The Twelve Chairs

1928 novel by Ilya Ilf and Yevgeny Petrov The Twelve Chairs (Russian: «Двенадцать стульев», romanized: Dvenadtsat stulyev) is a Russian classic satirical picaresque novel by the Soviet authors Ilf and Petrov, published in 1928. Its plot follows characters searching for jewelry hidden in a chair. The novel has been adapted to other media, primarily film. The main character, Ostap Bender, reappears in the 1931 book's sequel The Little Golden Calf, despite his apparent death in The Twelve Chairs. Plot In the Soviet Union in 1927, during the NEP era, a former Marshal of the Nobility, Ippolit Matveyevich [ru] "Kisa" Vorobyaninov, works as the registrar of marriages and deaths in a sleepy provincial town. His mother-in-law reveals on her deathbed that her family jewellery was hidden from the Bolsheviks in one of the twelve chairs from the family's dining-room set. Those chairs, along with all other personal property, were taken away by the Communists after the 1917 Russian Revolution. Vorobyaninov wants to find the treasure. The "smooth operator" and con-man Ostap Bender forces Kisa to become his partner, and they set out to find the chairs. Bender's street-smarts and