Ilya Ilf and Yevgeny Petrov

1897-1937 / 1902-1942

Ilya Ilf (1897-1937) and Yevgeny Petrov (1902-1942) were Soviet satirists who worked as a pair, writing as a single author. Together they created the duology about the crook Ostap Bender - The Twelve Chairs and The Golden Calf - which passed into common speech and became a classic of Russian satire. Both died young: Ilf of tuberculosis, Petrov as a war correspondent at the front.