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Babel
Russian short-story writer. Born Jewish in Ukraine, Babel grew up in an atmosphere of persecution that is reflected in his stories. M. Gorky encouraged him to travel abroad to expand his horizons. Out of his experience as a soldier in the war with Poland came the stories in Red Cavalry (1926). His Odessa Tales (1931) include realistic and humorous sketches of the Jewish ghetto outside Odessa. Initially well regarded in the Soviet Union, in the late 1930s Babel's writing was found incompatible with official literary doctrine. He was arrested in 1939 and died in a Siberian prison camp. He is often thought of as Russia's greatest writer of short stories after A. Chekhov.

In the Old Testament, a high tower built in Shinar (Babylonia). According to Genesis 11:1-9, the Babylonians wanted to build a tower "with its top in the heavens." Angry at their presumption, God disrupted the enterprise by confusing the languages of the workers so that they could no longer understand each other. The tower was left unfinished and the people dispersed over the face of the earth. The myth may have been inspired by a tower temple located north of the Marduk temple and known as Bab-ilu ("Gate of God").


Cabell
U.S. writer. Born in Richmond, Va. to a distinguished family, he attacked Amer. orthodoxies and institutions in his best-known novel, Jurgen (1919), a story replete with sexual symbolism. His other works, many of them allegories set in an imaginary medieval province, include The Cream of the Jest (1917), Beyond Life (1919), and The High Place (1923). Though much praised in the 1920s, his mannered style and skeptical view of human experience soon lost favor.


Kabila
Leader of rebel forces in Zaire (now Congo) that in 1997 overthrew the government of Mobutu Sese Seko. Kabila attended schools abroad, incl. military school in China, before participating in several Marxist-inspired uprisings in Zaire in the 1960s and '70s. He later became a trader in precious minerals and ivory. In the Rwandan civil war, Kabila collaborated with P. Kagame in attacking Hutu guerrilla groups in Zaire as well as Zairean government forces. His troops ousted Mobutu in 1997, and Kabila proclaimed himself president and renamed the country. His repressive policies soon led to a new and larger war, in which many African states sent troops and aid to both sides.


Kabul
City (pop. 1994 est.: 700,000), capital of Afghanistan. Located on the Kabul River in a valley strategically located between mountain passes, it has existed for 3,500 years. It became the capital of the Mughal empire in the 16th cent., and it remained under Mughal rule until 1738, when Iran gained control. Kabul has been the capital of Afghanistan since 1776. The Soviet Union invaded the country in 1979 and established a military command in Kabul. After the Soviet withdrawal in 1989, factional fighting among Afghan guerrillas continued intermittently ...

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