Conversation so far:
Who is the author Isaac Babel?
Isaac Babel is best known as the author of Red Cavalry, Story of My Dovecote and The Odessa Tales.
What were the Odessa Tales by Isaac Babel?
The stories describe the life of Jewish gangsters, both before and after the October Revolution.

Question: Was there a lot of violence at the time?
Self-contained rewrite: Was there a lot of violence at the time that Isaac Babel was writing?