The Great Combinator: Who was the prototype of Ostap Bender. Ostap Bender - the real story of the great schemer (2 photos)

Ostap Bender - main character novels by Ilya Ilf and Yevgeny Petrov “The Twelve Chairs” and “The Golden Calf”, “the great strategist”, “an ideological fighter for banknotes”, who knew “four hundred relatively honest ways of taking away (withdrawing) money”. One of the most popular heroes picaresque novel in Russian literature.

Bender himself introduces himself as Ostap-Suleiman-Berta-Maria-Bender Bey(in "The Twelve Chairs") and Bender-Zadunaisky(in "The Golden Calf") In the novel "The Golden Calf" Bender is called Ostap Ibrahimovic.

Biography

Origin of the name

From his biography, he usually reported only one detail: “My dad,” he said, “was a Turkish subject.”

According to one version, the mention of the father’s “Turkish citizenship” and the patronymic “Ibrahimovic” do not indicate an ethnic connection with Turkey. In this, contemporaries saw a hint of Bender’s father’s residence in Odessa, where Jewish merchants accepted Turkish citizenship so that their children could bypass a number of discriminatory laws related to religious affiliation, and at the same time receive grounds for exemption from military service during the Russian-Turkish War. In addition, the name Ibrahim is known to be the Arabic form of the name Abraham.

According to another version, Ilf and Petrov deliberately gave Bender an “international” Ukrainian ( Ostap) - Hebrew ( Bender) - Turkish ( Ibrahimovic, -Suleiman, -Beat) name precisely in order to exclude the above interpretations and emphasize the universality, the universality of this personality. As you know, Odessa is an international city, as was the duo of authors of “The Twelve Chairs” and “The Golden Calf”. The possibility that Odessa authors borrowed the surname of the main character from the name of a city close to their homeland, which is called Bender in Romanian (Romanian: Bender), was expressed by historian Viktor Khudyakov. After all, in the novel “12 Chairs” the acrobat of the Columbus Theater is also mentioned Georgette Tiraspolskikh- and Bendery and Tiraspol are located opposite each other on different banks of the Dniester. In addition, the city of Bendery has a Turkish past, and its most important attraction, widely known outside the city, is the Turkish fortress.

The ending of the novel “The Golden Calf” also confirms V. Khudyakov’s version: Ostap does not cross the USSR border with Poland or Finland, does not sail across the sea towards Istanbul, but chooses to cross Romania, the Dniester River, near Tiraspol - and on the other side, with the former then the Romanian side is just Bendery.

Bender's life until 1927

"Twelve Chairs"

“At half past eleven, from the north-west, from the direction of the village of Chmarovka, a young man of about twenty-eight entered Stargorod. A homeless person was running after him.”

This is how the great schemer appears for the first time in the novel.

According to a number of commentators on the novel (in particular, M. Odessky and D. Feldman), the description indicates that a prisoner entered Stargorod, repeatedly convicted and very recently released, that is, a recidivist criminal (a fraudster, since immediately after his release he builds plans related to fraud). In fact, a homeless tramp who has neither a coat nor socks in the cold spring (ice on puddles), but travels in a fashionable suit and smart shoes:

“He didn’t even have a coat. A young man entered the city in a green, narrow, waist-length suit.”

But for a repeat offender there is nothing unusual here. He does not have an apartment and should not have one - Soviet legislation provided that those sentenced “to imprisonment” were deprived of “the right to occupied living space.” This means that he became homeless after his first term, there was nowhere to return, and he had nowhere to store his wardrobe. If " young man twenty-eight years old” was arrested before the onset of cold weather, he did not wear a coat. Bender kept his shoes and suit because they were taken away after the sentencing and returned upon release, but the socks and underwear that were left for the prisoners were worn out.

"Golden Calf"

The actions of Ostap Bender in the first part of his biography (“12 chairs”) may fall under the relevant articles of the Criminal Code, while in the second part - “The Golden Calf” - he is, in fact, investigating a crime, albeit for the purpose of blackmail. Such duality of the hero is quite in the spirit of a classic detective story.

Killing and resurrecting a hero

In the preface to The Golden Calf, Ilf and Petrov jokingly said that towards the end of writing The Twelve Chairs, the question of a spectacular ending arose. A dispute arose between the co-authors whether to kill Ostap or leave him alive, which even caused a quarrel between the co-authors. In the end, they decided to rely on lot. Two pieces of paper were placed in the sugar bowl, on one of which a skull and crossbones were drawn. The skull fell out - and thirty minutes later the great schemer was gone.

According to the testimony of E. Petrov’s brother, Valentin Kataev (in the book “My Diamond Crown”) plot basis"The Twelve Chairs" was taken from A. Conan Doyle's story "The Six Napoleons", in which a gem was hidden in one of the French emperor's plaster busts. Two criminals were hunting for the busts, one of whom was eventually stabbed to death with a razor by his accomplice. In addition, Kataev also mentions “a hilariously funny story by a young, early deceased Soviet writer from Petrograd Lev Lunts, who wrote about how a certain bourgeois family runs away from Soviet power abroad, hiding his diamonds in a clothes brush."

