Table Of ContentThe Underworld of Benia Krik and I. Babel's "Odessa Stories"
Author(s): Boris Briker
Source: Canadian Slavonic Papers / Revue Canadienne des Slavistes, Vol. 36, No. 1/2,
Centenary of Isaak Babel (March-June 1994), pp. 115-134
Published by: Taylor & Francis, Ltd.
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Boris Briker
The Underworld of Benia Krik and
I. Babel's Odessa Stories
In 1916, a short essay entitled "Odessa," by the then young and unknown writer,
I. Babel, appeared in M. Gorky's Zhurnal zhurnalov. Using the typical manifesto-
like rhetoric of his times, I. Babel predicted in "Odessa" that a new literary
messiah would come from that sunny port metropolis to break with the literary
tradition of grey and foggy Petersburg. While it remains a question whether Babel
himself fulfilled the role of such a messiah, he was responsible for helping to
shape the popular image of his native city in his Odessa Stories. It is also true,
however, that an image of Odessa had been formed well before Babel provided the
material for his picture of Odessa and its Moldavanka district. This image of the
city may be viewed as one "Odessa text."1 Such a text unites two narrative
structures: the structure provided by the history of the city, newspaper reports,
urban folklore, and also the structure actualized in literary works.
The very title of one of Babel's Odessa Stories, "How It Was Done in
Odessa" (KaK 3to aejiajiocb b Oaecce) suggests that the Odessa way of doing
things had very distinct features. Indeed, this phrase can be attributed not only to
Odessa Stories, but to the "Odessa text" in general. While the urban landscape of
Petersburg had been associated with the evil and oppressive powers of the Russian
Empire, the image of Odessa in the nineteenth century evoked notions of freedom.
In the Jewish context, Odessa, though located within the Pale of Settlement,
offered a land of opportunity, an "alternative" to America, Argentina, Palestine, or
forbidden Petersburg. As one prerevolutionary Odessa writer commented, "If a Jew
from the Pale of Settlement does not dream of America or Palestine, know that he
will be in Odessa."2 In addition, Odessa had the reputation of being what historian
Robert Weinberg has called the "Russian Eldorado," a place where easy money
could be made. Like Menachem Mendl from Sholom Aleichem's stories, Jewish
"Luftenmenschen" set out for Odessa in hopes of realizing their dreams. While
1 The semiotic concept of the text of the city has been developed by such scholars
as Iu. Lotman and V. Toporov with regard to Petersburg. See, for example, V.
Toporov, "Peterburg i peterburgskii tekst russkoi literatury," and Iu. Lotman,
"Simvolika Peterburga i problemy semiotiki goroda," in Semiotika goroda i
gorodskoi kuVtury. Peterburg (Tartu: Uchenye zapiski Tartuskogo Universiteta,
1984).
L A. Svirskii, "Iz putevogo dnevnika" Knizhki Voskhoda No. 7 (1904): 169.
-■* R. Weinberg, The Revolution of 1905 in Odessa: Blood on the Steps
(Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1993) 1.
Canadian Slavonic Papers/Revue canadienne des slavistes Vol. XXXVI, Nos. 1-2, March-June, 1994
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116 BORIS BRDŒR
these dreams did not necessarily come true, the image of Odessa as a land of
opportunity survived throughout the nineteenth century and the beginning of the
twentieth century. This helps explain why such literary characters as swindlers,
opportunists, and thieves had a better chance of surviving within the context of
Odessa's mythopoetic "text" than within that of Petersburg.
The mythologies surrounding the notorious Odessa thieves and bandits
constitute an important aspect of the "Odessa text." According to Vladimir
Jabotinsky, an Odessa native, journalist, and later a leading Zionist activist, the
whole city of Odessa had a reputation among non-Odessa Jews as being a thieving
city. He explains: "The word 'thief in Yiddish (ganev) has a much deeper
meaning. It characterized a person who would fool you before you fool him - in
short, [a person who is] experienced, shrewd, an exaggerator, a speculator... "4
Rumors about Odessa thieves and bandits circulated widely, even extending to far-
away lands. In the 1960s, the Australian writer, Judah Waten, who left Odessa in
1914 as a newborn, remembers how his father "boasted that Odessa turned out the
most talented thieves in the world, certainly more ingenious, dexterous and brazen
then the Warsaw ones."
