
Natalia V. Kornienko, DSc in Philology, Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Director of Research, Head of the Department of Modern Russian Literature and Literature of the Russian Abroad, А.M. Gorky Institute of World Literature of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Povarskaya 25 a, 121069 Moscow, Russia
E-mail:
Abstract:
The first volume of the Collected Works of Isaac Emmanuilovich Babel includes the book “Red Cavalry” and preparatory materials for it — a diary of 1920, plans and sketches. During the Soviet-Polish War of 1920, Babel served in the First Cavalry Army. The exact dates of his service there are unknown, but it is documented that from the end of June to the middle of September he was a war correspondent for the 6th Cavalry Division. Babel’s diary entries from July 3 to September 15, 1920 have been preserved, which served as the source of most of the army stories included in the book. The commentary to the volume uses documents of the First Cavalry Army stored in the Russian State Military Archive, testimonies of participants of the events (memoirs of S.M. Budyonny “The Way Through”, a historical essay by Army Chief of Staff L.L. Klyuev “The First Mounted Red Army on the Polish Front in 1920”, the diary of the secretary of the Revolutionary Military Council S.N. Orlovsky “The Great Year”) and other materials. The publication is addressed to specialists, namely philologists and historians, as well as a wide range of readers.
Keywords: I.E. Babel, Collected works, creative history, textual criticism, academic commentary.
