History And Summary | Themes | Characters | Illustrations  

Themes 

FRIENDSHIP 

Because the men in Red Cavalry are constantly traveling and fighting in battles, it is very difficult for them to develop close friendships, because there is always the possibility of any man dying. The narrator is, however, able to form a friendship with his driver, Grischuk. In "The Death of Dolgushov," after the narrator sees Dolgushov maimed and his friend Afonka cock a trigger to shoot himself, Grischuk hands the narrator an apple and asks him to eat it. This seems like a very simple gesture, but it is clearly the only thing he can think to do to help his friend at that very moment.

HORSES 

The Cossacks consider horses to be equal to men. It was impossible for a man to be a member of a cavalry if he did not have a horse to ride. Horses are treated as having souls, and there are constant disputes over horses throughout the work. In "The Story of a Horse," Savitsky, a battery commander, and Khlebnikov, a squadron commander, argue about a beautiful horse. Savitsky threatens to kill Khlebnikov when he tries to get his horse back, and Khlebnikov loses his mind and must be demobilized, all because he cannot get his horse back.

CRUELTY 

Although this story is about a war and must, for that reason, have violence and cruelty, there is much unnecessary cruelty. These actions are put in the story either to illustrate the inhumanity of the Cossack warriors, or to demonstrate Lyutov's attempts to prove himself to the Cossacks. One of the cruelest stories in the work, "My First Goose," shows unnecessary cruelty to a goose. Lyutov has been transferred, and has no friends in his unit. When he asks for food and the old woman responds that she has none, he writes, “A stern goose was wandering about the yard, serenely preening its feathers. I caught up with it and bent it down to the ground; the goose's head cracked under my boot, cracked and overflowed. The white neck was spread out in the dung, and the wings began to move above the slaughtered bird” (Babel 122). This passage contrasts the serene behavior of the goose with the brutality of Lyutov. Because of his vicious act, the other soldiers grow to respect him and offer him some of their food while he waits.

RELIGION

Throughout the work, Lyutov tries to reject his heritage by putting himself apart from the Jews. He says, in "Crossing the Zbrucz, “In the billet that has been assigned to me I find a pregnant woman and two red-haired Jews with thin necks: a third is already asleep, covered up to the top of his head and pressed against the wall. In the room that has been allotted to me I find ransacked wardrobes, on the floor scraps of women's fur coats, pieces of human excrement and broken shards of the sacred vessels used by the Jews once a year, at Passover. ‘Clear up,’ I say to the woman. ‘What a dirty life you live, landlords.’ The two Jews get up from their chairs. They hop about on felt soles, clearing the detritus off the floor, they hop about in silence, monkey-like, like Japanese in a circus; their necks swell and revolve” (Babel 92). From this passage at the very beginning of the work, it is clear that Lyutov is trying to separate himself from the "Jews," even though he himself is a Jew. He refers to them with disgust, placing himself at a distance from them, and even in a different culture, from the way he describes the "sacred vessels."