The Great Combinator: Who Was the Prototype of Ostap Bender

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

For almost a whole century, the works of Ilf and Petrov about the adventures of the great combinator have not lost their popularity. During this period, the novels "12 Chairs" and "The Golden Calf" have gone through several adaptations, and the phrases of them have long become winged. Few people know that Ostap Bender is not a collective character. He had a real prototype - an inspector of the Odessa Criminal Investigation Department Ostap Shor, whose life was no less exciting than that of his literary brother.

In the spring of 1927 an imposing middle-aged man entered the editorial office of the Gudok newspaper. He went to two young reporters, whose names were Ilf and Petrov. Evgeny Petrov greeted the newcomer familiarly, since it was his brother Valentin Kataev. The Soviet writer winked conspiratorially at both of them and announced that he wanted to hire them as "literary slaves." Kataev had an idea for a book, and young reporters were asked to clothe it in literary form. According to the idea of the writer, a certain leader of the district nobility Vorobyaninov tried to find jewelry sewn into one of the twelve chairs.

The creative tandem immediately got down to work. Literary heroes Ilf and Petrov "copied" from their entourage. Almost everyone had their own prototype. One of the episodic heroes was a common acquaintance of the writers, a certain inspector of the Odessa Criminal Investigation Department, whose name was Ostap Shor. The authors decided to leave the name, but the surname was changed to Bender. As the book was being written, this episodic character now and then came to the fore, “pushing the other heroes with his elbows.” When Ilf and Petrov brought the manuscript to Kataev, he realized that the work had turned out completely different than he had originally thought. Valentin Petrovich decided to remove his name from the list of authors, but demanded that Ilf and Petrov print a dedication for him on the first page of the published novel.

When the novel gained immense popularity, fans began to look for a prototype for the main character. Some Arab scholars seriously argued that Ostap Bender was a Syrian, their Uzbek opponents held the point of view regarding his Turkic origin. Only at the end of the twentieth century did the name of the real Ostap Bender become known. It was Osip Veniaminovich Shor. Friends called him Ostap. The fate of this man was no less exciting than that of his literary character.

Ostap Shor was born in 1899 in Odessa. In 1916, he entered the Petrograd Polytechnic Institute, but the young man was not condemned to finish it. The October Revolution took place. It took Ostap about a year to get home. During this time, he had to wander, get into trouble, hide from his pursuers. Some of the adventures, which Shor later told friends about, were reflected in the novel.

When Ostap Shor got to Odessa, she changed beyond recognition. From a thriving city of enterprising businessmen and Italian opera, it turned into a place where criminal gangs ruled. This was not surprising, since in the three years after the revolution in Odessa, the government changed fourteen times. Residents of the city united in popular squads to fight crime, and the most zealous fighters for justice were awarded the rank of inspectors of the criminal investigation department. It was Ostap Shor who became him. Height of 190 cm, remarkable strength and a heightened sense of justice made Shor a storm for the criminals of Odessa.

Several times his life hung in the balance, but thanks to his sharp mind and lightning-fast reaction, Ostap always managed to slip away. The same cannot be said about his brother. Nathan Shor was a famous writer working under the pseudonym Natan Fioletov. He was about to get married. Nathan was choosing furniture for the future apartment with his bride, when three people approached him and, asking his name, shot at point-blank range. The criminals simply confused Ostap with his brother.

Ostap Shor took the death of his brother very painfully and after a while he left the UGRO and went to Moscow. Due to his impulsive nature, Ostap constantly got into all sorts of alterations. The expression of a literary character: "My dad was a Turkish citizen" belongs to Shor. When the question of military service arose, Ostap often uttered this phrase. The fact is that the children of foreigners were exempted from military service.

To hint at the work of the real Ostap in the criminal investigation department, Ilf and Petrov indicated several times with specific phrases in the novel that their protagonist was a good detective. In the chapter "Etc." Ostap Bender busily draws up a protocol from the scene: “Both bodies lie with their feet to the southeast and their heads to the northwest. There are lacerated wounds on the body, apparently inflicted by some blunt instrument."

When the books "12 Chairs" and "The Golden Calf" were published, Ostap Shor came to the authors and insistently demanded to pay for the image copied from him. Ilf and Petrov were at a loss and tried to justify themselves, but at this time Ostap laughed. He stayed with the writers overnight and told them about his adventures. In the morning Ilf and Petrov woke up in full confidence that they would publish the third part about the adventures of the great schemer. But the book was never written, since Ilya Ilf fell ill with tuberculosis.

Ostap Shor himself lived to be 80 years old. All this time he wandered around the Soviet Union. In 1978, Valentin Kataev's biographical novel "My Diamond Crown" was published, which contained clear hints from whom the image of Ostap Bender was copied.

Not only Ostap Bender had his own prototype. These 15 famous literary heroes also had their counterparts in real life.