For almost a century now, the works of Ilf and Petrov about the adventures of the great schemer have not lost their popularity. During this period, the novels “12 Chairs” and “The Golden Calf” went through several film adaptations, and phrases from them have long become catchphrases. Few people know that Ostap Bender is not a collective character. He had real prototype- Inspector of the Odessa Criminal Investigation Department Ostap Shor, whose life was no less exciting than that of his literary brother.

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 said 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 “written off” from their environment. 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 written, this episodic character kept coming to the fore, “pushing the rest of the characters 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 held a point of view regarding him Turkic origin. Only at the end of the twentieth century the name became known real Ostap Bender. 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 graduated young man not sued. 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 sharp mind and lightning-fast reaction, Ostap always managed to sneak away. 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 his brother’s death 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 citizen” 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- 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.

Not only Ostap Bender had his own prototype. These

The novel “The Twelve Chairs” by Ilya Ilf and Yevgeny Petrov was published in 1928, and immediately gained great popularity among Soviet readers. Since then, over the past almost ninety years, this famous work satirical thought was translated into many languages, repeatedly filmed and staged in theaters, phrases from the novel became popular among the people, and the characters of the novel themselves became the basis for folk art. Here we can also mention sculptural compositions, dedicated to the stay of the great schemer and company in a particular city, cartoons in print and online publications, paintings, etc. And in 1996 it happened an important event– the Kozmodemyansk Museum of Satire and Humor opened. The museum is currently undergoing restoration, and in its updated form should begin to receive visitors by the beginning of the tourist season. The novels of Ilf and Petrov “The Twelve Chairs” and “The Golden Calf” have not lost any of their poignancy over the past years, and in connection with the beginning of the year, declared the Year of Literature, they have become even more relevant.

A little history. It is believed that the city of Kozmodemyansk is the prototype of the city of Vasyuki from the novel “The Twelve Chairs”, where “grandmaster” O. Bender conducted a simultaneous chess game. In connection with this statement, the All-Russian annual festival of satire and humor Benderiad has been held in Kozmodemyansk since 1995 - which just provided the opportunity for the founding of a museum of satire and humor. The museum collections contain many exhibits that originally interpret the image of the great schemer.

Wooden figure "Ostap". Kozmodemyansk sculptor Yuri Viktorovich Kirillov took an unusual approach to depicting the image of Ostap. A human-sized sculpture in the style of constructivism, a kind of generalized image reminiscent of a robot, in the same headdress and scarf, but with a “heart - a fiery motor”, winking at visitors and extending his hand for a friendly handshake.

Kozmodemyansk artist Lyubov Nikolaevna Karatonova in her painting “Ostap in Vasyuki” shows Ostap the dreamer. He walks lightly through the city, not noticing, as if in a dream, the streets, houses, passers-by, cab drivers rushing past him, and around him there are many ideas and daring plans floating in the air - in the center of which the idea of ​​a chess tournament floats before him like a magic carpet.

As many as three exhibitions by Yoshkarolinsk artist Sergei Vasilyevich Prutov are dedicated to the novels of Ilf and Petrov. They are called “Scriabin”, “Ippolit Matveevich at the bulletin board” and “Vasyuki - the navel of the earth”. The largest of them is “Vasyuki - the navel of the Earth.” In the foreground is the famous scene from the novel “The Twelve Chairs,” when a rook disappeared from the one-eyed chess player’s board. The “grandmaster” and amateur figures are made in full height. In the background is the futuristic landscape of New Vasyuki, the volume of which smoothly turns into a two-dimensional image. There is a diamond chair on the ceiling, which seems to be close, but there is no way to get it. But Ostap does not pay attention to the situation around him; he smiles, he runs through new large-scale combinations in his mind. After all, as experts in the novel “The Twelve Chairs” have often noted, for O. Bender money was never the goal; the main thing is the path to the goal, and the more difficult it is, the more interesting, the better.

