Kisa's real name is Ippolit Matveevich Vorobyaninov. The hero comes from a noble background and before the revolution was the district leader of the nobility.

Bender, not without sarcasm, calls Kisa a giant of thought, the father of Russian democracy and a special person close to the emperor. Deprived of his former privileges, the hero lives with his mother-in-law and works in the registry office of a certain provincial town. The hero’s pre-revolutionary life is discussed in the story “The Past of the Civil Registry Office Registrar,” which was supposed to be included in the novel “The Twelve Chairs” as one of the chapters, but was eventually published separately a year after the publication of the novel.

History and image

Vorobyaninov was born in Stargorod district in 1875. His father Matvey Alexandrovich, the owner of the estate, was a passionate lover of pigeons. The hero himself appears in the story about the pre-revolutionary years as an adventurer and reveler. The hero is a “notorious bachelor” and marries the landowner Marie Petukhova, only to improve the shaky affairs in his own estate. After marriage, he continues to have an affair with the wife of the district attorney, with whom he goes to Paris together. The hero's legal wife dies in 1914.


The hero outraged polite society by appearing in public places in the company of naked ladies and led the life of a spendthrift and bon vivant until he was expelled from his own estate in 1918. After the revolution, Vorobyaninov has to lead the life of a simple Soviet employee.

At the time of the novel, Kise is 52 years old. Vorobyaninov is described in the novel as a tall, gray-haired old man with a well-groomed mustache, outwardly extremely similar to Miliukov, the Minister of Foreign Affairs under the Provisional Government. Because of this, Kisa is forced to give up his glasses and wear pince-nez instead so that the resemblance would not be so obvious.


Trying to change his appearance before going to look for chairs, the hero dyes his hair black. After the first wash, the paint comes off and the black turns green, and the hero has to shave his mustache and shave his head bald.

The hero's adventurous adventures begin at the moment when his dying mother-in-law tells Kisa about old family jewelry hidden in one of the chairs of the set made by master Gabs. The set consists of twelve chairs, and the hero begins to look for those in order to take possession of the treasure.


Having started the search on his own, the hero ends up in Stargorod, where another participant is involved in the “project” - the fraudster Ostap Bender. The hero's life is complicated by the presence of a competitor - Father Fyodor, a priest who confessed to Vorobyaninov's dying mother-in-law, also learned about the chairs and launched his own campaign to find the jewelry.

The heroes find themselves in Moscow, in a furniture museum, where ten of the twelve chairs that were part of the mother-in-law’s set are being sold at auction. However, the heroes cannot buy them, because Vorobyaninov spent the money intended for this purpose the day before. The chairs included in the set go into different hands, and the heroes have to start a hunt for new owners of the precious furniture. And the former hero-lover Kisa squandered the money in the Prague restaurant, where he came with a lady.

Then Vorobyaninov, together with his companion, finds himself on a steamship sailing along the Volga, in the city of Vasyuki he escapes from angry chess players, and in Pyatigorsk he is forced to beg for alms. After these ordeals, the hero returns to the capital, where traces of the last chair are lost. Bender finds out that the chair “has ended up” in the railroad workers’ club.

On the night before the final raid, Vorobyaninov kills his partner with a blow to the throat with a straight razor in order to take possession of the treasure alone. However, the next day it turns out that the treasures had already been found several months earlier and “turned” into a sports and entertainment center for workers.


The image of Vorobyaninov is largely copied from Uncle Evgeniy Petrov, one of the authors of the work. This uncle lived in Poltava, wore sideburns and golden pince-nez, was a gourmet and a lover of luxurious life.

Film adaptations

The novel “The Twelve Chairs” has survived about twenty film adaptations. In Russia, the 1976 film adaptation called “12 Chairs”, filmed in which the role of Kisa was played by the actor, and the role of Ostap Bender, is widely known. A few years earlier, another film based on the novel was directed by the director. In this two-part comedy, the role of Kisa was played by.


