Ostap Bender
There were a number of possible prototypes for Bender, most famously (1899–1978), a friend of the authors who spent his youth in Odessa gaining money as a con man and then—as a Cheka inspector. He was a good story-teller, and many of his tales inspired the adventures of Ostap Bender. Valentin Kataev who came up with the idea for the novel (which, in turn, is dedicated to him) is named as another prototype; he also led an adventurous life and was known as a literary hoaxer, adding many original touches to the biography of Osip Shor whom he saw as fitting the readers' expectations of a "real-life combinator".