The paintings of another Yoshkarolinsk artist, Anatoly Aleksandrovich Smirnov, are very unusual. The style of his work is pop art. These are philosophical collages, which usually contain coins (including rare specimens), watch parts and other little things that we often don’t pay attention to in life. Everyday life. Together it all looks impressive. Ideas for paintings come to Anatoly Smirnov in a dream. Anatoly Alexandrovich dedicated one of his paintings to the great schemer. "Ostap in the mirror." The portrait of O. Bender is depicted directly on the reflective surface of the mirror, and the visitor looking at the picture sees both his reflection and Ostap in it. Which, apparently, should mean: a piece of the great schemer is in each of us.

The second hall of the museum displays paintings by the Chuvash cartoonist Andrei Vasiliev, illustrating the main scenes of Ostap’s stay in Vasyuki. Here is the vivid and emotional speech of “grandmaster” Bender about New Vasyuki - New Moscow, and the insoluble conflict between Ostap and a one-eyed chess player during a simultaneous chess game, and a boat chase along the Volga, which ended with a mass bathing of Vasyuki amateurs. The artist did not forget about his native Cheboksary, depicting the meeting of O. Bender and Ippolit Matveevich with a chair that they had previously thrown from the ship “Skryabin”. Ostap and the rest of the characters in the novel “The Twelve Chairs” are shown by Andrei Vasiliev in a caricatured, caricatured form, worthy of satirical magazines such as “Crocodile” or the Yoshkarolinsky “Pachemysh” (“Wasp”).

The Museum of Satire and Humor also contains exhibits donated to the museum by the magazine “Pachemysh”, which is a sponsor of the festival of satire and humor “Benderiad”. Chief Editor magazine, Vitaly Shkalin, donated to the museum a pair of stylized papier-mâché wasps, symbols of “Pachemysh,” dressed up as Ostap Benders.

The wooden “Tavern “Osya and K⁰”” was donated to the Museum of Satire and Humor by woodcarver Vladimir Vasilyevich Moiseev. Joyful visitors pose in front of the pub's sign, in front of the entrance, decorated with a stylized Roman column; On the sides of the inn there are huge sunflowers and large ripe fruits. Fans of the novel “The Twelve Chairs,” using their imagination, can try to find the owners of the establishment themselves here.

Thus, the novels of I. Ilf and E. Petrov “The Twelve Chairs” and “The Golden Calf”, and the actual image of Ostap Bender himself, left a noticeable mark on art, and continue to influence the development of modern trends artistic creativity. In turn, the Kozmodemyansk Museum of Satire and Humor annually replenishes its collections and invites visitors to visit at the beginning of the tourist season.

Emelin E. V., senior researcher
employee of the storage department of MU KMK

Ilya Ilf and Evgeny Petrov are one of the most notable satirists and humorists of the Soviet era, whose books make us laugh and surprise us to this day. And quotes from Ostap Bender and other heroes have already become real classics. In this post, I propose to recall everyone’s favorite phrases of the heroes.

The ice has broken, gentlemen of the jury, the ice has broken.
Maybe I should give you another key to the apartment where the money is?
Ostap walked into a room that could only be furnished by a creature with the imagination of a woodpecker.
- Is this your boy?
- Boy, is it bad? Typical boy. Whoever says it's a girl, let him be the first to throw a stone at me!

The client must be accustomed to the idea that he will have to give money. He must be morally disarmed, his reactionary possessive instincts suppressed.
I'm certainly not a cherub. I don't have wings, but I respect the Criminal Code. This is my weakness.
This mental exercise seems to have exhausted you greatly. You are becoming stupid right before your eyes.
You need to show him some paper, otherwise he won't believe that you exist.

The financial abyss is the deepest of all abysses, you can fall into it all your life.
He loved and suffered. He loved money and suffered from its lack.
Being a beggar is not so bad, especially with a moderate education and a weak voice!
However, you can leave, but here, I warn you, Long hands!... He stayed - the “long arms” made an unfavorable impression on him.