In 1980, Sergei Filippov played the role of Kisa Vorobyaninov again, this time in the film “The Comedy of Bygone Days” directed by Yuri Kushnerev. The film is essentially a crossover - the characters and plots of different Soviet films intersect. Coward and Experienced, famous petty criminals from the comedies of Leonid Gaidai, join in the adventure of Kisa and Bender. A team of four adventurers sets off in search of treasure.


Outside the Cyrillic sector, the novel has also been filmed several times. In Germany, Italy, Great Britain, the USA and Sweden in the first half of the twentieth century, their own variations on the theme of “The Twelve Chairs” were published, more or less close to the original. The wave of popularity of the novel by Ilf and Petrov even reached Brazil, where a film adaptation called “Treze cadeiras” (“13 chairs”) was also shot in 1957.


Oscarito as Bonifacio Boaventura (Kisa Vorobyaninov) in the Brazilian film adaptation

Another entertaining film adaptation was filmed in the USA in 1970 by director Mel Brooks. Filming took place in Finland and Yugoslavia, and the film itself has a “happy ending” typical of an American comedy. Ostap and Kisa go together at night to the railway workers' club for the last chair. Having learned that the jewelry has “floated away,” Kisa organizes a pogrom. Later, the disappointed companion adventurers peacefully discuss future plans, and no murder occurs.


Ron Moody as Kisa Vorobyaninov in the American film adaptation

The storyline related to the search for chairs sold at auction is truncated in the film. The heroes do not travel around the country looking for chairs one by one, but find seven chairs from a set at once in the Columbus transport theater, where they were sold. To get to them, the heroes are hired by the theater, passing off Kisa as an actor. Some of the chairs leave the theater into the wrong hands, and the heroes have to look for them.

Kisa takes one chair from the Finnish tightrope walker. To do this, the passive and inventive hero in the original climbs the rope himself and demonstrates miracles of tightrope walking. The heroes open four more chairs for the presence of jewelry right in the furniture museum where the auction took place. And only the last chair, as expected, is in the Moscow railway workers' club.


The latest film adaptation was released in Italy in 2013 and is a free interpretation of the plot, where only the chairs and the treasure hidden in them remain intact (“Happiness is not in the chairs,” or “La sedia della felicità”).

In Kharkov in 2016, a monument to Kisa Vorobyaninov by sculptor Katib Mamedov appeared. A bronze hero looking around furtively with a chair in his hands emerges from a brick wall, still half hidden in the masonry.

Replies from the heroes Ilf and Petrov have become famous quotes. Kisa is especially famous for the plaintive mantra he repeats when begging:

“Monsieur, it’s not mange pas sis jour. Goeben mir zi bitte etvas kopek auf dem stück ford. Give something to the former State Duma deputy.”

Kisa, Father of Russian Democracy, Leader of the Nobility (albeit a former one) - all kinds of nicknames Ilya Ilf and Yevgeny Petrov gave their hero. By the way, when the writers were just planning the book “12 Chairs,” Ippolit Vorobyaninov was supposed to become its main character, and the son of a Turkish citizen, Ostap-Suleiman-Berta-Maria Bender Bey, was to be a secondary one. But the original idea had to be changed. In any case, the bright figure of Vorobyaninov arouses the same interest in the reader as the image of his fellow concessionaire Ostap. So it would be unfair not to find the prototype of Ippolit Matveevich.

Deprived of the position of leader of the local nobility by the 1917 revolution, Ippolit Matveevich moved to the district town of N, where he worked as a registrar in the registry office. He lived with his mother-in-law, who, as we remember, admitted on her deathbed that she had hidden her family jewels in one of the chairs made by Master Gumbs. Thus began an adventurous novel about adventurers. From the book we know that Ippolit Matveevich is a tall (185 cm) gray-haired old man who wears a well-groomed mustache and dyes his hair “radical black.” And now even closer to the text:

“Ippolit Matveyevich woke up at half past seven and immediately stuck his nose into an old-fashioned pince-nez with a gold bow. He didn't wear glasses. One day, having decided that wearing pince-nez was not hygienic, Ippolit Matveevich went to the optician and bought rimless glasses with gold-plated shafts. He liked the glasses the first time, but his wife found that with glasses he looked just like Miliukov, and he gave the glasses to the janitor.”