Babel uses the legendary figures of Odessa thieves and gangsters as the main
characters in his Odessa Stories. Moreover, Benia Krik' s criminal actions
constitute the plots of these stories. By "plot," I refer to the Russian usage of
siuzhet, or, to the more recent term, "story," that is, the "narrated events or
characters abstracted by their disposition in the text."6 In this article I intend to
show that the "narrated events" involving Benia Krik and his underworld in
Babel's Odessa Stories function against the background of a larger "Odessa text." I
will also investigate underground folklore featuring underworld "kings" and track
some of Babel's Odessa sources. Finally, I will look at Benia Krik and his actions
within the historical context of Odessa's experience of Revolution and Civil War,
when the real-life Mishka Iaponchik, the prototype for Benia Krik, reached his
legendary status.
The Odessa Stories, which treat Benia Krik and his gangster activities,
include the "The King" (Kopojib- 1921), "How It Was Done in Odessa" (1923),
"The Father" (OTeu- 1924), and "Justice in Quotation Marks"
4 V. Jabotinsky, "Memoirs of My Typewriter," in The Golden Tradition, ed. L.
Dawidowich (New York: Schocken Books, 1967) 398.
5 Judah Waten, From Odessa to Odessa (Melbourne: Cheshire, 1969) 7.
° As Shlomith Rimmon-Kennan observes, a story is always a part ot a larger
construct,... the fictional Reality' in which the characters of the story are supposed to
be living and in which its events are supposed to take place." Shlomith Rimmon-
Kennan, Narrative Fiction: Contemporary Poetics (London: Routledge, 1990) 6. In
our analysis, this large construct is the "Odessa text."
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THE UNDERWORLD OF BENIA KRIK AND B ABEL' S ODESSA STORIES 1 1 7
(CnpaBeAJiHBocTb b cKoóxax - 192 1).7 In addition, Babel's later story, "Froim
Grach" (1934), features "Benia Krik' s people" (jiioah BeHH Kpmca) and is set
during the Civil War in 1919. Therefore, I will consider this story as well.
THE PLOT OF THE RAID
While Babel's critics have emphasized his mastery of skaz in rendering the Odessa
idiom in the Odessa Stories, his peculiar treatment of events has usually been
taken for granted. Babel's contemporary, K. Paustovskii, records how Babel
would polemicize with the critical notion that his stories are held together by
style alone. Using formalist terms and clichés, Babel would speculate on the
balance of style and plot in his writing:
"How are my stories held together? With what kind of cement? You'd think that
they'd disintegrate at the slightest touch." And then he'd answer his own question by
saying that style was the only binding agent; and then he'd laugh at himself. Who
could believe that a story could hold up without content, plot or intrigue?8
As Babel himself suggested, more unites his stories than style. In fact, a
specific, narrative structure underpins many of his stories. In Odessa Stories, this
structure originates with the gangster raid (HajieT). The raid may target small
shops, factories, or apartments. For Babel's leading bandit, Benia Krik, and his
friends, "the raid" signifies the main activity, and it organizes the plots of the
stories about Benia Krik. In "The King," for example, the narrator explains the
odd familial relationship between the king of gangsters and his wealthy father-in-
law, Eikhbaum, by the phrase, "the raid is everything here" / TyT Bee aejio b
Q
HajieTe (I, 121). The story of Benia Krik' s raid on Eikhbaum' s farm follows.
