And Then There Were None…

This story, written in 1923 under the Russian title “They Were Nine,” has never been published in either the Soviet Union or abroad. It appears here in translation for the first time.

Although the story clearly belongs to the Red Cavalry cycle, it is likely that Babel chose not to include it since he used some of its elements for the more complicated narrative of the story called “Squadron Commander Trunov,” dated 1925. There is a difference of emphasis between the two stories. Whereas the Cossack’s killing of the prisoners in “And Then There Were None” appears shockingly brutal, in “Squadron Commander Trunov” it is modified by the main character’s otherwise heroic behavi...