In one novel, they are looking for diamonds hidden in one of twelve chairs. In the other, Ostap Bender is chasing the dream of a million. Behind both plots stand two authors who transform the Soviet reality of the 1920s and 1930s into a gallery of comic, ridiculous and surprisingly recognizable human images.
Ilya Ilf was born on October 15, 1897 in Odessa with the name Yehiel-Leib Arievich Fainzilberg. Later he adopted the literary pseudonym by which he remained famous. In 1923 he settled in Moscow and began working in the newspaper “Gudok“ – editorial office, which at that time gathered a number of young writers and journalists.
The meeting with Yevgeny Petrov
Ilf and Yevgeny Petrov met in Moscow literary circles, and from 1927 they began to write as a tandem. Their joint work includes feuilletons, stories, novels and screenplays. The two built a common style in which rapid dialogue, parody and observation of everyday life are combined with sharp satire.
Their first great success was “The Twelve Chairs“, published in 1928. At the center of the novel are the former nobleman Ippolit Vorobyaninov and Ostap Bender, who presents himself as the “great combinator“. They travel the country in search of a chair with hidden jewels in its upholstery.
Three years later, “The Golden Calf“ was published, a continuation of Bender's adventures. In it, the satirical look is directed at bureaucracy, petty greed and the thirst for quick riches. One of the most recognizable lines associated with the novel is: “A car is not a luxury, but a means of transportation.“
From “Pravda“ to American roads
Between 1932 and 1937, Ilf and Petrov wrote feuilletons for “Pravda“. Their texts are popular because they find the comic not only in big public slogans, but also in small tricks, official nonsense and human vanity.
In 1935, the two left for the United States as journalists. After a three-week stay in New York, they bought a gray “Ford“ and undertook a two-month journey through 25 states. Ilya Ilf took photographs along the way, and the two described the cities, cars, advertisements, racial inequality and the differences between the American city and the countryside.
The result was the book “One-Story America“, published in 1937. It combines travelogue, observations and humor, without presenting the United States as either an ideal world or just a caricature. Editor Sina Najafi, who worked on the American edition of the travelogue, described the two as “obviously very intelligent people with an amazing eye for detail“.
The trip turned out to be Ilf's last major undertaking. He died on April 13, 1937, in Moscow from tuberculosis, at the age of 39. Evgeny Petrov continued to write independently, but Ilf's name remained inseparable from his – as one half of one of the most recognizable literary partnerships of the 20th century.
Sources: rferl.org, bta.bg