The Russian Revolution

Babel used his experiences in the Red Army, the socialist force that began to take power in Russia in 1917, as the basis for much of his fiction, including the story "My First Goose." The socialist revolution emerged out of an already volatile political situation. After a revolution in 1905, Nicholas II, Russia's last Czarist emperor, had been forced to establish a parliament. But the initial promise of freedom did not last at all, and the government quickly reverted to its repressive ways. Unrest bred revolutionary murmurs, which then caused backlash by a violent police force. Waves of anti Semitism resounded, as non-revolutionary forces associated revolution with intellectual Jews. The revolution of 1917 led directly to a civil war and the socialist growth to power, so crucial to Babel's writing.

A long Russian history contributed to the growth of the socialist cause. The revolution in 1905 had shifted the...