Five fates. Towards the history of I. Ilf and Y. Petrov’s novelistic diptych

The article analyzes the evolution of the author’s intent in the duology The Twelve Chairs [Dvenadtsat stulyev] and The Little Golden Calf [Zolotoy telyonok] in the literary and political context of the late 1920s and early 1930s. At the centre of the study is the fate of Ostap Bender and the reasons for the changed endings of the two novels. The authors consider ideological control and restrictive censorship of the day as deciding factors behind Ilf and Petrov’s artistic choices. Also examined in detail is the power struggle among the Communist party elite as well as the transformation of the state economic policy. The scholars demonstrate that Bender’s originally planned demise at the end of the first novel followed the premise that a negative hero cannot win. The study also explores the problem of the unrealized “third Bender novel,” its hypothetical interpretations in other writings by Ilf and Petrov, and the reasons why the plan was never carried out.

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