In "How It Was Done in Odessa" Tartakovskii is known by the nickname, "Nine
raids" (fleBüTb HajieTOB). The tenth raid and its well-known consequences
constitute the plot of this story. In "Justice in Quotation Marks," two rival
7 "Justice in Quotation Marks" was published in 1921 in the Odessa newspaper, Na
pomos hch' and was subtitled "From the Odessa Stories." Later, however, Babel did
not include this particular story in his Odessa cycle, in which he grouped "The
Father," "The King," "How It Was Done in Odessa," and "Lubka Kazak." Because of
its hero Benia Krik and its treatment of the Odessa underworld, I will consider "Justice
in Quotation Marks" as part of the 'Odessa cycle,' but I will not consider "Liubka
Kazak" within this context. It is noteworthy that the question of what constitutes the
'Odessa cycle' is contentious. For example, Efraim Sicher, treats all nine Odessa-
based tales as one cycle - see I. Babel1, Detstvo i drugie rasskazy (Jerusalem:
Biblioteka-Aliia, 1990).
8 K. Paustovskii, "Rasskazy o Babele" in Vospominaniia o Babele (Moscow:
Knizhnaia palata, 1989) 43.
9 All references to I. Babel's stories are from Sochineniia v dvukh tomakh
(Moscow: Khudozhestvennaia literatura, 1990). Page numbers are indicated directly
in the text. Translations from Russian are by R.L. Busch.
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118 BORIS BRDŒR
gangsters unexpectedly meet during a single raid. This situation serves as the
main conflict of the story. Benia punishes the man responsible for informing
both rival parties of the target for an upcoming raid. Although not overtly
pertaining to "the raid," the story "The Father" ends with an agreement between
Benia Krik and Froim Grach to punish the grocer, Kaplun, with a future raid:
"... and here begins another tale, a tale of the fall of the house of the Kapluns, a
tale of slow death, of acts of arson and nocturnal gunfire /<...> h bot TyT
HaHHHaeTCü HOBaa HCTopHfl, HCTopHü nafleHHü flOMa KanjiyHOB, noBecTb o
ero MefljieHHOH raoejiH, o noaacorax h hohhoh CTpejibóe (146).
In Odessa, the practice of "the raid," originated in the political terrorism
during the time of the 1905 Revolution. V. Jabotinsky recalls this time, when
he writes in his novel that "we all read of the heroic raids against convoys that
were transporting gold from the state treasury" (mu Bee HHTajiH o
repoHHecKHx HajieTax Ha kohboh Ka3eHHoro mnoTa). Later, "raids" became
the prerogative of criminal gangs and private individuals, and it was called "eks"
in street slang (an abbreviation for "expropriation"). Gangsters involved in these
illegal undertakings were labelled naletchiki, or raiders. This type of robbery in
Odessa was widespread in the Jewish community. As in Babel's stories, both the
instigators and the targets of these crimes were very often Jews. In fact, one
journalist compared the raids to the pogroms: "the Jewish masses are pummelled
by two scourges - at night by alien scum with clubs, and during the day by our
own" (b ABa KHyTa xjiemyT eBpeHCKyio Maccy; HOHbio ayÕHHicaMH nyacaa
CBOJIOHb, flHeM CBOfl).11
During World War I and especially right after the February Revolution in
1917, Odessa newspapers reported rampant raids. Benia Krik's raids most likely
originated in the "brazen robberies" of that time. Gangs were composed of former
prisoners, who were granted amnesty and released by the Provisional
Government. Deserters from the front during World War I often participated in
the gangs and provided the gangsters with arms. The state militia recruited young
students from gymnasiums and universities to replace the unpopular, though
experienced, tsarist police. For example, in the epic poem, February (OeBpajib)
by the Odessa poet, E. Bagritskii, the lyrical hero is a university student who
serves as the commissar in just such a militia. As commissar, he invades a den
of thieves and prostitutes. His interactions with them structures the plot of the
poem.
!0 V. Zhabotinskii, Fiaterò (Paris: Ars, 1936) 209. On Jabotinsky as a Russian
writer and on his novel, The Five, see Alice Stone Nakhimovsky, Russian-Jewish
Literature and Identity (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1992) 62-
69.
