The seamy Jewish underworld of Odesa is the setting for Isaac Babel's story based on the life of gangster king Mishka Yaponchik "Mike the Jap" Vinnitsky. Murder is a way of life for Benya and his gang until he finds himself ensnared in a Bolshevik trap.
Matvei Lyarov
Mendel Krik
Yurii Shumskyi
Benya Krik, Mendel's son
Anna Goricheva
Dvoira, Benya's sister
Abram Vabnik
Lazar Spilgagen, Dvoira's fiancé
Mykola Nademskyi
Kolka Pakovskiy
Teodor Brainin
Lyovka Byk
Heorhiy Astafyev
Abdullah
Aleksandr Sashin
Savka Butsis
Osyp Merlatti
Froim Grach
Mikhail Smolenskiy
Marantz, broker
Evgeni Lepkovsky
Ruvim Tartakovskiy, owner of 19 bakeries
Leonid Barbe
Muginstein, Tartakovskiy's clerk
