The image of Vorobyaninov's kitty, created by Ilf and Petrov, and the realities of life in the Russian Empire. "Twelve Chairs": Mark Zakharov approved the artists who were rejected by Gaidai Stories on the set

Kisa, the Father of Russian democracy, the Marshal of the nobility (albeit a former one) - what nicknames Ilya Ilf and Evgeny Petrov did not give their hero. By the way, when the writers only conceived the book "12 Chairs", Ippolit Vorobyaninov was supposed to become its main character, and the son of a Turkish citizen Ostap-Suleiman-Berta-Maria Bender-bey - a secondary one. But the original idea had to be changed. In any case, the bright figure of Vorobyaninov arouses the same interest in the reader as the image of his fellow concessionaire Ostap. So it would not be fair not to find the prototype of Ippolit Matveyevich.

Deprived of the position of leader of the local nobility by the revolution of 1917, Ippolit Matveyevich moved to the county town N, where he worked as a registrar at the registry office. He lived with his mother-in-law, who, as we remember, confessed on her deathbed that she had hidden her family jewels in one of the chairs made by Master Gambs. Thus began an adventurous romance about adventurers. We know from the book that Ippolit Matveyevich is a tall (185 cm) gray-haired old man who wears a well-groomed mustache and dyes his hair "radical black". And now even closer to the text:

“Ippolit Matveyevich woke up at half past seven and immediately stuck his nose into an old-fashioned pince-nez with a gold headband. He didn't wear glasses. Once, having decided that it was not hygienic to wear pince-nez, Ippolit Matveyevich went to the optician and bought rimless glasses with gilded shafts. He liked the glasses from the first time, but his wife found that he was the spitting image of Milyukov in glasses, and he gave the glasses to the janitor.

It is precisely because of the similarity indicated by the authors with the famous historian and politician Pavel Milyukov that many readers decided that the prototype of Vorobyaninov was the Nobel laureate in literature, the famous Russian writer Ivan Bunin. Ivan Alekseevich really did look a little like the democrat Milyukov. However, in the weak character Kise there are quite a few similarities with the literary genius of Bunin. Maybe that's why some readers saw Vorobyaninov's unambiguous resemblance to another Russian writer, Alexei Tolstoy.

But the residents of Vyatka are sure that their countryman, Nikolai Dmitrievich Stakheev, became the prototype of Kisa Vorobyaninov. He was one of the brightest representatives of the famous dynasty of Elabuga merchants Stakheevs. Nikolay possessed extraordinary commercial abilities. At the beginning of the 20th century, the annual turnover of his trading company was 80 million rubles. Before the First World War, Stakheev left with his family for France, but in Europe he met the October Revolution - this news, of course, did not please the merchant, since all his capital was nationalized. A dangerous, but the only true plan has matured in Stakheev's head. In 1918, Stakheev secretly returned to Moscow to take silver and jewelry from the cache of his house on Basmannaya Street. However, at the exit from the estate, the merchant, along with the entire treasure, was detained by the GPU. Stakheev, during interrogation, offered Felix Dzerzhinsky a deal: he says where the valuables are hidden in the house, and he is assigned a pension or given the opportunity to leave. Dzerzhinsky allegedly accepted the conditions of the former industrialist. It was said that Stakheev received a pension until the end of his days, and a part of the “found” treasures was used to build the House of Culture of railway workers on modern Komsomolskaya Square in Moscow.

But the most plausible version seems to us, according to which the prototype of the ‘leader of the nobility’ was Yevgeny Petrovich Ganko, the head of the Poltava Zemstvo Council. Very little information remains about him - only the memories of his nephews, the Kataev brothers and one of the authors of "12 Chairs" Evgeny Petrov.