Writer Valentin Kataev indirectly speaks in favor of this version: "as for central figure novel by Ostap Bender, it was written from one of our Odessa friends. In life, of course, he bore a different surname, but the name Ostap was preserved as a very rare one. The prototype of Ostap Bender was the elder brother of one remarkable young poet... He had nothing to do with literature and served in the criminal investigation department to combat banditry..."

After the publication of the book, O. Shor showed up to Ilf and Petrov in order to demand “author’s royalties” for using the image, but the writers laughed and explained that the image was a collective one, therefore there was no talk of remuneration, but they drank a “peace treaty” with him, after to which Osip left his claims, asking the writers only one thing - to resurrect the hero.

It should also be noted that in 1926, a year before Bender appeared on the pages of the book, in Moscow, where Ilf, Petrov and Kataev lived, with great And Mikhail Bulgakov’s play “Zoyka’s Apartment,” showing the morals of the NEP, was staged with great success (two hundred performances were given in total) at the Vakhtangov Theater. The play features the character Amethyst, aka Putkinovsky, aka Anton Siguradze, who is very similar to the future Bender. This is a charming rogue, an artistic rogue, an elegant swindler, very active and eloquent, getting out of various situations. Amethyst, like Bender, was released from prison before his first appearance in the play. Amethystov was shot in Baku, just as Bender was stabbed to death in Moscow - but both of them miraculously resurrected. Amethysts can convince anyone of anything (except the police). Amethyst's blue dream - Cote d'Azur and white pants (" - Ah, Nice, Nice!..[cf. Oh, Rio, Rio!..] The azure sea, and I’m on its shore - in white trousers!»

In the 19th century, the image of the great schemer with a dream of Rio was anticipated by Baron Nikolai von Mengden (son of General von Mengden and Baroness Amalia) (1822-1888), who in 1844, in an adventurous way, out of idle curiosity, ended up in Rio de Janeiro. Posing as a Russian senator, he received an audience with the Brazilian Emperor Pedro II. After spending time in Rio de Janeiro “enjoyably,” Nikolai Mengden returned to Russia, where he had already been dismissed from service. This story was told in the memoirs of Baroness Sophia Mengden, published in 1908 in the magazine “Russian Antiquity”.

Bender on screen

There were film adaptations of the novels both in the USSR and abroad. For example, “The Twelve Chairs” was staged in Poland, Germany, and Cuba. In the first foreign film adaptations, the plot was significantly changed, and the name of the main character was also changed. Below is a list of actors who played the role of Ostap Bender.

Monuments to Ostap Bender

Monument to Ostap Bender and Kisa Vorobyaninov in Cheboksary

Ostap Bender is immortalized by monuments in a number of cities:

• Berdyansk, Zaporozhye region. - immortalized together with Shura Balaganov in the park named after. P. P. Schmidt.
• Zhmerynka, Vinnytsia region of Ukraine, near the station - a monument in the form of a standing Ostap surrounded by chairs.
• Melitopol, intersection of B. Khmelnitsky Ave. and st. Kirov, near the City cafe.
• Pyatigorsk - a monument near the “Proval”.
• St. Petersburg - a monument to the great schemer was erected on July 25, 2000, on Ostap’s “birthday,” on Italianskaya Street, building 4, at the entrance to the Zolotoy Ostap restaurant.
• Starobelsk, Lugansk region of Ukraine - a monument to Ostap Bender was installed in the “Student” park of LNU named after. Shevchenko.
• Kharkov, a number of monuments (for more details, see Monuments to the heroes of the works of Ilf and Petrov in Kharkov).
• Cheboksary - a monument to Ostap Bender and Kisa Vorobyaninov on Efremov Boulevard (Cheboksary Arbat).
• Yekaterinburg - a monument to Ostap Bender and Kisa Vorobyaninov was erected in August 2007 on Belinsky Street.

• In honor of Ostap Bender, the annual humor festival “Golden Ostap”, held since 1992 in St. Petersburg, was named, and awards were awarded as part of this festival.

• OJSC "VINAP" (formerly Novosibirsk Brewing Plant) produced beer under the brand " Comrade Bender"with an image on the label of Bender, Kozlevich, Panikovsky and Balaganov in the Wildebeest car and with quotes from the book.

• In the early 90s, one of O. Bender’s film performers, Archil Gomiashvili, founded the Golden Ostap club/restaurant in Moscow.

