Ah, this Great Combinator, or How many ways of weaning money knew Ostap Bender

Money, according to Karl Marx, is a receipt that gives the right to exploit someone else's labor. You can obtain them in various ways. Most people on the planet do this, creating new values, that is, working. In this case, they simply exchange their labor for someone else. But there are individuals who do not like such a method. From the world literature we know many characters who extracted money in other ways, in particular, redistributing the product with self-interest for themselves. One of them is Ostap Bender. Methods of weaning money from those who have accumulated in their excessive quantities, used by the Great Combinator, have become classic. At least in our country.

From the very first pages of the Golden Calf the reader becomes clear that the son of Lieutenant Schmidt, who came to see the provincial chief, is an ordinary passer-by, a small swindler. The monologue that followed after the meeting with "Kolya's brother" makes it clear that this is not so, in fact, there is no need to confuse the "gentleman in search of scores" with any punks who have no idea of the real scale. About how many ways Ostap Bender knew how to take money, the reader becomes aware of his own words. The hero claims that there are four hundred, but it is clear that this figure is arbitrary. In fact, they can be less, and more, and in general an unlimited number. As proof of this, the character in one of the episodes immediately, without departing from his place, invents the four hundred first method. In this case, Ostap-Suleiman emphasizes that he honors the criminal code, and does not violate his articles. Which is not entirely true, in any case, in the modern sense of the crime.

Was Bender in prison?

The fact that Bender's life experience is enriched by the criminal past, the reader who picked up the novel by Ilf and Petrov, could guess without any clues, only on the description of his outfit. A high-quality and cheap costume, yellow fashionable shoes and a police cap are combined with the lack of socks, which indicates the temporary withdrawal of some garments and the subsequent release after their release. The memories of one of the characters about "these blue eyes" seen in the DOPR can only confirm this assumption.

But it's not just how many ways Ostap Bender knew how to take money. All of them are fraudulent, but the Great Combinator still calls them honest, albeit with an amendment "relatively". The reader, pondering over this contradiction, can come to the conclusion that in the 1920s, the deception of certain categories of citizens of the USSR was not considered a crime. And he will be absolutely right.

"Honest" fraud

Returning to the equipment of the main character, one can come to the conclusion that he was in prison, but not for very long. Socks, of course, he managed to demolish, but the stilettos from fashion have not yet emerged. This is explained by the fact that in 1922-1926 some criminal articles were decriminalized, that is, the acts indicated in them ceased to be considered a crime. In particular, in the blackmail and extortion in relation to the exploiters (to which the Nepmen were also included), the proletarian state was lenient, treating them as something of petty hooliganism. It is obvious that the methods of Ostap Bender, with which he supplemented the available reserves of the "concession", fell under the administrative responsibility (in the worst case for him), and under the previous episodes he was amnestied.

What threatened "Sword and Plowshare"

There is, however, in the great novel "12 Chairs" and an episode that speaks of the uncommon courage of the main character, reaching to recklessness. It is they who can explain the creation of the pseudo-counterrevolutionary organization "The Union of the Sword and the Oral", if one does not take into account the possible ignorance or stupidity of the Great Combinator. Titanic life experience, a huge supply of aphorisms and other indirect signs make it possible to completely disregard the assumption that he was a fool. The reader already knows how many ways Ostap Bender knew how to take money, as well as his respectful attitude towards the Criminal Code, so he does not even have to think that some articles of this interesting book are unknown to him. One thing remains - crazy courage.

Since the October revolution, any counter-revolutionary actions, and even conversations about them, have been punished very severely. Often enough, and belong to the "parasitic class" to get under the distribution. For involvement in the plot, the poet Gumilev and many other intellectuals, priests, writers, scientists, teachers, engineers, military men and representatives of other "non-proletarian" professions were shot. It was enough to be present at some conversation on this topic, in order to be among the repressed. And now Bender starts a conversation about the "Union" in a circle of intimidated Nepmen, betraying Kisa for the democratic leader who returned from exile. Guarantees that the same Kisliarskiy, the owner of the "Moscow baranka" artel, will not run to repent in the OGPU race with the other participants of the clandestine meeting, was not. And in this case, the concessionaires were threatened with something worse than an administrative fine and public censure ...

The reader is justly surprised at how many ways Ostap Bender took money, his impunity, resoluteness and resourcefulness, but he does not know that most of them at that time did not really fall under the articles of the Criminal Code, unlike the "Sword and the Screamer", for which easily Threatened "tower".

The Bender prototype

Osip Shor - that's the name of the person from whom Ilf and Petrov have written off many of the features inherent in the Great Combinator. Habits, appearance, manner of dressing, rich and versatile life experience, a huge vocabulary and resourcefulness in any critical situation were evidently peculiar to this buddy of Odessa writers. How many ways did Ostap Bender know how to solve pressing problems, so much he had techniques, if not more. Shore had a criminal past, engaged in a variety of affairs, he served in the Cheka, and, after all, was disappointed in the ideals of socialism. Many events of his life contributed to this, including the death of his brother, the poet. Bender's phrase about the unwillingness to build socialism belonged, most likely, to him.