Yevgeny Ganko was a widower and lived with his late wife's sister. She managed his household, as Eugene often went on trips to exotic countries: China, Japan, India. Valentin Kataev recalled that very often returning from a regular trip, Ganko would visit them and bring gifts: Japanese lacquered pencil cases, ostrich eggs, cigarette cases with the image of a scarab beetle, and so on. Eugene wore a golden pence, which looked especially impressive on him. By old age, Ganko settled in Poltava, entertaining himself by looking through old French magazines or packaging his stamps. By the way, he was a great collector.

Yevgeny Petrov said that his uncle (Yevgeny Ganko) loved to show off in front of young ladies and splurge on them. His image lay down as "a piece of paper in a pile." Based on all this, we can safely say that it was Evgeny Ganko who became the prototype for Kisa Vorobyaninov.

Kisa's real name is Ippolit Matveyevich Vorobyaninov. The hero comes from a noble environment and before the revolution was the district marshal of the nobility.

Bender, not without sarcasm, calls Kisa a giant of thought, the father of Russian democracy and a special one close to the emperor. Deprived of former privileges, the hero lives with his mother-in-law and works in the registry office of a provincial town. The pre-revolutionary life of the hero is discussed in the story "The Past of the Registrar's Office Registrar", which was supposed to be included in the novel "The Twelve Chairs" as one of the chapters, but eventually came out separately a year after the publication of the novel.

History and image

Vorobyaninov was born in Stargorod district in 1875. His father Matvey Alexandrovich, the owner of the estate, was a passionate lover of pigeons. The hero himself appears in the story about the pre-revolutionary years as an adventurer and a reveler. The hero is a "notorious bachelor" and marries the landowner Marie Petukhova, only to fix the faltering affairs in his own estate. After marriage, he continues to have an affair with the wife of the district attorney, with whom he rides together in Paris. The legal wife of the hero dies in 1914.

The hero outraged a decent society, appearing in public places in the company of naked ladies and led the life of a spendthrift and bon vivant, until in 1918 he was expelled from his own estate. After the revolution, Vorobyaninov has to lead the life of a simple Soviet employee.

At the time of the novel, Kise is 52 years old. Vorobyaninov is described in the novel as a tall, gray-haired old man with a well-groomed mustache, outwardly very similar to Milyukov, the Minister of Foreign Affairs under the Provisional Government. Because of this, Kisa is forced to give up his glasses and wear pince-nez instead, so that the resemblance is not so obvious.

Trying to change his appearance before going to look for chairs, the hero dyes his hair black. After the first wash, the paint comes off, and the black color turns into green, and the hero has to shave his mustache and shave his head baldly.

The adventurous adventures of the hero begin at the moment when the dying mother-in-law tells Kise about the old family jewels hidden in one of the chairs of the headset made by the master Gabs. The set consists of twelve chairs, and the hero begins to look for those in order to take possession of the treasure.

Having started the search on his own, the hero ends up in Stargorod, where another participant is involved in the "project" - the swindler Ostap Bender. The hero's life is complicated by the presence of a competitor - Father Fyodor, a priest who confessed Vorobyaninov's dying mother-in-law, also found out about the chairs and launched his own campaign to search for jewelry.

The heroes find themselves in Moscow, in a furniture museum, where ten of the twelve chairs that were part of the mother-in-law's sets are sold at auction. However, the heroes cannot buy them, because Vorobyaninov spent the money intended for this purpose the day before. The chairs included in the set go to different hands, and the heroes have to open a hunt for new owners of precious furniture. And the former hero-lover Kisa squandered money in the Prague restaurant, where he came with a lady.

Then Vorobyaninov, together with his companion, finds himself on a steamer sailing along the Volga, in the city of Vasyuki he escapes from angry chess players, and in Pyatigorsk he is forced to beg for alms. After these ordeals, the hero returns to the capital, where traces of the last chair are lost. Bender finds out that the chair "assed" in the railroad club.

The night before the final raid, Vorobyaninov kills a partner with a straight razor to the throat in order to take possession of the treasure alone. However, the next day it turns out that the treasure had already been found a few months earlier and “turned” into a sports and entertainment center for workers.

