1. How does Babel depict the Cossack soldiers and "active men" in his stories? Should we think about these depictions in terms of stereotype, myth, or in some other way? 

2. What persona does Babel's main narrator exhibit in Red Cavalry? What are some of his major psychological, moral and ethical dilemmas? How does he relate to violence in particular? 

3. Babel often uses a technique called "skaz," in which a narrator whose perspective is limited in some way tells a story. What affects does this have? In which stories do you notice it? 

4. Babel's style of writing has been described as "ornamental prose." Why do you suppose this is? How do aesthetic and other aspects of his writing seem to relate to each other? 

5. What unites the stories of Red Cavalry? What makes them "synergistic" (so that the whole is more than the sum of its parts)?

 6. Choose one story which made an especially strong impression upon you and be prepared to explain why.

 7. Can you imagine Babel's fictional world emerging from some other historical context or did it require a background of revolution and civil war? Does Babel inscribe any discernible political beliefs into his stories?

 8. Compare Babel's representation of childhood to Gorky's. In what ways are they similar? In what ways are they different?

 9. What does Babel have to say about about being Jewish in his time and place?