Ostap quickly snatched it from Panikovsky’s hands, saying:
- Don’t make a cult out of food.
After that he ate the cucumber himself.
Monsieur, it’s not mange pas sis jour. Goeben mir zi bitteetvas kopek auf dem stück ford. Give something to the former State Duma deputy.
Cold soft-boiled eggs are very tasteless food, and a good, cheerful person would never eat them.

I have with Soviet power arose over Last year serious disagreements. She wants to build socialism, but I don’t want to. I'm bored of building socialism.
Don't knock your bald head on the parquet
- You are not in church, you will not be deceived.

- How much is opium for the people?
Life, gentlemen of the jury, is a complicated thing, but, gentlemen of the jury, this thing opens as simply as a box. You just need to be able to open it. He who cannot open it disappears

I will command the parade!

Pedestrians must be loved. Pedestrians make up most humanity. Moreover, the best part of it. Pedestrians created the world.
The gasoline is yours, the ideas are ours.
In our vast country, an ordinary car, intended, according to pedestrians, for the peaceful transportation of people and goods, has taken on the menacing shape of a fratricidal projectile.

The sunset was pure, naive, as if it had been painted by a provincial young lady long before the first, terrible thoughts about men came into her head.
If you see an American laughing, it doesn't mean he's funny. He laughs for the reason that an American should laugh.
You can be a sweet and smart boy, do well at school, do an excellent course in university sciences - and after several years of regularly visiting the cinema, turn into an idiot.

Rio de Janeiro is the crystal dream of my childhood, don’t touch it with your paws.
There is always that person who tries his best to be the last to speak.
He got so drunk that he could already perform various minor miracles.
Just don't shoot at the chandelier, it's unnecessary.

He courted a typist whose modest hips unleashed his poetic feelings.
- You are a rather vulgar person, you love money more than necessary.
- Don’t you like money?
- I do not like.
- Why do you need sixty thousand?
- Out of principle!
Although we are not in Paris, you are welcome to our hut.
You are an interesting person! Everything is fine with you. It’s amazing, with such happiness - and in freedom!

You need to erect a monument not made by hands

Abroad will help us.
You have been deceived. They gave you much better fur. These are Shanghai leopards.
An international chess tournament should be organized in Vasyuki.
Wine, women and cards are provided for us.

All smuggling is done in Odessa, on Malaya Arnautskaya Street.
The trial continues, gentlemen of the jury.
A sultry woman, a poet's dream.
What money? I think you asked about some money?
The office writes.
Whoever says it's a girl, let him be the first to throw a stone at me!

The ice has broken, gentlemen of the jury!
Maybe I should also give you the key to the apartment where the money is?
I would stuff your snout, but Zarathustra doesn’t allow it.
Nobody likes us, except for the Criminal Investigation Department, which doesn’t like us either.

Give me the sausage, you fool! I will forgive everything!
Ears from a dead donkey.
How much is opium for the people?
Five hundred rubles can save a giant of thought.
Russia will not forget you!

The secret union of sword and ploughshare!
Although we are not in Paris, you are welcome to our hut.
Why is there so much? Are oats expensive these days?
I'll give you parabellum.

Monuments to your favorite character in different cities

Monument to Ostap Bender in St. Petersburg

In 2000 in center of St. Petersburg a monument appeared on Italianskaya Street near the Zolotoy Ostap restaurant literary hero novel by Ilf and Petrov “12 chairs” - to Ostap Bender. Sculptor Albert Charkin provided the bronze figure with two characteristic attributes: a chair and a “Case” folder, in which the son of a Turkish citizen carefully collected information about the underground millionaire Koreiko.

Another monument to Bender appeared in Zhmerinka. Bender climbed onto the pedestal on Station Square. There are seven chairs around him. He holds the remains of the eighth in his hands. When asked where the other four chairs went, the authors of the monument answer that the local punks turned out to be more agile than the Great Schemer. Before the monument could be erected, several chairs turned out to have disappeared in an unknown direction.

