Secrets of the "Green Van": How the Odessa robber became a writer and a prototype of the Krasavchik bandit

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

In the 1980s. the film "Green Van" with Dmitry Kharatyan and Alexander Solovyov in the lead roles was incredibly popular. However, the story that remained behind the scenes was even more entertaining and exciting than the plot of the film, because the prototypes of the main characters were the author of the story "Green Van" Alexander Kozachinsky and his friend - co-author of "Twelve Chairs" and "The Golden Calf" Yevgeny Petrov. Which of them in his youth turned out to be on the other side of the law - further in the review.

"Green Van" is the only story by Alexander Kozachinsky. The plot was not fictional - it was based on the facts of the biography of the author and his childhood friend, Yevgeny Kataev (in the future he will take the pseudonym Petrov so that he is not confused with his older brother, writer Valentin Kataev). In the 1930s. this work was very popular and was later filmed twice - in 1959 and in 1983. And currently Dmitry Kharatyan is filming the sequel to the acclaimed film.

The general public hardly knows the name of Alexander Kozachinsky - he did not have time to realize all his literary ideas and passed away on the threshold of his 40th birthday. But his friend Yevgeny Petrov was known to the whole Union - together with Ilya Ilf, they became the creators of the legendary Ostap Bender. Kozachinsky was born in Moscow, but after his father was diagnosed with tuberculosis, the family moved to a city with a more favorable climate - Odessa. There fate brought him together with Yevgeny Petrov - they studied at the same gymnasium, sat at the same desk and became friends.

After the 7th grade, Kozachinsky had to leave the gymnasium - after the death of his father, the family was in poverty, and the boy got a job as a sentry to help his mother. Gymnasium teachers lamented about this - he was one of the most talented students and showed great promise. Even then, teachers drew attention to his creative abilities, primarily literary.

After the revolution and the Civil War, fate divorced friends. After the Bolsheviks came to Odessa, Kozachinsky got a job on the criminal investigation department, but because of his fervor, he often had conflicts with his colleagues. Once they even fabricated a case of abuse of office against him. He himself later explained it this way: "". And then Kozachinsky decided to seek justice on the other side of the law.

Together with a partner he had once rescued from prison, they stole a wagon of grain, brought as a bribe to the head of the police department. This van was green - this is how the title of the story was born later. Kozachinsky put together a gang of former White Guard officers and criminals and began to carry out raids. The bandits hid in the village, where they were very sympathetic to the locals, especially women - Kozachinsky was a real handsome man and was very popular with the opposite sex.

During one of the raids, the bandits stole a herd of horses, leaving an ironic "act" at the crime scene: "". The gang has been hunted for a long time, and during an attempt to sell horses in the market, the police raided. A criminal investigation officer chased after Kozachinsky, and the bandit almost shot him when he suddenly recognized him as his childhood friend, Yevgeny Petrov. He did not shoot him and surrendered to the hands of justice.

Kozachinsky was tried on the eve of his 20th birthday and sentenced to death. But Petrov achieved a review of the case and a mitigation of the sentence. True, after that he himself had to leave the criminal investigation department. According to another version, Petrov had nothing to do with either the detention or the release of his friend, and this romantic legend was born later, after the release of the story. Be that as it may, in 1923 Kozachinsky was released under an amnesty. Petrov at that time went to Moscow, to his older brother, writer Valentin Kataev, and got a job first in the magazine "Red Pepper", and then - in the newspaper "Gudok". He invited Kozachinsky, who was released from prison, there, arranging him as a reporter.

And then finally Alexander Kozachinsky's literary talent was fully realized. In "Gudok" Petrov met Ilya Ilf, and in 1928 they published their first joint work - the novel "The Twelve Chairs". Petrov insisted that his friend, who at that time already became a leading journalist for the newspaper "Economic Life", should follow their example, but he still doubted his own literary talent. Petrov was sure that the story of their life in post-revolutionary Odessa was a ready plot for a book, and he finally managed to convince Kozachinsky. In 1938, The Green Van was published. So Petrov became the prototype of Volodya Patrikeev, and Kozachinsky himself became the prototype of a horse thief named Krasavchik.

The success of the story among the readers was simply overwhelming - in the first 5 years it was reprinted three times, and Kozachinsky had new literary ideas. However, he did not have time to implement them - apart from the story, he published only a few stories. The Great Patriotic War began, and friends passed away one after another: in 1942 the plane on which the war correspondent Yevgeny Petrov was, was shot down by a German fighter, and in 1943 Alexander Kozachinsky died due to a hereditary disease.

The first film version of Kozachinsky's story was published in 1959, but few people will remember it now. In 1980, Vladimir Vysotsky planned to film a new version of The Green Van - he had previously participated in a radio play based on this story. The script was already ready and approved, but the premature death of Vysotsky prevented his directorial debut. True, his friends claim that he initially doubted that he would be allowed to carry out this plan, and he himself refused to shoot: "".

Director Alexander Pavlovsky did not want to take on this script after Vysotsky - he was afraid of inevitable comparisons, but he was nevertheless persuaded to take on this project. But it was not possible for a long time to find an actor similar to the criminal investigation officer Volodya Patrikeyev described in the story. "", - said the director. So Dmitry Kharatyan got a role that became his hallmark and a ticket to a big movie.

But the fate of his partner on the set, who played the role of the bandit Handsome, was tragic: What caused the untimely death of Alexander Solovyov.