Ostap Bender's origins are mysterious; he mentions only that his father was "a
Turkish subject", his mother was "a Countess and received
unearned income" and that his full name is Ostap-
Suleyman-
Berta-
Maria-Bender-
Bey (Остап-Сулейман-Берта-Мария-Бендер-Бей). In the comments to the
Complete Works of Ilf and Petrov by M. Odessky and D. Feldman, this phrase is explained as a hint to his supposed
Jewish origin from a port city in
Novorossiya, most probably Odesa, where many Jews claimed Turkish citizenship to evade discrimination and
conscription for
military service. Some of them indeed held Turkish citizenship, such as
Julius Martov. In
The Little Golden Calf, Ostap Bender is also called "Бендер-Задунайский" ("Bender-Zadunaisky", literally: "Bender-Trans-
Danubian") and "Остап Ибрагимович" (Ostap Ibragimovich, where "Ibragimovich" is a
patronymic, literally meaning "son of
Ibrahim"). The city of
Bender and the
Danube river are historically and geographically close to both the large regional city of Odesa and the former
Ottoman (Turkish) Empire. Bender dreams of travelling to
Rio de Janeiro, "the city of his dreams", while admitting the futility of that obsession. There were a number of possible prototypes for Bender, most famously
Ostap (Osip) Shor (1899–1978), a friend of the authors who spent his youth in Odesa gaining money as a con man and then—as a
Cheka inspector. He was a good story-teller, and many of his tales inspired the adventures of Ostap Bender.
Valentin Kataev who came up with the idea for the novel (which, in turn, is dedicated to him) is named as another prototype; he also led an adventurous life and was known as a literary hoaxer, adding many original touches to the biography of Osip Shor whom he saw as fitting the readers' expectations of a "real-life combinator". Another suggested influence was the character of Alexander Ametistov from
Mikhail Bulgakov's play ''Zoyka's Flat
that had been written and staged in 1926, before the work on The Twelve Chairs'' was even started. Also an elegant con man with many names and occupations, he is seen as a direct inspiration by a number of modern researches, to the point that some of them believe that both novels were ghostwritten by Bulgakov.
Bender's leadership The entrepreneurial abilities of Bender attracted attention of researchers in management. Bender is educated and has an analytical mind; is full of energy; in the case of a failure keeps his optimism and has an ability to reassess the situation; has an
empathy towards his subordinates, opponents and "
marks"; has exceptional organizational skills, even when limited by scarce resources. While Bender is endowed with many traits of a
charismatic leader, it was concluded that the major reason of his failures was lack of clear understanding of his own goals and needs, and short-term perspective. A serious drawback of Bender as a leader is his
paternalism. Also, while he is aware of the drawbacks of his companions, he puts no efforts into their betterment. While at times he can be a
motivational speaker, he did not care about the long-term motivation of his subordinates; instead, he preferred to manipulate or simply force them. ==Cultural influence==