11 Zhabotinskii, Fiaterò 209.
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THE UNDERWORLD OF BENIA KRIK AND BABEL' S ODESSA STORIES 1 1 9
Just as the duel and card game provided a ready-made plot construct for many
nineteenth-century Russian literary works, so too did the structure of the raid
serve as a ready-made plot for Babel's Odessa Stones. Thus, "the raid" serves as
the narrative plot even before entering Babel's text. Like other plot constructs,
the raid could yield numerous versions. The narrative structure of the raid follows
a set of rules, conventions, and an honor code. Using local Odessa newspaper
accounts for this period, it is possible reconstruct a master plot of the raid and to
trace how Babel refashioned this extra-textual material into the raids of his
Odessa Stories.
A typical raid in Odessa would begin with a letter of extortion received by
the owner of a business. In this letter the extortionist would demand that the
owner amass a prescribed sum of money and deliver it to a designated place.
Such letters invariably contained some of the same clichés found in business
letters. But, because of the intent of these letters, the correspondence ultimately
produces a pure parody of business correspondence. One letter, addressed to the
Odessite, Pinkus, in October, 1917, illustrates the point. It was subsequently
published in the daily newspaper Odesskie novosti, where it was accompanied by
the drawing of a skull and crossbones:
Dear Comrade Pinkus: On the fourth of August at nine o'clock in the evening, please
be so kind as to bring, without fail, 100 rubles to the tram station across from your
house. This modest sum will preserve your life, which is certainly worth more than
100 rubles. Any efforts to evade this payment will lead to major difficulties for you. If
you turn to the police, you will be killed immediately. You and your whole family will
suffer. We will strike and you will be ruined. Sit on the bench by the tram station and
have in one hand an envelope with the money, and in the other a white kerchief. The
head of the band of Parisian Apaches will approach, and you will hand the money over
to him.
ToBapHm IlHHKyc! EyabTe aoõpbi h He OTKaacHTe aocTaBHTb 4-ro aßrycTa k 9
HacaM Benepa 100 pyójieñ Ha CTaHUHK) TpaMBaa npoTHB Bauiero m>Ma. 3Ta
Heõojibiiiaíi cyMMa coxpaHHT BaM acH3Hb, KOTOpaa HaBepHoe ctoht õojibiiie 100
pyójieñ. BcflKHe nonbiTKH yicjiOHHTbCfl ot stoh noaanH npHHecyT BaM oojibiune
HenpHiiTHOCTH. Ecjih 3aüBHTe MHJIHU.HH, 6yaeTe MOMCHTajibHO yÓHTbi. uocTpaaaeTe
Bbi h Bam a ceMbji. Bac pa3rpOMüT h pa3opín' CnjxbTe Ha cicaMenite TpaMBañHoñ
CTaHUHH h aepacHTe b ozjhoh pyice KOHBepT c aeHbraMH, a b apyroñ 6ejibiñ njiaTOK.
K BaM noAOÍtaeT aTaMaH mañicn napH^ccKHx anauíeñ h bbi eMy BpynHTe aern»™.12
Judging by the relatively modest sum of money demanded in the letter, we
may assume that this extortionist was not an experienced gangster. Nevertheless,
this bandit certainly knew the formulae for extortion found in the letters of his
more experienced brethren: the business-like, detailed description of handing over
the money and the accompanied threats. In "How It Was Done in Odessa" Babel
12 Odesskie novos ti, August 19, 1917.
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120 BORIS BRDŒR
incorporates into Benia' s letter the characteristic features of extortion letters. We
should note that the letter reflects this particular pattern more than it does
Benia's own speech:
Dear Ruvim Osipovich: Please, by Saturday evening, be so kind as to place under the
rain barrel... etc., etc. In the case of a refusal, which you have been allowing yourself
recently, a major disenchantment in your family life awaits you.
