Ilʹi︠a︡ Ilʹf

Ippolit Matveevich Vorobyaninov, a former nobleman eking out a living in the provinces, has returned to his hometown in search of the jewels his mother-in-law hid in one of a set of twelve identical dining room chairs to avoid confiscation by Soviet officials. Now the chairs themselves have been scattered to the four winds. Enter Ostap Bender, the smooth operator--an inveterate con artist and one of the most iconic figures in Russian literature--who...

Set during the New Economic Policy (NEP), The Golden Calf chronicles the adventures of con man Ostap Bender (a.k.a. the "Grand Strategist") and his merry band of mischief makers on a hilarious jaunt across the "wild west" of the early Soviet Union. Their mark is Alexander Koreiko, another shady figure who exploited the corruption and chaos of the NEP to become an "underground millionaire." Once Bender hears of Koreiko, the chase is on. It is time...

The satirical novel's main character, Ostap Bender, also appeared in a previous novel by the authors called The Twelve Chairs. The title alludes to the "golden calf" of the Bible; another possible rendering of it in English, less literal but better tuned to the air of the novel, would be "The Gilded Calf". It continues the theme of the denunciation of money-grubbing, philistine stupidity, and bureaucracy, which began in "The Twelve Chairs".

Former aristrocrat Kisa Vorobianinov leads a miserable life in Soviet Russia. His mother-in-law reveals a secret to him--she hid the family diamonds in one of the twelve chairs she used to have. Kisa meets up with Ostap Bender, a young con artist, and together they search for the lost jewels.