The image of Vorobyaninov is largely based on Uncle Evgeny Petrov, one of the authors of the work. This uncle lived in Poltava, wore whiskers and gold pince-nez, was a gourmet and lover of luxurious life.

Screen adaptations

The novel "The Twelve Chairs" survived about twenty adaptations. In Russia, the film adaptation of 1976 called "12 Chairs" is widely known, filmed, where the actor played the role of Kisa, and the role of Ostap Bender -. A few years earlier, another film based on the novel was directed by the director. In this two-part comedy, he played the role of Kisa.

In 1980, Sergei Filippov plays the role of Kisa Vorobyaninov again, this time in the film directed by Yuri Kushnerev "Comedy of Bygone Days". The film is essentially a crossover - characters and plots of different Soviet films intersect there. Coward and Experienced, the famous petty offenders from the comedies of Leonid Gaidai, join the adventure of Kitty and Bender. The combined team of adventurers goes in search of treasures as a group of four.

Outside the Cyrillic sector, the novel has also been filmed several times. In Germany, Italy, Great Britain, the USA and Sweden in the first half of the 20th century, their own variations on the theme of "The Twelve Chairs" came out, more or less close to the original. The wave of popularity of the novel by Ilf and Petrov even reached Brazil, where in 1957 they also shot a film adaptation called “Treze cadeiras” (“13 chairs”).

Another amusing film adaptation was filmed in the USA in 1970 by director Mel Brooks. Filming took place in Finland and Yugoslavia, and the film itself has a typical American comedy "happy ending". Ostap and Kisa go together at night to the railroad club for the last chair. Upon learning that the jewels "floated away", Kisa arranges a pogrom. Later, the frustrated adventurer companions discuss their plans peacefully, and no killing occurs.

The storyline associated with the search for chairs sold at the auction was truncated in the film. The heroes do not travel around the country, looking for chairs one by one, but immediately find seven chairs from a set in the Columbus transport theater, where they were sold. To get to them, the heroes are employed in the theater, passing off Kisa as an actor. Some of the chairs leave the theater and fall into the wrong hands, and the characters have to look for them.

Kisa takes one chair from a Finnish tightrope walker. To do this, the passive and uninventive hero in the original climbs the rope himself and demonstrates the wonders of tightrope walking. The heroes open four more chairs for jewelry right in the furniture museum where the auction was held. And only the last chair, as expected, is in the Moscow club of railway workers.

The last film adaptation was released in Italy in 2013 and is a free interpretation of the plot, where only the chairs and the treasure hidden in them remain intact (“Happiness is not in the chairs”, or “La sedia della felicità”).

In Kharkiv in 2016, a monument to Kise Vorobyaninov by sculptor Katib Mammadov appeared. A bronze hero, stealthily looking around, with a chair in his hands, emerges from a brick wall, half hidden in the masonry.

The remarks of the heroes Ilf and Petrov became famous quotes. Kisa is especially famous for the mournful mantra he repeats when begging:

“Monsieur, it’s not mange pa sis jour. Geben world zi bitte etwas kopeck auf dem shtuk ford. Give something to the former deputy of the State Duma.”

The legendary "Twelve Chairs" by Ilf and Petrov forty years ago was filmed first by the Soviet comedian Leonid Gaidai, and then, five years later, by the great experimenter, always keeping up with the times, Mark Zakharov.

Both comedies of both outstanding directors turned out to be brilliant, which to this day does not prevent them from remaining competitors. Ardent fans of the Gaidai tape do not get tired of criticizing the alternative creation of Mark Zakharov. And those who fell in love with Bender Andrey Mironov, frankly "do not digest" Ostap performed by Archil Gomiashvili.

Both comedies and, it turns out, the actors who played in them, constantly compete for the attention and love of the audience. Today we decided to see how the shooting of the two "Twelve Chairs" went.