MHoroyBaacaeMbiH PyBHM Ochiiobhh! EyabTe HacTOJibico jno6e3Hbi nojioacHTb k
cy66cnre noa 6oHKy c roikjxcboPl boaoh... h Tait aajiee. B cjiynae OTKa3a, KaK bm 3to
ce6e b nocjieflHee BpeMJi CTajiH no3BOJiaTb, Bac acaeT 6ojibiiioe pa3OMapOBaHHe b
Bauíeñ ceMeíiHOH )kh3hh (130).
In "How It Was Done in Odessa," even the narrator who worships Benia
Krik seems to mock the letter as a cliché by noting that Benia Krik' s letter to
Tartakovskii is "a letter very much like all letters written on such an occasion"
(130). In the story "The King" Babel intensifies the parodie element by imitating
Odessa speech patterns in Benia's letter to Eikhbaum. The form of the letter,
however, stays intact:
Monsieur Eikhbaum, I am requesting that you place 20,000 rubles beneath the gate at
17 Sofievskaia Street. If you do not do so, such an unheard of happening will befall
you that all Odessa will be talking in respect of your person.
Mocbe 3ñx6ayM, «...» nojioaorre, npoiuy Bac, noa Bopevra Ha CocjDHeBCicyio, 17
flBaauaTb TbicíiH pyõjien. Ecjih bu 3to He caejiaeTe, TaK Bac acaeT Taicoe, hto 3to
HecjibixaHHO, h Bea Oaecca 6yaeT ot Bac roBopHTb (121).
We note here that the hero of Il'f and Petrov's The Golden Calf (3o jiotoh
TejieHOK), Ostap Bender, an intellectual swindler from Chernomorsk-Odessa,
also mocks this sort of letter as predictable and this kind of extortion as petty:
A petty con like Panikovskii would write a letter to Koreiko telling him to place 600
rubles under the garbage can out back - otherwise, things would be bad for him, and at
the bottom he'd draw in a skull, cross bones and a candle. (Ch. XII, "The Herculeans")
MejiKaa yrojiOBHaa comica Bpoae naHHKOBCKoro HariHcajia 6bi KopeñKO nncbMO
«IlojioacHTe bo flBope noa MycopHbiñ hii^hk mecTbCOT pyójieñ, HHane 6yaeT njioxo»
- h BHH3y npHpHCOBajia 6bi KpecT, nepen h CBeny. (Fji. XII, «repKyjiecoBUbi»)^
Failure to respond to letters of extortion represents the first violation of
order that ultimately leads to a raid. The second step of the raid follows. The
gangsters suddenly appear at the home or business of their victims, pretending to
be customers, police officers, soldiers, or else they are garbed in such a way so
as to conceal their identity (for example, they might wear robes or masks). Thus,
13 This parallel has also been noted by Iu. Shcheglov in his Romany I. IV fa i E.
Petrova: sputnik chitatelia. «Zolotoi telenok» (Wien: Wiener Slawistischer
Almanach, 1991) 510.
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THE UNDERWORLD OF BENIA KRIK AND BABEL' S ODESSA STORIES 1 2 1
in a 1917 issue of the Odesskie novosti newspaper, for example, in the section
entitled "Happenings" (IlpoHciiiecTBHiO, we find a typical description of such a
scenario:
Around 2:00 a.m. four unknown subjects, wearing masks and armed with
revolvers, turned up at a modest dacha near Big Fountain Station No. 1. They broke
into the apartment of a certain Mil'rud that was occupied by three men.
"Hands up and don't make a move," shouted one of the bandits. The other bandits
stood silently behind their leader, their guns trained on Mil'rud.
... Okojio AByx nacoB hohh neTbipe HeH3BecTHbix cyõ-beicTa b MacKax,
BOOpyaceHHbix peBOJibBepaMH, üBHjiHCb b oziHy h3 HeóojibuiHx flan b6jih3h 1-oíí
CTaHUHH Bojibuioro OoHTaHa. Ohh BopBajiHCb b KBapTHpy HeKoero Mnjibpyaa, b
KOTOpOH ÕbIJIO TpOe MyaCHHH.
