ISAAC BABEL
(1894-1940)

To the Prosecutor of the USSR
from prisoner 1. Babel,
former member of the Union of Soviet Writers.

I wrote two statements on 5/XI and 21/X1 1939 in the internal prison of the NKVD to the Prosecutor of the USSR, to the effect that innocent people were slandered by me in my testimony. I do not know the fate of these statements. The thought that my testimony not only is not serving to elucidate the truth, but also is leading the investigation up the wrong track, torments me constantly. Apart from what is in the record of 9/10, I ascribed antisoviet actions and anti-soviet tendencies to the writers I. Ehrenburg, G. Konovalov, M. Feyerovich, L. Tumerman, O. Brodskaya and a group of journalists E. Kriger, E. Bermont, T. Tass. All this is a lie, without any basis. I knew these people as honest and loyal Soviet citizens. The slander carne about as a result of my faint-hearted behaviour at the investigation.
 

I. Babel
2/1 1940 Butyrki Prison

(From "Written in prison.

XXth century. Russia")

Bilingual edition - Russian/English.

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