One did not know who to shoot, the other took the actors without trial

Director Leonid Gaidai was a man of doubts. Sometimes he only in the process of a difficult, long search groped for what he intuitively imagined. Leonid Iovich did not know what kind of Bender he would have, and he was looking for applicants for this role all over the country for more than one month, just like the great schemer - chairs with treasures. For the role of Ostap-Suleiman-Bertha-Maria Bender-Bey, Gaidai tried as many as 22 artists. The list of applicants as the Board of Honor: Vladimir Basov, Vladimir Vysotsky, Alexei Batalov, Oleg Borisov, Valentin Gaft, Evgeny Evstigneev, Andrei Mironov, Spartak Mishulin, Alexander Shirvindt, Mikhail Kozakov, Nikolai Rybnikov, Nikolai Gubenko and others. Even the singer Muslim Magomayev Gaidai offered to "try on" Bender. Gaidai was going to approve Kozakov, but soon called and apologized to him - they say, he decided to take Belyavsky. On the first day of filming with Alexander Belyavsky, the plate "for luck" did not break. "Won't go! There will be no fart! the superstitious Gaidai shook his head. And so it happened: Belyavsky looked "unauthoritative" against the background of Sergei Filippov in the image of Kisa Vorobyaninov. The director stopped filming and urgently called Vladimir Vysotsky. But again the faience plate did not break. And Vysotsky, just starting to act, went on a spree ... And then someone told the director that in the provinces for several years the little-known actor Archil Gomiashvili had been successfully playing Bender in the play "The Golden Calf".

Goskino was outraged by Gaidai's decision:

Why will Bender be a Georgian?

So after all, Ostap's father is a Turkish subject. Why shouldn't mom be Georgian? - answered the director, who saw in Gomiashvili the "romantic impudence" of Bender, which he lacked in other actors.

Gomiashvili played Bender, but did not come to the dubbing due to illness. His hero was voiced by Yuri Sarantsev, which drove a stake in the war between the offended actor and director. They didn't even speak for several years.

But Mark Zakharov, with his adventurous attempt to outdo Gaidai, already at the stage of the script knew that his Bender would be Andrey Mironov, rejected by Gaidai. And Vorobyaninov - Anatoly Papanov, who also auditioned for Gaidai's "Twelve Chairs", but somehow did not suit him.

Zakharov was friends with Mironov and saw in him an outstanding comedic and musical gift. Mironov enthusiastically began to shoot with a friend and worked on the site "on time".

My film has nothing to do with Gaidai's project. The films were shot at different times. At Gaidai - at Mosfilm. I have it in Ostankino, as a kind of literary and musical composition with a text that is not direct speech. And Mironov and Papanov are not the people who should be tried. I just invited them. And he didn't take them off by accident. We worked together in the theater for a long time, - Zakharov told us.

It is known that Gaidai really did not like Zakharov's adaptation.

From the memoirs of Archil Gomiashvili:

“Gaiday called me and said:

In half an hour you can turn on the TV and see a criminal offense.

What?

- "Twelve Chairs", filmed by Mark Zakharov.

After a few years after the first show, the audience began to look at my creation with a little more sympathy than when they first met, - Zakharov noticed much later.

Madam Gritsatsueva

Gaidai tried actresses Galina Volchek, Nonna Mordyukova for "a woman of immense size with watermelon breasts", and approved Natalia Krachkovskaya.

Natalya Krachkovskaya says: “My husband, who was Gaidai's cameraman, brought me to the shooting. When the director saw me, he grabbed my hand: “You will be filming! Just don't get skinny!" He made sure that they served me more often doughnuts, any flour. Shooting the Bender chase scene seemed the most difficult and dangerous... I ran up the stairs for exactly two weeks. It was impossible to find an understudy with a similar complexion. Then I had to fly upside down on a tiny mattress. The director warned: "The head will fit, we don't care about the rest." I jumped. They answered me:

It turned out, but the camera stuck with us. We need to redo…”

Mark Zakharov approved Lydia Fedoseyeva-Shukshina in his film for "Madame Gritsatsueva" without trial.

