Editing Isaac Babel (section)

===October's Withered Leaves===
During the [[Russian Civil War]], which led to the Party's monopoly on the printed word, Babel worked for the publishing house of the Odessa Gubkom (regional [[CPSU]] Committee), in the food procurement unit (see his story "Ivan-and-Maria"), in the ''Narkompros'' (Commissariat of Education), and in a typographic printing office.

After the end of the Civil War, Babel worked as a reporter for ''The Dawn of the Orient'' (Заря Востока) a Russian-language newspaper published in [[Tbilisi]]. In one of his articles, he expressed regret that Lenin's controversial [[New Economic Policy]] had not been more widely implemented.

Babel married Yevgenia Gronfein on August 9, 1919, in Odessa, but by 1925, the Babels' marriage was souring. Yevgenia Babel, feeling betrayed by her husband's infidelities and motivated by her increasing [[anti-communism|hatred of communism]], emigrated to [[France]]. Babel saw her several times during his visits to [[Paris]]. During this period, he also entered into a long-term romantic relationship with Tamara Kashirina. A son they had together, Emmanuil Babel (1927-2000), was later adopted by his stepfather [[Vsevolod Ivanov]] and took the name Mikhail Ivanov, eventually becoming a noted artist.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.pseudology.org/babel/BabelSonIvanov.htm|title=babel son painter Ivanov|website=www.pseudology.org}}</ref>

After the final break with Tamara, Babel briefly attempted to reconcile with Yevgenia and in 1929 they had a daughter Nathalie, later Nathalie Babel Brown, who in adulthood became a scholar of her father's life and editor of his work. In 1932, Babel met a [[Siberian]]-born [[Gentile]] named [[Antonina Pirozhkova]] (1909–2010). In 1934, after Babel failed to convince his wife to return to Moscow, he and Antonina began living together. In 1939, their [[common law marriage]] produced a daughter, Lydia Babel.<ref>William Grimes, "[https://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/23/world/europe/23pirozhkova.html?_r=1&ref=obituaries Antonina Pirozhkova, Engineer and Widow of Isaac Babel, Dies at 101]," ''New York Times'', September 22, 2010.</ref>

According to Pirozhkova, <blockquote>"Before I met Babel, I used to read a great deal, though without any particular direction. I read whatever I could get my hands on. Babel noticed this and told me, 'Reading that way will get you nowhere. You won't have time to read the books that are truly worthwhile. There are about a hundred books that every educated person needs to read. Sometime I'll try to make you a list of them.' And a few days later he brought me a list. There were ancient writers on it, Greek and Roman—[[Homer]], [[Herodotus]], [[Lucretius]], [[Suetonius]]—and also all the classics of later European literature, starting with [[Erasmus]], [[Rabelais]], [[Cervantes]], [[Jonathan Swift|Swift]], and [[Charles De Coster|Coster]], and going on to 19th century writers such as [[Stendhal]], [[Mérimée]], and [[Flaubert]]."<ref>Antonina Pirozhkova, ''At His Side: The Last Years of Isaac Babel'', p. 45.</ref></blockquote>