Ostap Bender

Ostap Bender as portrayed by Andrei Mironov, 1976
Monument to Ostap Bender in Kremenchuk, Ukraine

Ostap Bender (Russian: Остап Бендер; also Ostap-Suleyman-Berta-Maria-Bender-Bey, Bender-Zadunaysky, Ostap Ibragimovich) is a fictional con man who appeared in the novels The Twelve Chairs and The Little Golden Calf written by Soviet authors Ilya Ilf and Yevgeni Petrov.

The novels are examples of a picaresque novel genre, which was virtually non-existent in Russian literature, with some exceptions.[1]

Bender is an extremely attractive, resourceful crook, full of energy while operating within the law ("Bender knew 400 relatively legal ways to make population part with their money."); his description as "The Great Combinator" became a catch phrase in the Russian language.

His exploits have been enjoyed by readers throughout the Soviet times and in modern Russia. In post-Soviet times Bender's character was elevated from the status of a con man to that of an entrepreneur. His statues may be found in several cities, and a commemorative plaque was set in Odessa, the city of his birth.[2]

Appearances

A monument to The Twelve Chairs in Odessa

The Twelve Chairs was released in January 1928.

In the first novel, Ostap Bender searches for a stash of diamonds hidden in one of the twelve eponymous chairs. The action takes place in the Soviet Union during the New Economic Policy era. At the end of the novel, he is killed by his partner, Ippolit Matveyevich Vorobianinov, who does not want to share the treasure with Bender when it seems like they are about to reach their goal.

The character's death was retconned away in 1931 in the sequel novel The Little Golden Calf, where Ostap claimed that "surgeons barely saved his life." This book was an extended satire on certain elements of Soviet life. Here, Ostap Bender follows a Soviet underground multi-millionaire Koreiko, hoping to acquire some of the man's riches, and thus amass a fortune. Bender gets his money, but soon discovers he cannot spend it in the USSR. He proceeds to lose it as he attempts to flee the country by crossing the border into Romania.

There are a number of screen adaptations of the novels; see The Twelve Chairs#Adaptations and The Little Golden Calf#Adaptations

Character

Ostap Bender's origins are mysterious; he mentions only that his father was "a Turkish subject"[3] and that his full name is Ostap-Sulayman-Berta-Maria-Bender-Bey (Остап-Сулейман-Берта-Мария-Бендер-Бей). In the comments to the Complete Works of Ilf and Petrov by M. Odessky and D. Feldman, this phrase is explained as a hint to his Jewish origin from a port city in Novorossiya, most probably Odessa, where many Jews claimed Turkish citizenship to evade discrimination and conscription for military service.[4] Some of them indeed held the Turkish citizenship as for example Martov. In The Little Golden Calf, Ostap Bender is also called "Бендер-Задунайский" ("Bender-Zadunaisky", literally: "Bender-Trans-Danubian") and "Остап Ибрагимович" (Ostap Ibragimovich, where "Ibragimovich" is a patronymic, literally meaning "son of Ibrahim"). The city of Bender and the Danube river are historically and geographically close to both the large regional city of Odessa and the former Ottoman (Turkish) Empire.

Ostap Bender dreams of travelling to Rio de Janeiro, "the city of his dreams," while admitting the futility of that obsession.

The prototype of Ostap Bender was Osip Shor, a brother of a Russian poet-futurist Natan Shor, a friend of the authors. Osip Shor was a person of adventurous life and a good story-teller. Many of his tales served as a base of the adventures of Ostap Bender.[5][6]

Bender's leadership

The entrepreneurial abilities of Bender attracted attention of researchers in management.[1] Parallels have been drawn of Bender's schemes with failures of businesses in early post-Soviet Russia, a period compared to that of NEP when Bender operated.[1][7][8] Bender is educated and has an analytical mind; is full of energy; in the case of a failure keeps his optimism and has an ability to reassess the situation; has an empathy towards his subordinates, opponents and "marks"; has exceptional organizational skills, even when limited by scarce resources.[8]

While Bender is endowed with many traits of a charismatic leader, it was concluded that the major reason of his failures was lack of clear understanding of his own goals and needs, and short-term perspective.[1][8] A serious drawback of Bender as a leader is his paternalism. Also, while he is aware of the drawbacks of his companions, he puts no efforts into their betterment.[8] While at times he can be a motivational speaker, he did not care about the long-term motivation of his subordinates; instead, he preferred to manipulate or simply force them.[8]

Cultural influence

A chapter in The Little Golden Calf was called "The Great Combinator" ("Великий комбинатор", "The Great Schemer" ). In fact it was one of the choices for the title of the book. Since then the expression "the great combinator" came to refer to either a con man or, ironically, to an enterprising person.[9]

One of the attractions of Bender is the witty language of the novels which produced numerous catch phrases:[10]

Wikiquote has quotations related to: The Little Golden Calf

See also

Footnotes

  1. 1 2 3 4 "Остап Бендер", Radio Liberty, transcript of a talk from cycle "Heroes of the Time", host:Петр Вайль, guests: culturologist Мариэтта Чудакова and actors Archil Gomiashvili (Bender-1971) and Sergey Yursky (Bender-1993)
  2. ↑ Olga Fedina, pp. 36-38.
  3. ↑ quotes:
    • Из своей биографии он обычно сообщал только одну подробность: «Мой папа, — говорил он, — был турецко-подданный»
    • Не оскорбляйте меня, — кротко заметил Бендер. — Я сын турецко-подданного и, следовательно, потомок янычаров.
  4. ↑ "Илья Ильф, Евгений Петров. Двенадцать стульев. "Вагриус", М., 2003"
  5. ↑ "The Great Combinator was Taken for an Ukrainian Nationalist", Komsomolskaya Pravda (Ukrainian edition), May 30, 2008 (Russian)
  6. ↑ "The Hero Enters (Part II)"
  7. 1 2 Kari Ketola, Timo Vihavainen, "Changing Russia?: History, Culture and Business", p. 85
  8. 1 2 3 4 5 Rubinsky, Shekshnya
  9. ↑ Словарь крылатых слов и выражений, item Великий комбинатор
  10. ↑ Olga Fedina, pp. 36-39.
  11. 1 2 3 4 5 Olga Fedina, p. 39.
  12. ↑ Алия Гильмутдинова Несколько слов об Остапе Бендере

References

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