The filming of the actress coincided with great grief in her family: her husband Vasily Shukshin passed away, and when work on the film began, her father died. To shoot the funniest scene - the wedding of Madame Gritsatsuyeva and Ostap Bender - the actress arrived immediately from the funeral. She played the episode, and then left and cried ... That is why she refused to sing herself in the frame, then she had no time for songs at all. But heroically, take after take, she played the scene where the cornice falls on her. The cornice was real, not fake, and the actress, with bated breath, “dodged” from him ...

Ellochka lost weight

In Gaidai's film, Natalya Varley auditioned for the role of Ellochka the cannibal, and Natalya Vorobyeva was approved.

During the trial, Leonid Iovich asked me to try on a light wig - and immediately saw Lisa in me. I agreed. This role was not so eccentric, but more sincere, says Varley.

But the performer of the role of Ellochka the cannibal in the film adaptation of Mark Zakharov, Elena Shanina, lost 41 kg in 65 days before the audition for the role, and then, at the request of Mark Zakharov, she lost another 10 kg three weeks before filming. And at the time of filming, she weighed 50 kg.

Mironov sang, but Gomiashvili was not given

Gaidai wanted to make his Ostap sing. He invited Zatsepin and Derbenev and asked them to write a kind of solo "Ostap Bender's Song". The song was written, and the film crew sang it with pleasure. But she didn't make it into the movie. And the viewer did not hear it from the lips of Ostap. Minister of Culture Ekaterina Furtseva categorically opposed Ostap's song, saying that after the release of the screens, this song will become the "anthem" of a certain part of our society. “And we have enough already,” Furtseva added and severely shook her finger.

The fate of Andrei Mironov in the singing sense turned out to be happier.

Mark Zakharov says:

Andrei Mironov is an enchanting actor. We were not going to show a 100% realistic Bender, there was a need for a purely emotional, rather than ideological and semantic memory of our past passion for the former Twelve Chairs. Witty music by Gladkov, consisting of melodies that were remembered once and for all, Kim's surprisingly elegant, ironic verses ... I don’t know who Yuli Kim had in mind - Andrei Mironov or Ostap Bender when he composed one of his piercing foxtrots: “Oh, the pleasure of sliding along the edge! Freeze, angels, look - I'm playing ... I did not compete with traditional cinema. As a result, I made a kind of literary and musical review with large text blockades, entirely extracted from the original source ... Kozakov called my film musical hooliganism.

The plans of the director of the film Mark Zakharov initially did not include the song “My sail so lonely turns white”. It was proposed by the songwriter Yuli Kim. And she suddenly became a through theme of the film.

Lyricist Yuli Kim wrote five Ostap songs for the film. The final was supposed to sound before the appearance of the last chair (the episode when Ippolit Matveyevich dealt with his concessionaire with a razor). Behind the scenes, a sad tango would sound. But this text was not approved by director Mark Zakharov.

About injuries

Gaidai's father Fyodor was played by Mikhail Pugovkin. The actor hesitated at first: “Isn’t it a sin to ridicule a clergyman?” - but my mother reassured me, they say, you will laugh not at faith, but at an unworthy shepherd. In the Caucasus, for the episode when Father Fyodor climbed a rock, Pugovkin, pale with fear, was lifted by a fire hydrant to the highest peak of the rock (he admitted that he almost got a nervous attack). And when the film was viewed at the studio, it turned out that the height was not visible - the scene had to be re-shot in the pavilion. In Batumi, the group waited a month for a storm, so that against the backdrop of expressive waves, Pugovkin would cut down chairs. After these shootings, the actor came down with a severe attack of sciatica - he could not straighten up, he lay in bed.

