Crossing into Poland by Isaac Babel
"Crossing into Poland" is a short story by Isaac Babel that serves as the opening piece in his collection titled "Red Cavalry," which was published in the late 1920s. The narrative is set during the tumultuous period of the Russian campaign against Poland in 1920, a military endeavor led by General Semyon Budyonny's First Cavalry. Babel, a Jewish writer and former war correspondent who participated in this campaign, presents a deeply personal and impressionistic account of the experiences faced by soldiers and civilians during this conflict.
The story begins with the protagonist crossing the Zbruch River into Poland, illustrating a vivid contrast between the serene natural landscape and the grim realities of war. It touches on themes of violence, loss, and the harsh conditions faced by both soldiers and the local population. The encounter with a Jewish family living in dire circumstances reveals the impact of the war on everyday lives and highlights the complexities of identity and survival in a time of upheaval. The emotional climax comes when the narrator is confronted with the brutal aftermath of violence, signaling a profound disconnection between his military role and the human cost of the conflict. This story encapsulates the broader themes of Babel's work, which often reflects on the intersection of war, culture, and human experience.
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Crossing into Poland by Isaac Babel
First published: "Perekhod cherez Zbruch," 1924 (English translation, 1929)
Type of plot: Impressionistic
Time of work: 1920
Locale: Poland
Principal Characters:
The narrator , the protagonist, an unnamed officer in the Russian cavalryA Jewish woman , unnamed, in whose house the narrator is billetedHer father , who was killed in the recent fighting
The Story
To appreciate fully this very short story, apparently no more than a sketch, one must understand its context. Most significant is its position as the first of thirty-five related stories originally collected under the title Konarmiia (1926; Red Cavalry, 1929). The stories all deal with the Russian campaign against Poland—from July through September, 1920—undertaken by General Semyon Budyonny's First Cavalry. The author, a Jew from Odessa who rejected Judaism to become a communist, participated in this campaign (which was unsuccessful) as a propaganda officer and a war correspondent.
The narrator of the various Red Cavalry stories is apparently the same person throughout and autobiographical in essential features. Consequently, although little information is given about the narrator of the initial story, one learns from later stories that he is Jewish.
"Crossing into Poland" begins with a note that Novograd-Volynsk was taken at dawn. Now the rearguard is marching on the highroad from Brest to Warsaw, crossing into Poland over the twisting torrents of the River Zbruch.
The largely peaceful and brightly colored sights of nature—fields, flowers, streams, the sun, and finally the moon—are described as a prose poem often employing striking, disturbing, and contradictory imagery. Late at night, the narrator reaches Novograd and is billeted in a house where Jews live. He describes them as "scraggy-necked" and living in filth. He angrily orders the young pregnant woman of the house to clean up the mess.
Eventually he lies down on the floor, on a ragged feather bed, next to one of the Jews, who is lying huddled to the wall with his head covered up, evidently asleep. The narrator soon sleeps but then is awakened from a nightmare by the pregnant woman, who tells him that he has been crying out. Suddenly he sees that the old man, next to whom he has been lying, is dead: "His throat had been torn out and his face cleft in two; in his beard blue blood was clotted like a lump of lead." The woman laments the loss of her father, killed by Poles that day—and the narrator is shocked to silence as the story abruptly ends.