“Civilization and barbarism” in Russia

Babel, by Miguel Russo, Emecé Editores, July 2007.

An Argentine novels delves into the last days of prominent Soviet writer shot dead by Stalin’s secret police.

Isaak Babel, one of the first Soviet writers to achieve success in his country and to enjoy international recognition.

Since Alexander Pushkin’s death in duel with his wife’s alleged lover,  Fyodor Dostoevsky’s imprisonment and exile or Nikolai Gógol’s madness; it seems that the life of modern Russian writers has been always marked by drama. This was the case of Soviet writer Isaak Babel, who was executed in 1940 during Joseph Stalin’s regime on false charges of espionage. What is it that a man thinks when he is about to face death? How would such an important figure in Soviet literature feel about the revolution under these circumstances? More than sixty years later, Argentine journalist Miguel Russo explores the last years in the Russian writer’s life through his novel and fifth book “Babel.”

Isaak Babel, one of the first Soviet writers to achieve success in his country and to enjoy international recognition, was born to a Jewish family in 1894. He worked as a journalist, playwright, and short story writer. Babel fought on the Communist side during the Russian Civil War in 1920 and documented its horrors with a vision far from revolutionary romanticism in his best-known pieces “1920 Diary” and “Red Cavalry.” He was arrested by the Soviet secret police in 1939 and forced to confess engaging in anti-Soviet activity. His last manuscripts were confiscated and never recovered.

Miguel Russo’s intention, however, seems far from turning his book into a historical piece despite the inclusion of fictional questionnaires, confessions, letters and diaries. The novelist uses Babel as a character to explore the psychology of any man deprived of his freedom. Russo’s Babel is characterized by melancholy, sufferance, and idealism. Therefore, the book comes as a reflection on the human need to express feelings through writing and a meditation upon fatherhood, the fear of death, and the possibility of revolution surrounded by an atmosphere of defeat.  

Babel’s mood is steady throughout the novel and tinged with a feeling of nostalgia as he recalls the strength of his youth and his later years. However, Russo doesn’t take full advantage of the possibility to explore the character’s last hesitations and prefers to arrange the imaginary manuscripts in a non-chronological way and combine different techniques in a recreational manner. This suggests that the author is more focused on experimenting with literary style than getting to understand Babel’s mind. In this way, it is difficult for the character’s personality to arise naturally and in depth.

There’s an interesting passage in the novel where French writer André Malraux talks with Babel about “Facundo: Civilization and Barbarism,” written by Argentine author and former president Domingo F. Sarmiento in 1845 during his exile in Chile. In this novel, a classic piece of South American literature, Sarmiento contrasts paradigms to describe the political situation across the country and establishes a barrier between civilized culture and barbarism. The first one is represented by the European and North American civilization while the latter is characterized by the local charismatic leader Juan Facundo Quiroga as well as dictator Juan Manuel de Rosas.

When introducing “Facundo”, Russo seems to suggest a parallelism between this book and his own novel. The first similarity may be found as Russo opposes the Stalinist political apparatus with artists’ faith in revolution. The second one comes when the character in “Facundo” is forced to leave Argentina and scribbles a French phrase, as he passes through Chile, attributed to writer Hippolyte Fortoul: “Men can be beheaded, ideas not.” Similarly, in Russo’s novel, Babel is interrogated before he is shot and officers ask him if one single death can kill a revolution. “No”, he replies and he doesn’t hesitate.

Historical records indicate that by the end of the trial, in 1940, Babel recanted. He said he was not a spy and asked for one last wish before his execution: “Let me finish my work.” Taking these words into account, Russo’s novel may be considered an attempt to take revenge of Babel’s forced silence and the loss of his last manuscripts. The Argentine author, hence, makes his own character speak and tries to make this wish come true. Yet, just as Sarmiento evokes Facundo Quiroga to speak about civilization and barbarism, it is up to the reader to think why Russo chooses Babel and if he does so to ponder on something beyond just one single and dramatic story.