However, there were injuries on the set of Zakharov. Actress Lyubov Polishchuk injured her spine - Andrei Mironov had to drop her on the mattress during a sultry tango. But the actress fell to the floor...

Shooting stories

While working on "The Twelve Chairs" by Mark Zakharov, there was one episode when none of the film crew could hold back laughter. In the scene of the meeting of the "Union of the Sword and Plowshare", according to the director's idea, there should have been a talking parrot.

“My parrot is the smartest and most talking parrot,” the trainer introduced his pet when he appeared on the set. “Now we will try to demonstrate to you only a small part of what he can do.” The trainer turned to the parrot, but he answered ... expressively silent.

“Wait a minute, he needs to tune in,” the trainer was not embarrassed.

The film crew was waiting. However, not after a minute, not after ten, not even after half an hour, the bird did not speak.

“Okay, apparently he’s not in the mood to talk today. But now he will definitely show you how contagiously he knows how to laugh.

And, without letting anyone come to their senses, the trainer began to laugh wildly, while looking expectantly at the bird. The parrot, in response, still looked at his master carefully, continuing to remain silent.

At that moment, Mark Zakharov, having lost all patience, gave the command to start filming, and then the parrot would simply be voiced. But at the words of the director “camera, motor!” the parrot immediately started up and ... began to laugh contagiously.

“You see, I told you that this is a very smart bird,” the trainer summed up. “He doesn’t waste his strength in vain and works only when he hears the director’s signal!”

During filming at Gaidai's, they could not film the episode when Kisa Vorobyaninov and Father Fyodor, holding on to a chair on both sides, kick each other with their feet. Gaidai did not like how the artists kicked. He wanted to see long legs and more delicious kicks in the frame. The actors almost quarreled with the director because of the "nitpicking". These kicks were shot below the waist, and instead of Sergey Filippov's legs, Gaidai decided to shoot his own - very long ones. And his legs suited him perfectly.

BY THE WAY

The films "The Twelve Chairs" by Mark Zakharov and Leonid Gaidai still have actors who played both there and there. Immediately, four artists played in parallel in the first and second films. However, all the same different roles. So, Savely Kramarov in Zakharov's version played the locksmith Polesov, in Gaidai's version he played the one-eyed chess player. Georgy Vitsin at Zakharov's - the coffin master Bezenchuk, at Gaidai's - fitter Mechnikov. Eduard Bredun in Zakharov's version appeared in the image of a relative of Alkhen, and in the film Gaidai played Pasha Emilievich. And finally, Yuri Medvedev is the chairman of the circulation commission for Zakharov, and for Gaidai he is a theatergoer.

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"12 chairs" - two films, two anniversaries. Alena BARMATOVA

Ippolit Matveyevich Vorobyaninov was the district leader of the nobility (the leader of the Comanches, as Bender puts it). He is portrayed in the novel not just as a rich man in tsarist times. Vorobyaninov was an outstanding man in terms of wealth.

His income is described by the authors clearly and in detail: from his father he inherited a stable income of 20,000 rubles a year. Getting acquainted with his future mistress Elena Bour at a charity ball, Vorobyaninov gives 100 rubles for a glass of champagne. When parting with the same Elena Bour, he begins to pay her maintenance of 3,600 rubles a year, and this financial burden is perceived by him painlessly.

Vorobyaninov does not fit into the rent he receives and begins to live in real estate and production assets; in 1911, he was forced to marry an ugly (180, 90-60-90 - for that time it was just an ugly, lanky skeleton, as they say in the novel) girl with a large dowry. If we assume that by this time Vorobyaninov had lived for 18 years (from the moment he received the inheritance from his father) at least a third of his original state - and the state of the landowner was traditionally defined as 16 of his annual income - then he actually spent 26-27,000 rubles a year .

It was huge money. An income survey conducted in 1910 by the Ministry of Finance in preparation for the introduction of an income tax showed that there were only 12,100 households in the country with an income of over 20,000 rubles a year. Thus, Vorobyaninov was included in approximately one two thousandth part (or rather, 1/2300) of the richest people in Russia.

