Red Cavalry by Isaac Babel

war correspondent embedded with the Soviet Red Army. From the official book description: "One of the great masterpieces of Russian literature, the Red Cavalry cycle retains today the shocking freshness that made Babel's reputation when the stories were first published in the 1920s. Using his own experiences as a journalist and propagandist with the Red Army during the war against Poland, Babel brings to life an astonishing cast of characters from the exuberant, violent era of early Soviet history: commissars and colonels, Cossacks and peasants, and among them the bespectacled, Jewish writer/intellectual, observing it all and trying to establish his role in the new Russia." There are several good translations available, the newest being Boris Dralyuk's from 2015. The translations by Peter Constantine and David McDuff are also fairly recent and well-regarded. https://www.amazon.com/Cavalry-Pushkin-Collection-Isaac-Babel/dp/1782270930/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=&dpID=51pu0QMZ4ZL&preST=_SY344_BO1,204,203,200_QL70_&dpSrc=detail https://www.amazon.com/Red-Cavalry-Isaac-Babel/dp/0393324230/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1507675407&sr=1-1&keywords=red+cavalry https://www.amazon.com/Cavalry-Other-Stories-Penguin-Classics/dp/0140449973/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_14_t_0?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=0VQGZDCSAPRCCJRAF8DS&dpID=51gMTx650%252BL&preST=_SY344_BO1,204,203,200_QL70_&dpSrc=detail We'll be reading the entire "Red Cavalry" cycle for the next meet up: a total of 35 short stories, totaling about 150 pages in the Penguin edition. Happy reading!