I. E. BABEL’S STORIES MY FIRST FEE AND THE REFERENCE: THE HISTORY OF THE TEXT

Abstract

The article deals with I. Babel’s stories My First Fee and The Reference as the two equally important texts featuring the same plot; neither of them was published in the author’s lifetime. It turns out that The Reference was created later than My First Fee. This, in particular, is confirmed by the author’s dating of the texts of the stories. The earliest source of the story The Reference, a typescript entitled My First Fee, is published here as the appendix and thus introduced into the academic circulation.