The Little Golden Calf

This is the famous and most popular book in Russian still today. We at Ishi Press have published this book in the original Russian under ISBN number 4871876772. Here is the translation into English under ISBN 4-87187-678-0. Students of Russian speaking English and students of English who are speaking Russian can lay these books side by side and see the words in both languages. The name The Little Golden Calf comes from the Bible, the Book of Exodus 32:1-4 The Worship of the Golden Calf is the worship of wealth and money which is the subject of this book. The protagonist Ostap Bender was supposed to have been killed at the conclusion of the “12 Chairs” but the authors found him to be too valuable and useful so they brought him back to life. Bender is a con man and a hustler. He with his three friends drive a car all around the Soviet Union pulling cons and using their car as an escape vehicle. They hear about a man named Alexandr Koreiko who has made millions through various illegal enterprises while pretending to live on an office clerk's salary of 46 rubles a month. Koreiko keeps his stash in a suitcase, that he carries around with him. waiting for the fall of the Soviet government, so that he can make use of it. Bender finds out about Koreiko. They pick his pocket and follow him around. Koreiko tries to flee, but Bender eventually tracks him down. He then blackmails Koreiko into giving him a million rubles. Now Bender has achieved the wealth of which he has always dreamed, but he faces a new problem, the same problem Koreiko had: How to spend the money? As there was no legal way he could have gotten the money, he must keep it without spending it. He dreams of going to Rio de Janiero were he can lay on the beach and pick up girls. He wants to become The Count of Monte Cristo, the fabulously wealthy Alexandre Dumas character. Finding no way to spend the money in the Soviet Union, he tries to leave the country. He even goes to Turkestan where he attempts to cross the border by riding a camel across the desert. Eventually, he crosses to Romania by train but he is apprehended by the border guards who beat him up and take away all his money. With his money gone, now he realizes he will never become the Count of Monte Cristo. He must apply for a job as a janitor. Delighted applause from both sides of the Atlantic greeted the first publication of this comic clasic about Soviet life in the early years after the Revolution. Social changes then were so drastic and came so thick and fast that even most Russians were confused. This is the story of Ostap Bender, opportunist and small time crook, who makes the most of the situation. Discovering that millions have leaked quietly out of Soviet coffers into the hands of a unreconstructed individualist who believed in private enterprise, our hero sets about getting this fortune into his own hands. Rounding up a motley gang of hoodlums he embarks on a series of hilariously breathtaking escapades and adventures impossible in any other time or place. In the end they succeed but the pay-off is no bargain. Ilf and Petrov never poked funnier fun at their people and politics in this picaresque novel of red tape and wretches.