The golden calf

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The Golden Calf ( Russian Золотой телёнок ) is a satirical novel published in 1931, written by Soviet writers Ilya Ilf and Yevgeny Petrov . It is the continuation of her novel Twelve Chairs , published three years earlier .

action

The imaginative, humorous, individualistic crook and adventurer Ostap Bender survives the murder attempt that ends the first novel and appears in a small Russian provincial town of Arbatow, where he pretends to be the son of the revolutionary hero Lieutenant Schmidt in order to get money from the local administration for tricking a living. In the office of the city administrator he meets the simple-minded petty criminal Shura Balaganow, who is doing the same job, which almost blows both "Schmidt sons" away. Bender saves himself and Balaganow from this embarrassing and dangerous situation, and they make an acquaintance. Bender tells Balaganow of his firm intention to somehow get hold of a million and to emigrate to Rio de Janeiro , because “I want to get away from here. Serious differences have developed between myself and the Soviet authorities over the past year. She wants to build socialism and I don't want it. I am bored with building socialism ”. Thereupon Balaganov reveals that he knows a Soviet underground millionaire named Korejko and Bender immediately decides to drive to him in Chernomorsk (Russian Black Sea city, meaning Odessa ) to extort some of the money from him. An older, clumsy swindler Panikowski joins the two.

Arriving in Chernomorsk, Bender collects evidence of Korejko's dark machinations, through which he came to his secret wealth. He threatens Korejko to hand this file over to the police and ends up extorting a million rubles in this way. During his attempt to leave Soviet Russia, however, he was robbed and beaten by the Romanian border police, which forced him to return.

Others

The novel was able to increase the artistic level of the previous novel even further. It also became very popular in the USSR and has been translated into many languages ​​(including German). Numerous quotes that have found their way into everyday language also come from him. The authors were still planning the third novel, but for various reasons it was not written. After the Second World War , “The Golden Calf” was banned in the Soviet Union and was only allowed to be published again in the 1960s.

Quotes

  • Horns and hooves ( Russian Рога и копыта - Roga i kopyta ) - name of a sham agency opened by Ostap Bender, an ironic term for dubious business activities.
  • Seat Chairman (Russian зиц-председатель - Siz-predsedatel ) - a straw man whose only function is to serve a prison sentence. The word is a Yiddish- Russian construct.
  • The beer is only sold to union members (Russian Пиво отпускается только членам профсоюза - Piwo otpuskajetsja tolko tschlenam profsojusa ), a parody of the Soviet privilege system.
  • The automobile is not a luxury object, but a means of transport (Russian Автомобиль - не роскошь, а средство передвижения - Awtomobil - ne roskosch, a sredstwo peredwischenija ), a parody of Soviet- style propaganda .
  • Saw, Shura, saw! (Russian Пилите, Шура, пилите! - Pilite, Shura, pilite! ). This ironic phrase is used again and again when someone tries to postpone the inevitable punishment for a failed undertaking by hiding. In the novel, Panikowski and Balaganow steal the cast-iron weights from underground millionaire Koreiko because Panikowski was convinced that they were made of gold. The sentence comes from Panikowski when he has long realized that it was wrong.
  • Now I am going to re-qualify as a caretaker (Russian Придется переквалифицироваться в управдомы - Pridetsja perekwalificirowatsja w uprawdomi ) - the last sentence in the novel - representative of broken dreams.

Film adaptations

German book editions

  • The golden calf (translator Enrico Italiener), Neuer Verlag, Stockholm 1946.
  • The golden calf (translator Alexander Schmidt), Limes-Verlag, Wiesbaden 1966.
  • The golden calf (translator Mascha Schillskaja), Goldmann Verlag, Munich 1967.
  • The golden calf or the hunt for the million (translator Thomas Reschke), Damnitz Verlag, Munich 1979.
  • The golden calf or the hunt for the million (translator Thomas Reschke), Volk und Welt publishing house, Berlin 1979.
  • The golden calf. A millionaire in Soviet Russia (translators Wera Rathfelder and Pia Todorović), Manesse-Verlag, Zurich 1986 ISBN 3-7175-1724-4 .
  • The golden calf or the hunt for the million (translator Thomas Reschke), Fischer-Taschenbuchverlag, Frankfurt am Main 1988 ISBN 3-596-28263-2 .

Web links