Links

• Web-magazine “Evening windbag”. In the footsteps of the Great Schemer Ostap Bender

Notes

1. M. Odessky, D. Feldman. Literary strategy and political intrigue. “Twelve Chairs” in Soviet criticism at the turn of the 1920s-1930s
2. Khudyakov V.V. The scam of Chichikov and Ostap Bender // In the blooming acacias the city... Bendery: people, events, facts / ed. V. Valavin. - Bendery: Polygraphist, 1999. - pp. 83-85. - 2000 copies. - ISBN 5-88568-090-6
3. Khudyakov V.V. In the blooming acacias the city... Bendery: people, events, facts / ed. V. Valavin. - Bendery: Polygraphist, 1999. - 464 p. - 2000 copies. - ISBN 5-88568-090-6
4. Eduard Bagritsky."Smugglers" ()
5. "The Twelve Chairs", ch. XXX "At the Columbus Theater"
6. Housing Code of the RSFSR, article 60, part 2, norm 18
7. Daniel Kluger. The first detective of the Soviet Union
8. Electronic library - Books for readers and downloaders (; Science Fiction. Fantasy Fantasy Rassadin S., Sarnov. In the land of literary heroes 1-2
9. Information about Osip Shor
10. Osip Shor With reference to materials from the newspaper “Novye Izvestia” dated November 6, 1999.
11. V. Kataev. My Diamond Crown / M., “Soviet Writer”, 1979.
12. Epoch. Events and people. //TV channel “Belarus”, November 23, 2011, 15:30
13. Sergey Belyakov. Lonely sail of Ostap Bender / “New World” 2005, No. 12
14. Levin A. B.“Twelve Chairs” from “Zoyka’s Apartment”
15. Mikhail Bulgakov. Collected works in five volumes. Volume 3: Plays. M: Fiction, 1992. “Zoyka’s apartment”. Comments.
16. “Excerpts from a family chronicle” (from the memoirs of Baroness Sophia Mengden)
17. List of foreign film adaptations
18. Andrey Veligzhanin. The choir soloist sang for Vysotsky in “Stryapukha” / “Komsomolskaya Pravda”, 02.26.2004

Ostap Bender - the main character famous novels Ilya Ilf and Evgeny Petrov "Twelve Chairs" and "Golden Calf". Without a doubt, Bender is one of the most striking characters in Russian literature, each of whose lines has long been analyzed into quotes. This is an amazingly charming swindler, smart, subtle and incredibly inventive, whose goal, faith and eternal passion is money. He doesn't hide his sincere love To banknotes, and his whole life is subordinated to their prey. Despite the fact that in the end all his grandiose projects fail, Bender always remains a winner - even with his throat cut, even robbed and caught, as happened to him in the denouement of both novels.

He calls himself Ostap-Suleiman-Bertha-Maria-Bender Bey, as he introduced himself in the novel “The Twelve Chairs”, and in “The Golden Calf” he called himself Bender-Zadunaisky, although throughout the entire novel he is simply called Ostap Ibrahimovich. Ostap's year of birth is also ambiguous - in "The Twelve Chairs" he was 27 years old in 1927, while in "The Golden Calf" he mentioned that he was 33 years old ("the age of Christ"), the time of action is 1930. So, we can consider the year of birth of Ostap Bender to be 1900 or 1897.

From the scattered and sometimes contradictory stories of Ostap, which he told to various characters on different pages, Ostap’s childhood passed either in Mirgorod or in Kherson, and in 1922 he was in Tagansk prison. And it was after leaving prison that he developed his famous “400 relatively fair ways of taking money from the population.”

So, appearing for the first time in the novel “The Twelve Chairs,” Bender arrives in Stargorod, where he immediately begins to develop vigorous activity. It’s funny that many critics immediately saw in the “young man of about twenty-eight” a former recidivist prisoner. Indeed, Ostap Bender had nothing, he didn’t even have a coat, but at the same time he managed to look like a real dandy and a heartthrob.

Bender's charisma literally captivates the reader from the first appearance - every phrase of his is a pearl, every decision speaks of genius. It is not surprising that he instantly becomes a leader in any society. “I will command the parade!” - this famous phrase Bender has long been a proverb, and they say that this phrase in this wording had to be abolished in official documents.

During the course of “The Twelve Chairs,” Bender has to lead what is, in his opinion, not the most intellectually burdened group of adventurers just like himself, but Bender never loses his famous optimism, even in the most deplorable circumstances.

Bender's mind is unusually flexible - sometimes he comes up with simply brilliant plans right in the course of events - so, while still entering Stargorod in one suit, the young man was not at all sure what he would do in this city - whether he would become a polygamist, or distribute the painting "Bolsheviks" writing a letter to Chamberlain." And in the end he meets Ippolit Matveevich Vorobyaninov, who tells him amazing story family diamonds from Madame Petukhova. So, Ostap’s plans changed instantly, and the new friends decided to set off to get treasures.

Money is the idol, the idol and the meaning of Ostap’s whole life; he sincerely and selflessly loves these “yellow circles”.

