Benya Krik
Encyclopedia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
n gangster
Gangster
A gangster is a criminal who is a member of a gang. Some gangs are considered to be part of organized crime. Gangsters are also called mobsters, a term derived from mob and the suffix -ster....
of Jewish
Jews
The Jews , also known as the Jewish people, are a nation and ethnoreligious group originating in the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East. The Jewish ethnicity, nationality, and religion are strongly interrelated, as Judaism is the traditional faith of the Jewish nation...
descent, whose gang of thugs is the main subject of Isaak Babel's collection of short stories
Short story
A short story is a work of fiction that is usually written in prose, often in narrative format. This format tends to be more pointed than longer works of fiction, such as novellas and novels. Short story definitions based on length differ somewhat, even among professional writers, in part because...
The Odessa Tales
The Odessa Tales
The Odessa Tales is a collection of short stories by Isaac Babel, situated in Odessa in the last days of the Russian empire and the Russian Revolution. Published individually in magazines throughout 1923 and 1924 and collected into a book in 1931, they deal primarily with a group of Jewish thugs...
. He also plays a prominent role in Babel's play Sunset
Sunset (play)
The play Sunset was written by Isaac Babel in 1926 and based on his short story collection The Odessa Tales.-Plot:The play is sent in Moldavanka, Odessa's Jewish Quarter in 1913...
. He remains one of the great anti-hero
Anti-hero
In fiction, an antihero is generally considered to be a protagonist whose character is at least in some regards conspicuously contrary to that of the archetypal hero, and is in some instances its antithesis in which the character is generally useless at being a hero or heroine when they're...
es of Russian literature
Russian literature
Russian literature refers to the literature of Russia or its émigrés, and to the Russian-language literature of several independent nations once a part of what was historically Russia or the Soviet Union...
.
The Odessa Tales
Krik, who is also known as The King, is the leader of a group of thugs and smugglers, that operate in the Jewish ghettoGhetto
A ghetto is a section of a city predominantly occupied by a group who live there, especially because of social, economic, or legal issues.The term was originally used in Venice to describe the area where Jews were compelled to live. The term now refers to an overcrowded urban area often associated...
Moldavanka
Moldavanka
Moldavanka is a historical part of Odessa in the Odessa Oblast of southern Ukraine, located jointly on Malinovskiy and Primorskiy city districts. Before 1820 a settlement just outside of Odessa which later engulfed it...
in Odessa
Odessa
Odessa or Odesa is the administrative center of the Odessa Oblast located in southern Ukraine. The city is a major seaport located on the northwest shore of the Black Sea and the fourth largest city in Ukraine with a population of 1,029,000 .The predecessor of Odessa, a small Tatar settlement,...
. He is married to Tsilya Eichbaum, whom he met when he was trying to shake down
Protection racket
A protection racket is an extortion scheme whereby a criminal group or individual coerces a victim to pay money, supposedly for protection services against violence or property damage. Racketeers coerce reticent potential victims into buying "protection" by demonstrating what will happen if they...
her father, as is detailed in the short story The King . A couple of days after they met, he returned the protection money to Eichbaum, and asked for her hand later. The couple spent three months on honeymoon in Bessarabia
Bessarabia
Bessarabia is a historical term for the geographic region in Eastern Europe bounded by the Dniester River on the east and the Prut River on the west....
, and returned for the wedding of Krik's sister Dvoira. Odessa's new police chief planned to use the wedding festivities to round up Krik's gang, but is thwarted by the arson
Arson
Arson is the crime of intentionally or maliciously setting fire to structures or wildland areas. It may be distinguished from other causes such as spontaneous combustion and natural wildfires...
of the police station.
Sunset
The 1926 play Sunset is set in MoldavankaMoldavanka
Moldavanka is a historical part of Odessa in the Odessa Oblast of southern Ukraine, located jointly on Malinovskiy and Primorskiy city districts. Before 1820 a settlement just outside of Odessa which later engulfed it...
in 1913. The plot revolves around the volatile relationship between Benya and his philandering, alcoholic father Mendel Krik.
