Yevgeny Petrov

Soviet humorist

Also known as: Yevgeny Petrovich Katayev

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Yevgeny Petrov (1903–1942) was a Soviet humorist and writer, best known for his collaboration with Ilya Ilf. Together, they created immensely popular satirical works that offered commentary on Soviet life during the New Economic Policy period and beyond. Their most famous creations are the characters Ostap Bender and the novels The Twelve Chairs (1928) and The Little Golden Calf (1931). These books feature farcical adventures and sharp satire, with Bender becoming an iconic figure in Russian fiction. After Ilf's death in 1937, Petrov continued his writing career, contributing to newspapers and magazines. He died in 1942 when the airplane he was traveling in crashed.1

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Ilf and Petrov
Petrov, the son of a teacher, began his career as a news-service correspondent, worked briefly as a criminal investigator, and went to Moscow in 1923, where he became a professional journalist. Initially, Ilf worked on the staff of Gudok (“The Whistle”), the central rail-workers’ newspaper,…
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Petrov, the son of a teacher, began his career as a news-service correspondent, worked briefly as a criminal investigator, and went to Moscow in 1923, where he became a professional journalist. Initially, Ilf worked on the staff of Gudok (“The Whistle”), the central rail-workers’ newspaper,…
Read More

Russia
The 20th century
…novels of Ilya Ilf and Yevgeny Petrov, and the short novel Envy (1927) by Yury Olesha fall into this category. Writing in Russian also flourished in communities of anticommunist exiles in Germany, France, Italy, and the United States, as represented by writers as various as the novelists Vladimir Nabokov and…
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…novels of Ilya Ilf and Yevgeny Petrov, and the short novel Envy (1927) by Yury Olesha fall into this category. Writing in Russian also flourished in communities of anticommunist exiles in Germany, France, Italy, and the United States, as represented by writers as various as the novelists Vladimir Nabokov and…
Read More