“Since there are some banknotes wandering around the country, there must be people who have a lot of them,” Ostap is sacredly sure of this and is ready to put his life into searching.

Alas, the search for the family diamonds, which sometimes seemed so close, was not successful for Bender. Moreover, at the end of the novel, Ostap is killed by the former leader of the nobility Vorobyaninov. By the way, they say that the authors of the novel, Ilf and Petrov, had serious contradictions about the ending of the novel - should Bender be left alive or killed? In the end, everything was decided by lot - and Kisa Vorobyaninov struck the razor along the defenseless neck of the sleeping Ostap...

Surprisingly, the lack of happy endings in both novels does not sadden the readers at all, although all of them, no doubt, succumb to Bender’s charisma and sincerely wish him luck in his scams. So, the end of each book seems to promise - Ostap Bender will return again, with a new adventure and new congenial ideas.

By the way, they said that Ilf and Petrov announced a third novel with Bender, and even its title was published in the press - “Scoundrel”, but this novel, alas, never saw the light of day.

There are many versions of who was the prototype of Ostap Bender - some even name the name Valentin Kataev, although Kataev himself said that it could be one of the writers’ Odessa childhood friends.

The image of Ostap Bender was embodied on screens by several brilliant Russian actors, among whom the most prominent are Sergei Yursky, Archil Gomiashvili, Oleg Menshikov, and, of course, Andrei Mironov.

Monuments to Ostap Bender stand today in many Russian and Ukrainian cities - St. Petersburg and Kharkov, Pyatigorsk and Kremenchug, as well as in Elista, Yekaterinburg, Berdyansk and many others.

Despite the fact that the first novel by Ilf and Petrov was published more than 80 years ago, Ostap Bender today remains one of the most recognizable, bright and eternal characters, and each of his remarks has long become a quotation. Critics and literary scholars may argue about how exactly the authors managed to create such controversial image- at his core, Bender was an ordinary swindler and scoundrel, and at the same time it is simply impossible not to love him. Charming and gallant, daring and noble in his own way, stylish and poor - this is him, Ostap Ibrahimovich Bender, “the son of a Turkish subject.”

Ostap Bender- the main character of the novels by Ilya Ilf and Evgeny Petrov “The Twelve Chairs” and “The Golden Calf”, “the great strategist”, “an ideological fighter for banknotes”, who knew “four hundred relatively honest ways of taking away (withdrawing) money.” One of the most popular heroes of a picaresque novel in Russian literature.

Bender himself introduces himself as Ostap-Suleiman-Berta-Maria-Bender Bey(in "The Twelve Chairs") and Bender-Zadunaisky(in "The Golden Calf") In the novel "The Golden Calf" Bender is called Ostap Ibrahimovic.

Biography

Origin of the name

From his biography, he usually reported only one detail: “My dad,” he said, “was a Turkish subject.”

According to one version, the mention of the father’s “Turkish citizenship” and the patronymic “Ibrahimovic” do not indicate an ethnic connection with Turkey. In this, contemporaries saw a hint of Bender’s father’s residence in Odessa, where Jewish merchants accepted Turkish citizenship so that their children could bypass a number of discriminatory laws related to religious affiliation, and at the same time receive grounds for exemption from military service during the Russian-Turkish War. In addition, the name Ibrahim is known to be the Arabic form of the name Abraham.

According to another version, Ilf and Petrov deliberately gave Bender an “international” Ukrainian ( Ostap) - Hebrew ( Bender) - Turkish ( Ibrahimovic, -Suleiman, -Beat) name precisely in order to exclude the above interpretations and emphasize the universality, the universality of this personality. As you know, Odessa is an international city, as was the duo of authors of “The Twelve Chairs” and “The Golden Calf”. The possibility that Odessa authors borrowed the surname of the main character from the name of a city close to their homeland, which is called Bender in Romanian (Romanian: Bender), was expressed by historian Viktor Khudyakov. After all, in the novel “12 Chairs” the acrobat of the Columbus Theater is also mentioned Georgette Tiraspolskikh- and Bendery and Tiraspol are located opposite each other on different banks of the Dniester. In addition, the city of Bendery has a Turkish past, and its most important attraction, widely known outside the city, is the Turkish fortress.

The ending of the novel “The Golden Calf” also confirms V. Khudyakov’s version: Ostap does not cross the USSR border with Poland or Finland, does not sail across the sea towards Istanbul, but chooses to cross Romania, the Dniester River, near Tiraspol - and on the other side, with the former then the Romanian side is just Bendery.

Bender's life until 1927

"Twelve Chairs"

“At half past eleven, from the north-west, from the direction of the village of Chmarovka, a young man of about twenty-eight entered Stargorod. A homeless person was running after him.”

This is how the great schemer appears for the first time in the novel.

