Isaac Emmanuilovich Babel (Russian: Исаак Эммануилович Бабель, romanized: Isaak Emmanuilovich Babel; Ukrainian: Ісак Еммануїлович Бабель, romanized: Isak Emmanuilovych Babel; 13 July [O.S. 1 July] 1894 – 27 January 1940) was a Soviet writer, journalist, playwright, and literary translator. He is best known as the author of Red Cavalry and Odessa Stories, and has been acclaimed as "the greatest prose writer of Russian Jewry". Babel was arrested by the NKVD on 15 May 1939 on fabricated charges of terrorism and espionage, and executed on 27 January 1940.
