Isaac Babel (1894–1940) was a Russian and Soviet writer, journalist, playwright, and literary translator. He is best known for the story collections Red Cavalry and Odessa Stories, works that draw on sharply observed characters and settings from revolutionary Russia and his native Odessa. He also wrote plays and reported as a journalist. Babel was arrested by Soviet authorities in 1939 on fabricated charges of terrorism and espionage, and was executed in 1940. His literary reputation rests on concise, formally distinctive prose and fiction that became central to twentieth-century Russian literature.