Treason by Isaac Babel. Short summary

5 seconds

Nikita Balmashev is confronted with treason among Red Army soldiers. In order to obtain justice, he writes a letter to investigator Burdenko. Balmashev hopes for help and understanding.

1 minute

Balmashev writes a letter to investigator Burdenko. He wants to explain the situation with the shelling of the hospital. Nikita tells him that he, Golovitsyn and Kustov were standing in the square that day. All three were wounded.

The soldiers were ordered to go to the ward. There they saw the Red Army men playing checkers. Then Balmashev told the soldiers that they had fought back early, for the enemy was walking around.

The sisters led Nikita, Golovitsyn and Kustov to the lie-in. They were asked to surrender their weapons. More than once the sisters wanted to give the fighters sleeping powder to get their clothes. Because of this, the wounded took turns sleeping.

When the fighters awoke on the accused morning, they noticed they were under numbers, unarmed and naked. It was then that the men realized they had encountered treason.

From the hospital, the fighters fled to the pre-rev Boyderman to tell him of the treason that had been revealed. Boyderman wouldn’t listen to them. Then they went out into the square and broke three panes of glass.

Balmashev summed it up: «Treason, I say to you, Comrade Investigator Burdenko, is laughing at us from the window…»