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Characters

The main character in Red Cavalry is the narrator, Kirill Vasilyevich Lyutov. He refers to people with whom he comes into contact, but their stories are told mainly through his eyes. There is very little development and characterization of Lyutov. However, it becomes evident to the reader that Lyutov represents Babel himself when he was dealing with many similar situations.

Babel spends much more time developing the characters of the people Lyutov meets throughout his experiences in the Cavalry. The people whom Lyutov encounters function to illustrate and support his experiences. For example, Lyutov often refers to the battery commanders and their actions, but refers to them not by their names. Instead he refers to them as nachdiv, so that each leader remains a little bit ambiguous. The characters and actions are quite believable because they act according to their position in life. The author presents the characters in short snippets because that is how the narrator would have encountered them. In the army, he heard stories of people’s lives, but was rarely able to become very close with anyone. The narrative that we read today is a series of vignettes that are connected by Lyutov’s and Babel’s thoughts and experiences.

Babel’s stories are often portraits of individuals he has encountered in his travels. He runs across such an array of fascinating characters that their individual uniqueness makes their stories interesting. One of my favorite characters was Pan Apolek. He was a painter who went from village to village in Poland painting religious icons. The reason people loved them so much was that he would paint Biblical characters in their likenesses. If he did not like someone, however, he would paint him or her as Mary Magdalene or someone just as sinful. The beauty of Pan Apolek is his rejection of authority. He represents the voice of the peasant who has faith that one day, the peasants will conquer the establishment and that justice will prevail.

One character with whom Lyutov comes into contact more than once is Gedali, a very devout Jewish shopkeeper. Lyutov’s encounters with Gedali show his attempts to validate himself in terms of his Judaism. He tries to hold onto his faith and religion while at the same time fitting into the Cossack army. The first time the reader hears about Gedali is when he goes into his shop and they speak of the revolution. Gedali has much respect for the revolution because it is destroying Poland, but he laments the fact that it is now much harder to observe the Sabbath due to the revolution. He still, however, staunchly goes to the synagogue to pray. The next time the reader meets Gedali is also when he is helping Lyutov realize his faith, when he brings him to the house of the rabbi.

At the rabbi’s house, Lyutov meets the rabbi’s son, whom he will encounter later in the story. In “The Rebbe,” Lyutov encounters the rabbi’s son when he sees him hiding behind Gedali, “smoking, and quivering like an escaped prisoner brought back to prison after a chase” (125). Lyutov later encounter this same rabbi’s son, Ilya. In “The Rebbe’s Son,” Lyutov recognizes Ilya on the battlefield. Ilya, unlike Lyutov and Babel, has not rejected his Judaism. He carries remnants of his faith with him and is glorified when he dies by Lyutov’s reference to “the last prince”(227). He is buried at a forgotten station, but Babel clearly hopes that his literature will ennoble Ilya and that he will be able to live on in some way.