If we assume that the Poltava cousin of the authors served as the prototype of Vorobyaninov, then in the populous and fairly rich Poltava province there were only 211 people with an income of over 20,000 rubles a year.

To receive such an income, the landowner had to have at least 2,800-3,000 acres (a tithe - 1.08 hectares) of convenient land, that is, to have an estate of 3,500-4,500 thousand acres (in any estate there are various kinds of uncomfortable, unprofitable land). Thus, Ippolit Matveyevich owned a plot of approximately 6x6 km - and this was subject to high land use efficiency. To cultivate such a plot, if Vorobyaninov himself ran the farm, it would be necessary to hire about 150 people and keep about 150 horses.

By noble standards, this was a very large property - the average size of noble land ownership in 1905 was 488 acres. In European Russia in 1905 there were only 2,594 noble land holdings of 3,000 or more acres. In the Poltava province there were 34 such estates - 2-3 per county. It is not surprising that Vorobyaninov, who had no personal merit, continued to be a star of the county size and was easily elected the county marshal of the nobility.

What did 20,000 rubles a year mean in that scale of income? The governor received 10,000, the vice-governor 6,000, a university professor 3,000 (they complained bitterly about such a salary), a district court judge 4,200, a zemstvo doctor - 1,200-1,800, a gymnasium teacher 1,200-2,000 (depending on income). The incomes of ordinary people were completely different: the average salary of a worker in 1913 was 264 rubles, a qualified machine operator in the capitals received 500-700 rubles, a weaver 180-200 rubles, a watchman or laborer 120-180 rubles. A clerk or clerk in a store received 600-900 rubles, an elementary school teacher - 300-400 rubles.

In general, maintaining a lifestyle typical of the middle class for a family man in the capitals required at least 3,000 rubles a year. What exactly was included in this concept? Rented apartment with central heating and electricity, bedroom, nursery, living room, dining room, kitchen and maid's room, bathroom and toilet; cook, maid and nanny; meals according to the lordly type, that is, lunch with 2-3 hot dishes; new, well-groomed clothes, decent furniture in the house; movement around the city in a cab; cottage in the suburbs, rented for the summer. With 3,000 rubles, the family could barely keep up at this level, and then only if there were 1-2 children: the apartment was on a non-prestigious street, on a high floor or with windows facing the courtyard, it was necessary to save up to buy clothes or furniture, sometimes you had to travel by cab, but by tram, etc. But an income of 5,000-6,000 thousand rubles a year already provided a completely comfortable life (regardless of the number of children) and sometimes allowed me to go on vacation abroad.

From all of the above, it is clear that Vorobyaninov in 1917 lost a lot, a lot. If for Bender the treasures hidden in a chair are the path to unprecedented prosperity, then for Ippolit Matveyevich even their discovery will not be able to return the previous standard of living.

The second interesting topic is the activity of Vorobyaninov as the leader of the nobility. County Marshals of the Nobility is a unique position. The leadership of the county nobility practically did not take their time, since the county nobility had very few common affairs.

But on the other hand, the elected (for 3 years) marshal of the nobility was an unpaid volunteer official who performed the duties of the de facto head of the county administration without compensation (legally county institutions did not form a single whole and did not have a boss). The leader presided over the uyezd zemstvo assembly (this duty took one or two weeks a year) and the uyezd congress (this was a commission that examined complaints against judicial and administrative decisions of zemstvo chiefs), which met one week a month. The leader also supervised the activities of the county conscription presence, which conducted the annual conscription into the army, the county land management commission (led the agrarian reform), the county appraisal commission (dealt with complaints about the assessment of property for taxation). Also, the leader was the organizer of the elections to the State Duma, heading the election meetings.

