Ostap Bender

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Ostap Bender as portrayed by Andrei Mironov, 1976

Ostap Bender (Russian: Остап Бендер; also Ostap-Suleyman-Berta-Maria-Bender-Bei, Bender-Zadunaysky, Ostap Ibragimovich) is a misanthropic^{[citation needed]} con man and antihero who first appeared in the novel The Twelve Chairs (January 1928 - Russian: "Двенадцать стульев"), written by Russian writers Ilya Ilf and Evgeny Petrov. The self-described "great combinator", Ostap Bender searches in the Soviet Union during the New Economic Policy era in order to find a diamond treasure which was hidden into one of twelve chairs. He was killed at the end of the novel because his partner, Ippolit Matveyevich Vorobianinov, did not want to share the treasure which seemed within reach. The name "Ostap Bender" became an archetypal name for a con man in Russian language.

The character's death was retconned away in 1931 for The Little Golden Calf (Russian: "Золотой теленок") novel, where Ostap claimed that "surgeons barely saved his life". The book was an extended satire on certain elements of Soviet life. Here, Ostap Bender follows a Soviet underground multi-millionaire - he is hoping to acquire some of the man's riches, and thus amass a fortune. Bender gets his money but loses it as he flees the country. The implications of such themes help explain why the volume took over a year to gain approval for publishing.^{[citation needed]}

Bender is a complex character: while displaying the traits that would befit a social parasite in Soviet official terms, he frequently seems to adhere to several Marxist tenets, and is clearly an atheist (as revealed by bits of dialogue, most of them in The Little Golden Calf). All of this is especially intriguing, as Bender's ideal in life is to quit the Soviet Union for good.

Monument to Ostap Bender in Saint Petersburg

Ostap Bender is mysterious about his origins; the only part of his biography that he mentions is that his father was a "Turkish subject", hinting at Jewish Odessa roots. He is obsessed with travelling to Rio de Janeiro, "a city of his dreams", while admitting the futility of that obsession. Bender gave birth to a number of Russian catch phrases, including "The ice is moving, ladies and gentlemen of the jury!" ("Лёд тронулся, господа присяжные заседатели!"), "I will be in charge of the parade!" ("Командовать парадом буду я!"), and "Perhaps you'd also like the key of the apartment where the money is?" ("Может быть, тебе дать ещё ключ от квартиры, где деньги лежат?").

The Twelve Chairs was made into a slapstick comedy in a 1970 film by Mel Brooks and Michael Hertzberg. Frank Langella played the part of Ostap Bender. Shortly after that the novel was adapted to film twice in the USSR: for the first time in 1971 by Leonid Gaidai with Archil Gomiashvili as Bender and then in 1976 by Mark Zakharov, featuring Andrei Mironov as Bender. The Little Golden Calf was filmed by Mikhail Schweizer in 1968, with Sergey Yursky as Bender. In 2006, Channel One aired new mini-series based on the novel and starring Oleg Menshikov as Bender.