Odessa Stories


Odessa Stories, also known as Tales of Odessa, is a collection of four short stories by Isaac Babel, set in Odessa in the last days of the Russian Empire and the Russian Revolution. Published individually in Soviet magazines between 1921 and 1924 and collected into a book in 1931, they deal primarily with a group of Jewish thugs that live in Moldavanka, a ghetto of Odessa. Their leader is Benya Krik, known as the King, and loosely based on the historical figure Mishka Yaponchik.
In 1926, Babel adapted parts of the first two stories and additional content as a screenplay, Benya Krik, directed by and released in 1927, as well as the play Sunset, which premiered in October 1927.

Stories

The four stories originally included in the 1931 collection are:
The following stories have at times been included by editors as part of the "Odessa Stories" cycle as well:

Translations