All this suggests that a completely empty, idle and stupid person could not cope with this work. No matter how carelessly the leader did not treat his duties, they were in any case troublesome and required a good knowledge of numerous laws and procedures, the ability to manage processes and build relationships with many people. Thus, the timidity and stupidity of Vorobyaninov is explained only by the somewhat libelous nature of the famous novel. The real leaders of the nobility were efficient and intelligent people.

Ippolit Matveyevich Vorobyaninov was born in 1875 on his father's estate in the Stargorod district. His life was very ordinary, he was "a typical representative of a degenerate aristocracy", and Kees did not differ in any talents or bright features. He studied poorly, stayed for the second year, was lazy. He did not join the army because of his health, he avoided public service, and did not want to receive a good education. And so Ippolit Matveyevich remained a nobleman without special occupations, he lived for his own pleasure, drank a lot, allowed himself a lot, and everything would have gone fine if not for the events of 1917. And Vorobyaninov suddenly found himself without his usual way of life and without money, and he had to become a modest employee, an employee of the registry office. He hid his past, and no one knows whether he longingly recalled his past exploits in solitude - here he appeared in public with two completely naked girls, but he beat the attorney at law in a smart way.

But the reputation of a rake and a reveler - all this is left behind, and in the book the reader first meets Vorobyaninov in the form of a downtrodden former aristocrat, struggling to adapt to the new reality.

A former dandy and spendthrift, he lost almost all of his former glamor and by the time he met Ostap, he was a rather pitiful sight. However, he was still ready for adventure, having told Bender about the treasures, and when Ostap suggested that he find them and run away, after a short bargaining, Kisa agreed, and agreed with great enthusiasm.

As for Vorobyaninov's appearance, he was a 52-year-old man, 185 centimeters tall, with gray hair, which he dyed "radical black", and with a conspicuous mustache, which he cherished very much. He wore pince-nez, was distinguished by good manners, and in general could not hide the former leader of the nobility in himself.

Ostap Bender instantly suppressed Ippolit Matveyevich, and, despite rare riots, Kisa resigned himself. He was already tired of life, and in the young and energetic Bender he saw a chance for himself.

Both readers and moviegoers could notice how Vorobyaninov's personality changes in the course of the plot. So, as he approached the treasures, he seemed to become more "predatory". "And Ippolit Matveyevich's gait was no longer the same, and the expression of his eyes became wild, and he no longer stuck out parallel to the earth's surface, but almost perpendicularly, like that of an elderly cat."

Vorobyaninov also changed in character, becoming tougher, and in the end he began to really hate his young companion Bender.

Who would have thought that Kisa Vorobyaninov, the former leader of the nobility, would end up slashing Ostap with a razor across the throat, but that is exactly what happened. However, everything shows that by that time Vorobyaninov had simply lost his mind ...

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Russian viewers know two on-screen Vorobyaninovs - in the production of Leonid Gaidai in 1971, Sergey Filippov played Kitty, and Archil Gomiashvili then played Ostap.

In the production of Mark Zakharov in 1976, Anatoly Papanov starred as Ippolit Matveyevich in tandem with Andrei Mironov, who embodied Ostap Bender.

Both of these films have become iconic for Russian cinema, and both have a huge number of fans and even fans.

As for Vorobyaninov himself, some of his phrases have become winged, and these include "Let's go to the numbers!", "I think that bargaining is not appropriate here", and, of course, the famous "Je ne mange pa sis jur".

The dialogues of Ostap Bender and Kisa Vorobyaninov are real pearls, and book connoisseurs traditionally quote them.

As for the life of Ippolit Matveyevich after he went mad and struck Otsap in the throat, nothing more is known about him - whether he returned to the quiet life of a Soviet employee, or tried to escape, and perhaps he went down and became an ordinary beggar beggar. Only once in the novel "The Golden Calf" Ostap mentions him, calling him "an eccentric old man", with whom they once "sought happiness in the amount of one hundred and fifty thousand rubles."