When Il'ia Il'f and Evgenii Petrov published Двенадцать стульев in 1929, it is unlikely that either author realized that their satire about a would-be Soviet millionaire would become a beloved part of twentieth century Russian culture. But both The Twelve Chairs and its satiric sequel, The Little Golden Calf (Золотой теленок) survived their battles with the censors to be read, and in many cases memorized in full, for generations. Many catch phrases from the novels have entered the Russian language. The hero Ostap Bender has done well since the demise of the Soviet Union. On the splash screen you can see a statue of him that stands outside a St. Petersburg restaurant that bears his name (Золотой Остап). The chair he is leaning against must be the lucky one.
Il'f and Petrov were born in Odessa, though they didn't know each other there. They met in Moscow, where Il'f was writing comic essays for a railroad newspaper, along with Petrov's older brother. It was that older brother, already a famous writer, who gave them the idea for The Twelve Chairs.
The partnership of Il'f and Petrov lasted only a decade. Both writers died before they were forty: Il'f in 1936 of tuberculosis, and Petrov in 1942, in a war-time plane crash. Il'f and Petrov (especially Petrov) were believers in the revolution, but they also (especially Il'f) possessed a nasty cynical streak. The combination of those two impulses can be felt in their two great novels, and even more poignantly in Il'fs diaries and notebooks, which are now available in Russian in uncensored form. The two men also wrote many essays, and a wonderful account of their trip across the United States in 1935, called Single-story America (Одноэтажная Америка).