War correspondent and translator K. Lyutov (I. Babel). A new commentary on the writer’s army diary

UDC 821.161.1BABEL

DOI  https://doi.org/10.20339/PhS.2.1-24.131

Pogorelskaia Elena I.,

Candidate of Philology,

Senior Scientific Researcher

Gorky Institute of World Literature of the Russian Academy of Sciences

e-mail: elena_pog@mail.ru

For the first time, the documents of the 6th Cavalry Division of the First Cavalry Army, recently identified in the Russian State Military Archive, which are associated with the participants of the American military air squadron named after T. T. Kościuszko,, who fought in 1920, during the Soviet-Polish war, on the side of the Polish army, are published and introduced into scientific circulation. It is about Babel’s conversation with captured pilot M.C. Cooper, who introduced himself as Frank Mosher, and about the questionnaire compiled by the writer, as well as about Babel’s translation into Russian of a letter to New York, Colonel B.F. Castle, from squadron commander C.E. Fauntleroy. Both documents are Babel’s texts and are certified by his handwritten signature as K. Lyutov (his military pseudonym). These documents not only serve as a commentary on Babel’s diary note of July 14, 1920, they largely clarify the content of this note and, in addition, add significant details to the biography of Cooper during the Polish campaign. Cooper became later a famous film director, producer and screenwriter who shot the cult film “King Kong” in 1933.

Keywords: I.E. Babel’, M.C. Cooper, C.E. Fauntleroy, Soviet-Polish war of 1920, “Red Cavalry”, army diary, real commentary.

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