According to a number of commentators on the novel (in particular, M. Odessky and D. Feldman), the description indicates that a prisoner entered Stargorod, repeatedly convicted and very recently released, that is, a recidivist criminal (a fraudster, since immediately after his release he builds plans related to fraud). In fact, a homeless tramp who has neither a coat nor socks in the cold spring (ice on puddles), but travels in a fashionable suit and smart shoes:

“He didn’t even have a coat. A young man entered the city in a green, narrow, waist-length suit.”

But for a repeat offender there is nothing unusual here. He does not have an apartment and should not have one - Soviet legislation provided that those sentenced “to imprisonment” were deprived of “the right to occupied living space.” This means that he became homeless after his first term, there was nowhere to return, and he had nowhere to store his wardrobe. If “a young man of about twenty-eight” was arrested before the onset of cold weather, then he did not wear a coat. Bender kept his shoes and suit because they were taken away after the sentencing and returned upon release, but the socks and underwear that were left for the prisoners were worn out.

"Golden Calf"

The actions of Ostap Bender in the first part of his biography (“12 chairs”) may fall under the relevant articles of the Criminal Code, while in the second part - “The Golden Calf” - he is, in fact, investigating a crime, albeit for the purpose of blackmail. Such duality of the hero is quite in the spirit of a classic detective story.

Killing and resurrecting a hero

In the preface to The Golden Calf, Ilf and Petrov jokingly said that towards the end of writing The Twelve Chairs, the question of a spectacular ending arose. A dispute arose between the co-authors whether to kill Ostap or leave him alive, which even caused a quarrel between the co-authors. In the end, they decided to rely on lot. Two pieces of paper were placed in the sugar bowl, on one of which a skull and crossbones were drawn. The skull fell out - and thirty minutes later the great schemer was gone.

According to the testimony of E. Petrov’s brother, Valentin Kataev (in the book “My Diamond Crown”), the plot basis of “The Twelve Chairs” was taken from the story “The Six Napoleons” by A. Conan Doyle, in which the precious stone was hidden in one of the plaster busts of the French Emperor. Two criminals were hunting for the busts, one of whom was eventually stabbed to death with a razor by his accomplice. In addition, Kataev also mentions “a hilariously funny story by a young Soviet writer from Petrograd, Lev Lunts, who died early, who wrote about how a certain bourgeois family flees from Soviet power abroad, hiding their diamonds in a clothes brush.”

Writer Valentin Kataev indirectly speaks in favor of this version: “As for the central figure of the novel by Ostap Bender, he was written based on one of our Odessa friends. In life, of course, he bore a different surname, but the name Ostap was preserved as a very rare one. The prototype of Ostap Bender was the elder brother of one remarkable young poet... He had nothing to do with literature and served in the criminal investigation department to combat banditry..."

After the publication of the book, O. Shor showed up to Ilf and Petrov in order to demand “author’s royalties” for using the image, but the writers laughed and explained that the image was a collective one, therefore there was no talk of remuneration, but they drank a “peace treaty” with him, after to which Osip left his claims, asking the writers only one thing - to resurrect the hero.

It should also be noted that in 1926, a year before Bender appeared on the pages of the book, in Moscow, where Ilf, Petrov and Kataev lived, with great And Mikhail Bulgakov’s play “Zoyka’s Apartment,” showing the morals of the NEP, was staged with great success (two hundred performances were given in total) at the Vakhtangov Theater. The play features the character Amethyst, aka Putkinovsky, aka Anton Siguradze, who is very similar to the future Bender. This is a charming rogue, an artistic rogue, an elegant swindler, very active and eloquent, getting out of various situations. Amethyst, like Bender, was released from prison before his first appearance in the play. Amethyst was shot in Baku, just as Bender was stabbed to death in Moscow - but both of them miraculously resurrected. Amethysts can convince anyone of anything (except the police). Amethyst's blue dream - Cote d'Azur and white pants (" - Ah, Nice, Nice!..[cf. Oh, Rio, Rio!..] The azure sea, and I’m on its shore - in white trousers!»

In the 19th century, the image of the great schemer with a dream of Rio was anticipated by Baron Nikolai von Mengden (son of General von Mengden and Baroness Amalia) (1822-1888), who in 1844, in an adventurous way, out of idle curiosity, ended up in Rio de Janeiro. Posing as a Russian senator, he received an audience with the Brazilian Emperor Pedro II. After spending time in Rio de Janeiro “enjoyably,” Nikolai Mengden returned to Russia, where he had already been dismissed from service. This story was told in the memoirs of Baroness Sophia Mengden, published in 1908 in the magazine “Russian Antiquity”.

Bender on screen

There were film adaptations of the novels both in the USSR and abroad. For example, “The Twelve Chairs” was staged in Poland, Germany, and Cuba. In the first foreign film adaptations, the plot was significantly changed, and the name of the main character was also changed. Below is a list of actors who played the role of Ostap Bender.