- Hh C MeCTa, pyKH BBepX, - KpHKHyjl OflHH HS BÕeíKaBUlHX B KOMHaTy
rpaÓHTejieñ. OcTajibHbie rpaÓHTejw, HaBeaa peBOJibBepbi Ha Mmibpyaa, MOJina
ocTaHOBHJiHCb 3a cnHHoñ CBoero npeABOAHTejia.^
Even this newspaper report conveys the essentially theatrical nature of the
gangsters' entrance. In "How It Was Done in Odessa," Babel also resorts to
theatrical gestures in describing how Benia and his friends, who are prepared to
raid Tartakovskii's store, make their entrance:
The next day he and four friends turned up at Tartakovskii's store. Four masked
youths with revolvers came barging into the room.
"Hands up," they said and started brandishing their pistols.
Ha cjieayiomHH aeHb oh aBHjica c neTbipbMfl apy3bflMH b KOHTOpy
TapTaKOBCKoro. HeTbipe iohoiiih b MacKax c peBOJibBepaMH BBajwjiHCb b KOMHaTy.
- PyKH BBepx! - CKa3ajiH ohh h CTajiH MaxaTb nHcmneTaMH (130).
After the letter of extortion and the unannounced visit, "the work" of the raid
follows in the sequential order of its constituent events. While threatening the
owner or the guards with weapons, the gangsters express their demand. They
then get to "work," - confiscating money or goods. The following real-life report
narrates a rather complex procedure of negotiations with guards and clerks before
the gangsters get to the safe:
The bandits demanded that the clerk give them money. The clerk declared that the
money was in the safe. The bandits then tried to break open the steel safe, but, when
they saw this was more than they could handle, they tried using keys on it. Then they
went to the store manager, and took 15,000 rubles before tying him and the guard up.
rpaÓHTejiH noTpeóoBajiH y KOHTopmHica Bbmann aeHer. IIocjieflHHH 3aüBHji,
HTO AeHbrH b Kacce. Toraa rpaÓHTejiH nonbiTajiHCb B3JiOMaTb acejie3Hyio Kaccy, ho,
BHflfl HTO HM 3TO He nOfl CHJiy, peUIHJIH nOnpOÖOBaTb KJ1IOHH OT KaCCbl. 3aTeM
14 Odesskie novosti, July 3, 1917.
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122 BORIS BRIKER
OTnpaBHjiHCb B KBapTHpy K ynpaBjiiiiOLueMy kohtopoh h 3a6pajiH 15 Tbican pyojieñ.
Cßü3ajiH KOHTopmHKa, ynpaBjiflKHnero h CTOpoaca. 15
Babel's narrative in "How It Was Done in Odessa," translates this sort of
event into dialogue, thus, creating a "scene" in his short story, rather than a
narrative summary. Consider the conversation between Benia Krik and the clerk
Iosif Muginshtein, when Krik demands that the clerk open the safe:
"Is Jew-and-a-Half in the factory?
"No, the boss's not in the factory" . . .
"So who's here to be boss then? . . .
"I'm here to be boss". . .
"Then, may God help you, let's see you open the safe for us!. . .
- IlojiTopa MAa b 3aBoae?
- Hx HeT b 3aBoae, -<...>
- Kto 6yaeT 3ziecb HaKOHeu 3a xo3flHHa? <...>
- 51 3aecb 6yay 3a xo3>iHHa, -<...>
- Toraa othhhh HaM c ooacbeñ noMombio Kaccy! <...>( 131)
According to the unwritten master plot, the raid should end with the
gangsters getting the money and leaving the scene of the crime. The raids in
Babel's stories violate this. In his stories, a violation of the rules and conditions
of the raid leads to an unexpected plot twist towards comedy or tragedy, or, in
most cases, towards a combination of the two. In "How It Was Done in Odessa,"
the events of the plot initially correspond to the typical features of the raid.
