Ostap Bender (Russian: Остап Бендер; also Ostap-Suleyman-Berta-Maria-Bender-Bey, Bender-Zadunaysky, Ostap Ibragimovich) is a fictional con man and antihero who first appeared in the novel The Twelve Chairs written by Soviet authors Ilya Ilf and Yevgeni Petrov and released in January 1928.



Proclaiming himself the "great combinator", Ostap Bender searches for a stash of diamonds hidden in one of the twelve eponymous chairs. The action takes place in the Soviet Union during the New Economic Policy era. At the end of the novel, he is killed by his partner, Ippolit Matveyevich Vorobianinov, who does not want to share the treasure with Bender when it seems like they are about to reach their goal. The name "Ostap Bender" has become an archetypal name for a con man in the Russian language.

The character's death was retconned away in 1931 in the sequel novel The Little Golden Calf, where Ostap claimed that "surgeons barely saved his life." This book was an extended satire on certain elements of Soviet life. Here, Ostap Bender follows a Soviet underground multi-millionaire, hoping to acquire some of the man's riches, and thus amass a fortune. Bender gets his money, but soon discovers he can't spend it in USSR without attracting police attention. He proceeds to lose it as he attempts to flee the country.