Monuments to Ostap Bender

Monument to Ostap Bender and Kisa Vorobyaninov in Cheboksary

Ostap Bender is immortalized by monuments in a number of cities:

• Berdyansk, Zaporozhye region. - immortalized together with Shura Balaganov in the park named after. P. P. Schmidt.
• Zhmerynka, Vinnytsia region of Ukraine, near the station - a monument in the form of a standing Ostap surrounded by chairs.
• Melitopol, intersection of B. Khmelnitsky Ave. and st. Kirov, near the City cafe.
• Pyatigorsk - a monument near the “Proval”.
• St. Petersburg - a monument to the great schemer was erected on July 25, 2000, on Ostap’s “birthday,” on Italianskaya Street, building 4, at the entrance to the Zolotoy Ostap restaurant.
• Starobelsk, Lugansk region of Ukraine - a monument to Ostap Bender was installed in the “Student” park of LNU named after. Shevchenko.
• Kharkov, a number of monuments (for more details, see Monuments to the heroes of the works of Ilf and Petrov in Kharkov).
• Cheboksary - a monument to Ostap Bender and Kisa Vorobyaninov on Efremov Boulevard (Cheboksary Arbat).
• Yekaterinburg - a monument to Ostap Bender and Kisa Vorobyaninov was erected in August 2007 on Belinsky Street.

• In honor of Ostap Bender, the annual humor festival “Golden Ostap”, held since 1992 in St. Petersburg, was named, and awards were awarded as part of this festival.

• OJSC "VINAP" (formerly Novosibirsk Brewing Plant) produced beer under the brand " Comrade Bender"with an image on the label of Bender, Kozlevich, Panikovsky and Balaganov in the Wildebeest car and with quotes from the book.

• In the early 90s, one of O. Bender’s film performers, Archil Gomiashvili, founded the Golden Ostap club/restaurant in Moscow.

Links

• Web-magazine “Evening windbag”. In the footsteps of the Great Schemer Ostap Bender

Notes

1. M. Odessky, D. Feldman. Literary strategy and political intrigue. “Twelve Chairs” in Soviet criticism at the turn of the 1920s-1930s
2. Khudyakov V.V. The scam of Chichikov and Ostap Bender // In the blooming acacias the city... Bendery: people, events, facts / ed. V. Valavin. - Bendery: Polygraphist, 1999. - pp. 83-85. - 2000 copies. - ISBN 5-88568-090-6
3. Khudyakov V.V. In the blooming acacias the city... Bendery: people, events, facts / ed. V. Valavin. - Bendery: Polygraphist, 1999. - 464 p. - 2000 copies. - ISBN 5-88568-090-6
4. Eduard Bagritsky."Smugglers" ()
5. "The Twelve Chairs", ch. XXX "At the Columbus Theater"
6. Housing Code of the RSFSR, article 60, part 2, norm 18
7. Daniel Kluger. The first detective of the Soviet Union
8. Electronic library - Books for readers and downloaders (; Science Fiction. Fantasy Fantasy Rassadin S., Sarnov. In the land of literary heroes 1-2
9. Information about Osip Shor
10. Osip Shor With reference to materials from the newspaper “Novye Izvestia” dated November 6, 1999.
11. V. Kataev. My Diamond Crown / M., “Soviet Writer”, 1979.
12. Epoch. Events and people. //TV channel “Belarus”, November 23, 2011, 15:30
13. Sergey Belyakov. Lonely sail of Ostap Bender / “New World” 2005, No. 12
14. Levin A. B.“Twelve Chairs” from “Zoyka’s Apartment”
15. Mikhail Bulgakov. Collected works in five volumes. Volume 3: Plays. M: Fiction, 1992. “Zoyka’s apartment.” Comments.
16. “Excerpts from a family chronicle” (from the memoirs of Baroness Sophia Mengden)
17. List of foreign film adaptations
18. Andrey Veligzhanin. The choir soloist sang for Vysotsky in “Stryapukha” / “Komsomolskaya Pravda”, 02.26.2004

Few people know that Ostap Bender is not a collective character. He had a real prototype - Odessa criminal investigation inspector Ostap Shor, whose life was no less exciting than that of his literary brother.

Editorial Faktrum in admiration publishes material from the online magazine “Culturology”, revealing interesting facts from the biography...

...In the spring of 1927, an imposing middle-aged man entered the editorial office of the Gudok newspaper. He went to two young reporters, whose last names were Ilf and Petrov. Evgeny Petrov familiarly greeted the newcomer, because it was his brother Valentin Kataev. Soviet writer winked at both of them conspiratorially and declared that he wanted to hire them as “literary blacks.” Kataev had an idea for a book, and young reporters were asked to put it into perspective. literary form. According to the writer’s idea, a certain leader of the district nobility, Vorobyaninov, tried to find jewelry sewn into one of the twelve chairs.