Monument to Ostap Bender in Kharkov

Monument to Ostap Bender in Kharkov opened on August 22, 2005 st. Petrovsky. Sculptor Eldeniz Kurbanov. Prototype: Sergey Yursky. Bronze Ostap was installed on the sidewalk at the entrance to the Rio cafe at the expense of the cafe owner Azan Akhdiev. The monument depicts the figure of Ostap Bender sitting on a bench with a cigarette in his hand. According to Azan Akhdiev, the monument symbolically expresses Ostap Bender’s dream to visit Rio de Janeiro.

Monument to Ostap Bender in Elista

Author sculptors Ostap Bender in Elista- A. Khachaturian. The monument was erected in 1999.
The figure of a lonely man - Ostap Ibrahimovich Bender Bey, the son of a Turkish subject, stands almost without a pedestal, level with his height ordinary person. In a semicircle there is a gazebo with climbing plants and twelve chairs and tables for a simultaneous game of chess.

Monument to Ostap Bender in Starobelsk

“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 man was running after him...” With these words the fifth chapter of the novel begins. Scientists claim that the Great Combinator was precisely to Starobelsk. In the 21st century, the monument will “walk” in the southeast direction in the courtyard of the Starobelsky Faculty of LNU. The author of the monument is a senior lecturer at the Taras Shevchenko Lugansk National University, sculptor Andrey Borovoy.

Monument to Ostap Bender in Pyatigorsk

In September 2008, at the entrance to Proval, a bronze monument to the main character of “12 Chairs” by Ilf and Petrov, Ostap Bender. The composition depicts a great strategist who has arrived to Pyatigorsk looking for chairs with diamonds hidden in them. "With the aim of overhaul failure. So as not to fail too much,” Ostap Bender successfully sold vacationers tickets to enter Proval. The monument was made by sculptor Ravil Yusupov. The monument is two meters tall; its production took about 400 kilograms of bronze. After the celebrations, literally the next day, vandals broke and threw nearby the bronze Great Schemer. The monument underwent restoration over the course of several months.

Monument to the children of Lieutenant Schmidt in Berdyansk

The monument “Children of Lieutenant Schmidt” is located in the main park of the city Berdyansk- Schmidt Park. It covers an area of ​​more than 3.5 hectares. It was this city that was home to the red lieutenant. The monument is popularly called “Will you be the third?”
Pyotr Petrovich Schmidt - revolutionary figure, one of the leaders of the Sevastopol uprising of 1905, also known as Lieutenant Schmidt.
In the novel “The Golden Calf” by Ilf and Petrov, “thirty sons and four daughters of Lieutenant Schmidt” are mentioned - impostors and swindlers, “working” by mutual agreement in different regions THE USSR.
Both heroes of Ilf and Petrov, Ostap Bender and Shura Balaganov, are sitting on chairs with mugs of beer in their hands. Nearby there is another chair with the inscription “Beer - only for takeaway” - for those who want to take a photo in the company of popular literary characters.
It is curious that the monument to the “children” was erected a few meters from the monument to Lieutenant Schmidt himself.

Monument to Ostap Bender in Krasnodar

Address: near the cafe-restaurant “Golden Calf” on the street. Rashpilevskaya, Krasnodar

Monument to Ostap Bender in Odessa

In the Central City Garden Odessa Next to the monument to Kisa Vorobyaninov there is a monument to another hero of the novel The Twelve Chairs - Ostap Bender. Bender, portrayed by artist Sergei Tolkeyev, monitors the proceeds that Kisa Vorobyaninov collects at the entrance to the restaurant U Pecheskago. Both sculptures were made with funds from local entrepreneurs; they look bronze but are actually made of plaster. About a hundred meters from the monuments to Bender and Vorobyaninov on Deribasovskaya Street there is the twelfth chair they are looking for, to which you need to go through the City Garden.