page_title: Ostap Bender
section_title: Appearances
hierarchical_section_title: Ostap Bender / Appearances
caption_attribution_description: This is a photo of a monument in Ukraine, number: wrong Id:0
context_page_description: Ostap Bender is a fictional con man and the central antiheroic protagonist in the novels The Twelve Chairs and The Little Golden Calf written by Soviet authors Ilya Ilf and Yevgeni Petrov. The novels are examples of a picaresque novel genre, which was previously rare in Russian literature.
  Bender is an attractive, resourceful crook, full of energy while operating within the law; his description as "The Great Combinator" became a catch phrase in the Russian language.
  His exploits have been enjoyed by readers throughout the Soviet times and in modern Russia. In post-Soviet times Bender's character was elevated from the status of a con man to that of an entrepreneur. His statues may be found in several cities, and a commemorative plaque was set in Odessa, the city of his birth.
context_section_description: The Twelve Chairs was released in January 1928.
  In the first novel, Ostap Bender searches for a stash of diamonds hidden in one of the twelve eponymous chairs. The action takes place in the Soviet Union in 1927 during the New Economic Policy era. At the end of the novel, Bender is killed by his partner, Ippolit Matveyevich Vorobianinov, who does not want to share the treasure when it seems like they are about to reach their goal.
  Ilf and Petrov retconned the character's death away in 1931 in the sequel novel The Little Golden Calf, where Bender claimed that "surgeons barely saved my life". This book provided an extended satire on certain elements of Soviet life. Here, Bender follows Soviet underground multi-millionaire Koreiko, hoping to acquire some of his riches and thus amass a fortune. Bender gets his money, but soon discovers he cannot spend it in the USSR. He proceeds to lose it as he attempts to flee the country by crossing the border into Romania.
  Film-makers have produced a number of screen adaptations of the novels; see The Twelve Chairs adaptations and The Little Golden Calf adaptations.
caption: A monument to The Twelve Chairs in Odessa
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