The creative tandem immediately got to work. Literary heroes Ilf and Petrov were “copied” from their circle. Almost everyone had their own prototype. One of episodic characters became a mutual acquaintance of the writers, a certain inspector of the criminal investigation department of Odessa, whose name was Ostap Shor. The authors decided to keep the first name, but changed the last name to Bender. As the book was being written, this cameo character every now and then he came to the fore, “pushing the rest of the heroes with his elbows.”

When Ilf and Petrov brought the manuscript to Kataev, he realized that the work turned out completely different from what he had originally intended. Valentin Petrovich decided to remove his name from the list of authors, but demanded that Ilf and Petrov print a dedication for him on the first page of the published novel.

When the novel gained enormous popularity, fans began to look for the prototype of the main character. Some Arab scholars seriously argued that Ostap Bender was a Syrian; their Uzbek opponents adhered to the point of view regarding his Turkic origin. Only at the end of the twentieth century the name of the real Ostap Bender became known. He was Osip Veniaminovich Shor. His friends called him Ostap. The fate of this man was no less exciting than his literary character.

Ostap Shor was born in 1899 in Odessa. In 1916, he entered the Petrograd Polytechnic Institute, but the young man was not destined to graduate. Happened October Revolution. The journey home took Ostap about a year. During this time, he had to wander, get into trouble, and hide from his pursuers. Some of the adventures that Shore later told his friends about were reflected in the novel.

When Ostap Shor reached Odessa, it changed beyond recognition. From a prosperous city of enterprising businessmen and Italian opera, it turned into a place where criminal gangs ruled. This was not surprising, since in the three years after the revolution in Odessa, power changed fourteen times. Residents of the city united into people's squads to fight crime, and the most zealous fighters for justice were awarded the title of criminal investigation inspectors. That is exactly what Ostap Shor became. His height of 190 cm, remarkable strength and a keen sense of justice made Shor a thunderstorm for the criminals of Odessa.

Several times his life hung by a thread, but, thanks to his sharp mind and lightning-fast reaction, Ostap always managed to escape. The same cannot be said about his brother. Nathan Shore was famous writer, who worked under the pseudonym Nathan Fioletov. He was about to get married. Nathan and his fiancée were choosing furniture for their future apartment when three people approached him and, asking for his last name, shot him at point-blank range. The criminals simply confused Ostap with his brother.

Ostap Shor took the death of his brother very painfully and after some time he left the UGRO and went to Moscow. Due to his impulsive nature, Ostap constantly got into all sorts of troubles. The expression of the literary character: “My dad was a Turkish subject” belongs to Shor. When the question of military service arose, Ostap often uttered this phrase. The fact is that children of foreigners were exempt from military service.

To hint at the work of the real Ostap in the criminal investigation department, Ilf and Petrov several times in the novel indicated with specific phrases that their main character is a good detective. In the chapter “And others.” Ostap Bender is busily drawing up a report from the scene of the incident: “Both bodies lie with their feet to the southeast and their heads to the northwest. There are lacerations on the body, apparently inflicted by some kind of blunt instrument.”

When the books “12 Chairs” and “The Golden Calf” were published, Ostap Shor came to the authors and insistently demanded to pay for the image copied from him. Ilf and Petrov were perplexed and tried to justify themselves, but at that time Ostap laughed. He stayed with the writers overnight and told them about his adventures. In the morning, Ilf and Petrov woke up in full confidence that they would publish the third part about the adventures of the great schemer. But the book was never written, because Ilya Ilf fell ill with tuberculosis.

Ostap Shor himself lived to be 80 years old. All this time he wandered around Soviet Union. In 1978, Valentin Kataev’s biographical novel “My Diamond Crown” was published, which contained clear hints about who the image of Ostap Bender was based on.

According to another version, Ilf and Petrov deliberately gave Bender an “international” (Ukrainian-Jewish-Turkish) name precisely in order to exclude the above interpretations and emphasize the universality and universality of this personality. As you know, Odessa is an international city, as was the duo of authors of “The Twelve Chairs” and “The Golden Calf”. This version is more controversial compared to the first, because at the end of the 19th and beginning of centuries in Odessa, where a significant number of Jews lived, their numbers increased. Including because of those who fled there from the pogroms (in particular, from the Jewish town of Bendery).

It is obvious that Bender studied at the gymnasium, since he once recalled Latin exception words memorized there (novel The Golden Calf, Chapter XVII). In addition, in the same novel (chap. XIII), at the mention Vasisualiy Lokhankin O homespun truth of life, Ostap Bender knowledgeably notes:

Homespun?.. Isn’t it hewn, homespun and leather? Yes, yes. In general, tell me, from which class of the gymnasium were you kicked out for failure? From the sixth? ... So you didn’t get to Kraevich’s physics?

"Twelve Chairs"

“At half past eleven, from the north-west, from the direction of the village of Chmarovka, a young man of about twenty-eight entered Stargorod. A homeless person was running after him.”