As the curtain rises, the Krik family awaits the arrival of Bobrinets, a wealthy suitor who wishes to marry Dvoira Krik. Although his daughter is already considered an old maid, Mendel Krik refuses to give her a dowry
Dowry
A dowry is the money, goods, or estate that a woman brings forth to the marriage. It contrasts with bride price, which is paid to the bride's parents, and dower, which is property settled on the bride herself by the groom at the time of marriage. The same culture may simultaneously practice both...
and insults Bobrinets, who leaves in a huff. Later, a weeping Nekhama Krik reminds her husband that the Jewish elders are about to bar him from the synagogue
Synagogue
A synagogue is a Jewish house of prayer. This use of the Greek term synagogue originates in the Septuagint where it sometimes translates the Hebrew word for assembly, kahal...
. However, Mendel mocks her as she laments having no grandchildren.
Later, Mendel drinks up his family's money at the local saloon and begins an extramarital affair with Marusia Kholodenko, a 20 year-old Gentile
Gentile
The term Gentile refers to non-Israelite peoples or nations in English translations of the Bible....
. Despite their Russian Orthodox faith, the Kholodenko family is ecstatic to have a new source of money.
Enraged by rumors that Mendel is about to disinherit them and elope to Bessarabia
Bessarabia
Bessarabia is a historical term for the geographic region in Eastern Europe bounded by the Dniester River on the east and the Prut River on the west....
with Marusia, Benya and Lvovka Krik attack their father. Although Lvovka is severely beaten, Benya batters Mendel to a pulp and forbids him from leaving the house or Nekhama.
In the aftermath, Benya and Lvovka arrange to Dvoira to receive a dowry to marry Bobrinets. They also pay for an abortion
Abortion
Abortion is defined as the termination of pregnancy by the removal or expulsion from the uterus of a fetus or embryo prior to viability. An abortion can occur spontaneously, in which case it is usually called a miscarriage, or it can be purposely induced...
for the pregnant Marusia. At a party to celebrate Dvoira's engagement, Rabbi
Rabbi
In Judaism, a rabbi is a teacher of Torah. This title derives from the Hebrew word רבי , meaning "My Master" , which is the way a student would address a master of Torah...
Ben Zkharia declares that "everything is as it should be" and proposes a toast to the sons of Mendel Krik.
Quotes
- Benya Krik: "This is my idea: A Jew no longer in the prime of life, a Jew who used to go about naked, barefoot, and filthy like a convict on Sakhalin Island! And now, thank God, he's getting up there in years, it is time to put an end to this life sentence of hard labor—it is time to turn the SabbathShabbatShabbat is the seventh day of the Jewish week and a day of rest in Judaism. Shabbat is observed from a few minutes before sunset on Friday evening until a few minutes after when one would expect to be able to see three stars in the sky on Saturday night. The exact times, therefore, differ from...
into Sabbath. - Benya says little, but he says smachno (Ukrainizm). He says little, but it's desired that he would say something more.
- Moi sieur Jason, you are as scary as Monya the Artellerist firing out of two guns. I'd rather go to aunt Pece at PrivozPrivoz MarketThe famous Privoz market, located at 14 Privoz Street, is the largest food market in Odessa, Ukraine.Privoz began in 1827, when wares were sold from the back of horse driven carts....
(Odessa market) and buy a glass of sunflower seeds as you too painfully interestingly goutareetye (threatening talk).
External links
- Benya Krik at the Internet Movie DatabaseInternet Movie DatabaseInternet Movie Database is an online database of information related to movies, television shows, actors, production crew personnel, video games and fictional characters featured in visual entertainment media. It is one of the most popular online entertainment destinations, with over 100 million...
. - http://marcelka.arjlover.net/film/benja.krik.avi open source movie of 1926.