Ilf and Petrov

Ilya Ilf and Yevgeny Petrov were a famous duo of Soviet prose authors.

They were active during the 1920s and 1930s. Both men were born in the city of Odessa. They belonged to a group known as the "Odessa School" of humorist writers. This group included other prominent cultural figures like Isaac Babel and Leonid Utesov. These writers often moved to the Soviet capital after restrictions on Jewish residence ended. Ilf and Petrov became the most popular satirical writers of the Soviet period. They used humor to examine the world around them.

Their most famous works are two satirical novels. The first is *The Twelve Chairs*, published in 1928. The second is its sequel, *The Little Golden Calf*, published in 1931.

These stories are connected by a single main character named Ostap Bender. Bender is a con man who is always searching for elusive riches. The plots follow Bender and his associates as they hunt for treasure. They do this while navigating the contemporary Soviet reality of that era.

The setting of their novels is very important to their style. The books take place during the New Economic Policy of the 1920s. This was a relatively liberal era in Soviet history. In the stories, the characters often avoid contact with law enforcement. This allows the characters to exist outside of organized, productive Soviet society. By placing characters on the edges of society, the authors found a platform. They used this position to critique and make fun of less attractive aspects of society.

During their years of joint creativity, the duo produced a wide variety of work. They wrote several theatrical plays and screenplays between the late 1920s and 1937. They also wrote many humorous short stories and satirical articles. These appeared in magazines such as *Chudak*, *30 days*, *Krokodil*, and *Ogoniok*. They also contributed to newspapers like *Pravda* and *Literaturnaya Gazeta*. In their early years, they often used parodic pseudonyms. One name was Tolstoevsky, which combined the names of Tolstoy and Dostoevsky. They also used the name Don Busilio, which comes from an opera character.

In the 1930s, the authors traveled to the United States during the Great Depression.

During this journey, Ilya Ilf took many photographs. They produced a photo essay titled "American Photographs" for *Ogoniok* magazine. This essay contained eleven parts and included Ilf's photos along with their texts. They later published a book called *Little Golden America*. This title was an allusion to their book *The Little Golden Calf*. Their writing about America was both playful and honest. They praised many aspects of the American lifestyle while remaining highly critical of others.

The impact of their writing reached far beyond the printed page. *The Twelve Chairs* has been adapted into approximately twenty different movies. Some were made in the Soviet Union by directors Leonid Gaidai and Mark Zakharov. Other versions were made in the United States, including one by Mel Brooks. Their books remain among the most widely read and quoted works in Russian culture. The famous writer Vladimir Nabokov even described them as "wonderfully gifted writers."

Tragedy eventually touched both authors. Ilya Ilf died of tuberculosis a few months after returning from the United States. Yevgeny Petrov served as a front line correspondent during the Second World War. He covered the fighting in Sevastopol. Later, he was killed when the airplane he was traveling in crashed. The plane was flying low to avoid anti-aircraft fire while returning to Moscow. Despite their deaths, their legacy continues in many ways. In 1982, a Soviet astronomer named Lyudmila Georgievna Karachkina discovered a minor planet. She named it 3668 Ilfpetrov to honor the two writers.