This is how the great schemer appears for the first time in the novel.

According to a number of commentators on the novel (in particular, M. Odessky and D. Feldman), the description indicates that a prisoner entered Stargorod, repeatedly convicted and very recently released, that is, a recidivist criminal (a fraudster, since immediately after his release he builds plans related to fraud). In fact, a homeless tramp who has neither a coat nor socks in the cold spring (ice on puddles), but travels in a fashionable suit and smart shoes:

“He didn’t even have a coat. A young man entered the city in a green, narrow, waist-length suit.”

But for a repeat offender there is nothing unusual here. He does not have an apartment and should not have one - Soviet legislation provided that those sentenced “to imprisonment” were deprived of “the right to occupied living space.” This means that he became homeless after his first term, there was nowhere to return, and he had nowhere to store his wardrobe. If “a young man of about twenty-eight” was arrested before the onset of cold weather, then he did not wear a coat. Bender kept his shoes and suit because they were taken away after the sentencing and returned upon release, but the socks and underwear that were left for the prisoners had become worn out.

Scams

The liveliness of his character and love for banknotes allowed Ostap to carry out quite ingenious scams, the victims of which were large groups of people at the same time.

In Stargorod, Ostap one evening put together an underground organization to overthrow Soviet power - the “Union of Sword and Ploughshare.” Its members, Stargorod “formers” and Nepmen, believed so much in the seriousness of the idea that they eventually confessed to the OGPU, and from one of them, Bender managed to obtain cash subsidies for the “sacred goal” twice more.

In the Volga town of Vasyuki, Ostap managed to impersonate an international grandmaster, give a simultaneous play session in the local chess section (which light hand Ostapa was renamed “Club four horses"), and convince naive provincials of the reality of organizing the "International Vasyukin Tournament of 1927", where the strongest chess players of our time were supposed to meet. And after the tournament, Vasyuki, with its advanced idea of ​​chess thought, was to become the new capital of the USSR (New Moscow), and subsequently of the whole world.

Having received Adam Kozlevich’s car at his disposal, Bender, on the way to Chernomorsk, successfully posed as the commander of a large motor rally, “skimming foam, cream and similar sour cream from this highly cultural undertaking.”

Killing and resurrecting a hero

In the preface to The Golden Calf, Ilf and Petrov jokingly said that towards the end of writing The Twelve Chairs, the question of a spectacular ending arose. A dispute arose between the co-authors whether to kill Ostap or leave him alive. In the end, they decided to rely on lot. Two pieces of paper were placed in the sugar bowl, on one of which a skull and crossbones were drawn. The skull fell out - and thirty minutes later the great schemer was gone.

According to the testimony of E. Petrov’s brother, Valentin Kataev (in the book “My Diamond Crown”), the plot basis of “The Twelve Chairs” was taken from the story “The Six Napoleons” by A. Conan Doyle, in which the precious stone was hidden in one of the plaster busts of the French Emperor. Two criminals were hunting for the busts, one of whom was eventually stabbed to death with a razor by his accomplice. In addition, Kataev also mentions “a hilariously funny story by a young Soviet writer from Petrograd, Lev Lunts, who died early, who wrote about how a certain bourgeois family flees from Soviet power abroad, hiding their diamonds in a clothes brush.”

"Golden Calf"

According to commentator Daniel Kluger, the structure of The Golden Calf is that of a classic detective story, elements of which are parodied.

The actions of Ostap Bender in the first part of his biography (“12 chairs”) easily fall under the relevant articles of the Criminal Code, while in the second part — “The Golden Calf” — he is, in fact, investigating a crime. Such duality of the hero is quite in the spirit of a classic detective story.

The image of Bender in novels

It can be noted that the images of Bender in the novels “The Twelve Chairs” and “The Golden Calf” are quite different. In “The Twelve Chairs” his image is rather schematic; in fact, he is a conventional character. He practically makes no mistakes, everything comes surprisingly easily to him. In “The Golden Calf” the image of Bender is deeper; in him you can already feel a living person, with all his pains, joys and dreams.

Bender is the “house manager” in some imitations of Ilf and Petrov

Possible prototypes of Ostap Bender

Osip Shor is considered the main prototype of Bender. He was born on May 30 in Nikopol. B - tried to study at the Petrograd Technological Institute, but, returning to Odessa, he went through a lot of adventures: in order to obtain a livelihood, he presented himself as an artist, a chess grandmaster, a fiancé, or a representative of an underground anti-Soviet organization.

Some researchers believe that the image of Bender embodied the characters of his three creators (including Valentin Kataev). The features of an arrogant provincial are taken from Kataev, an inexhaustible passion for jokes from Petrov, and skepticism and elements of disappointment from Ilf. Thus, Bender is unique in that in his character, like in a kaleidoscope, the characters of three completely different persons, which gives it extraordinary artistic depth.

Bender on screen