Suddenly, however, it turns into an unplanned and unnecessary death. After the
demand for money is made, the clerk Iosif Muginshtein is murdered. In the story,
"The King," when the raid is almost over and Eikhbaum and Benia Krik reach an
agreement, Benia Krik violates the pattern by falling in love with Eikhbaum' s
daughter. Consequently, the agreement between Benia and Eikhbaum is broken. In
"Justice in Quotation Marks," the violation of the pattern manifests itself as the
meeting of two rival gang leaders at the site of a single raid. According to the
rules of the raid, "work" should stop if two rival gangsters meet at one raid, while
the tipster for the raid should be killed. The plot continues with Benia' s revenge
against the tipster.
Clearly, the raid and other criminal actions do not dominate all events in the
stories featuring Benia Krik. Yet the parodox of the plot of these stories is that
Babel sets the criminal raid in the context of the most important events of Jewish
family life, - during weddings, funerals, and marriage proposals. By consistently
functioning in these archetypal settings, the raid achieves equivalent status as a
plot component. In "The King," the raid on Eikhbaum literally concludes with
15 Odesskie novos ti, August 31, 1917.
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THE UNDERWORLD OF BENIA KRIK AND BABEL' S ODESSA STORIES 1 23
Benia's marriage proposal followed by a prenuptual agreement. In "The Father,"
the prenuptual agreement precedes the raid on Kaplun. And in "How It Was Done
in Odessa" the gangsters' raid on Tartakovskii ends with a double funeral
procession. The same ritual serves to bury the victim of the raid and his murderer.
The leader of the raid and of the funeral procession is the very same Benia Krik.
Moreover, in "The King" the Jewish wedding of Benia's sister is played out
against the background of the raid on the local police station. Benia Krik directs
and organizes both the raid and the wedding. His gangsters play two roles, as
wedding guests and raider-arsonists. By the end of this story, Babel renders the
two events indistinguishable: "When Benia returned home the lanterns were dying
out and a glow was lighting up the sky." / Kor/ja BeHü BepHyjica aomoh, Ha
ABope yace noTyxajiH (JxmapHKH h Ha He6e 3aHHMajiacb 3apü (126). The
extinguishing of the fire at the police station literally coincides with the end of
the wedding party at the Krik household.
The family events in which the raid functions in Odessa Stories represent the
archetypal plots in Jewish literature, as in, for example, the works of Sholom
Aleichem. In order to show how the plot of the raid is interwoven with such
archetypal plots, it is worth comparing the plot of Babel's story, "The Father,"
with Sholom Aleichem's short story, "Shprintsa" (1907).16 In this story Tevye
the milkman relates the tragedy of one of his daughters, Shprintsa. Shprintsa falls
in love with Aronchik, the dissipated son of a rich widow, who asks her father for
her hand. When Aronchik' s mother receives the news, Tevye is summoned to the
rich widow's dacha. Here Aronchik' s uncle demands that Tevye and his daughter
leave his nephew in peace, arguing that the daughter of a milkman is no match
for a rich heir. The widow, together with her brother and son, suddenly dissappear
from the town without a trace. Tevye looks on helplessly as his daughter mourns
the loss of her beloved and eventually commits suicide. The comic features of
Babel's story notwithstanding, "The Father," follows a very similiar plot to
Sholom Aleichem's. Froim Grach is also a father whose daughter dreams of
getting married. She is interested in Solomonchik Kaplun, the son of a
prosperous Odessa grocer. When, however, Froim Grach visits Solomonchik' s
parents, the marriage proposal is rejected by Mme Kaplun: "I do not want any
part of you just as a bride does not want pimples on her face." / fla, a He xony
Bac, KaK HeBecTa He xoneT npbimen Ha rojioBe (140). Like Tevye's daughter,
who drowns herself, Bas'ka Grach threatens to end her own life, "or I'll do myself
in" / HjiH ñ cAejiaK) KOHeu, Moeñ *ch3hh (139). Up until this point, the story of
16 "Shprintsa" belongs to Sholom Aleichem's cycle of stories, united by the
narrator Tevye the milkman. I have used the Russian edition of his collected works,
Sóbrame sochitienii, vol. 1 (Moscow: GIKhL, 1959) 562-79.
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