It was precisely because of the similarity indicated by the authors with the famous historian and politician Pavel Miliukov that many readers decided that Vorobyaninov’s prototype was Nobel laureate in literature, the famous Russian writer Ivan Bunin. Ivan Alekseevich really looked a little like the democrat Miliukov. However, in the weak-willed Kis there is quite a bit common features with the literary genius of Bunin. Maybe that’s why some readers saw a clear similarity between Vorobyaninov and another Russian writer, Alexei Tolstoy.

But the residents of Vyatka are sure that the prototype of Kisa Vorobyaninov was their fellow countryman, Nikolai Dmitrievich Stakheev. This was one of the brightest representatives of the famous dynasty of Elabuga merchants, the Stakheevs. Nikolai had extraordinary commercial abilities. At the beginning of the 20th century, the annual turnover of his trading company was 80 million rubles. Before the First World War, Stakheev left with his family for France, but in Europe he met October Revolution- this news, of course, did not please the merchant, since all his capital was nationalized. A dangerous, but only true plan matured in Stakheev’s head. In 1918, Stakheev secretly returned to Moscow to pick up silver and jewelry from the cache of his house on Basmannaya Street. However, upon leaving the estate, the merchant, along with the entire treasure, was detained by GPU officers. During interrogation, Stakheev offered Felix Dzerzhinsky a deal: he says where the valuables are hidden in the house, and he is given a pension or given the opportunity to leave. Dzerzhinsky allegedly accepted the conditions of the former industrialist. They said that Stakheev received a pension until the end of his days, and with part of the “found” treasures, the House of Culture for Railway Workers was built on modern Komsomolskaya Square in Moscow.

But the version that seems most plausible to us is that the prototype of the “leader of the nobility” was Evgeniy Petrovich Ganko, the head of the Poltava Zemstvo Council. There is very little information left about him - only the memories of his nephews, the Kataev brothers, and one of the authors of “12 Chairs,” Evgeniy Petrov.

Evgeny Ganko was a widower and lived with the sister of his late wife. She managed his household, as Evgeniy often went on trips to exotic countries: China, Japan, India. Valentin Kataev recalled that very often, returning from another trip, Ganko came to visit them and brought gifts: Japanese lacquered pencil cases, ostrich eggs, cigarette cases with the image of a scarab beetle, and so on. Eugene wore a gold penny, which looked especially impressive on him. In his old age, Ganko settled in Poltava, entertaining himself by looking through old French magazines or packaging his stamps. By the way, he was a big collector.

Evgeny Petrov said that his uncle (Evgeny Ganko) loved to show off in front of young ladies and show off dust in their eyes. His image lay like “a piece of paper in a pile.” Based on all this, we can safely say that it was Evgeny Ganko who became the prototype for Kisa Vorobyaninov.

Kisa Vorobyaninov is a character from the novel “The Twelve Chairs,” published in 1928. This is also found in another work by Ilf and Petrov - “The Past of the Civil Registry Office Registrar.” This story features more full biography Kitties Vorobyaninov.

basic information

The full name of the hero is Ippolit Matveevich Vorobyaninov. At the beginning of the story he was 52 years old. The former leader of the nobility began to lead a completely unusual lifestyle for himself after meeting the adventurer Ostap Bender. Kisa Vorobyaninov received from him a trade union book, which read: “member of the union of Soviet trade employees.” From now on, Vorobyaninov introduces himself as Konrad Michelson. According to forged documents, he is 48 years old, single, and has been a member of the union since 1921.

What is known about the life of the former registry office employee? After the revolution, Vorobyaninov was deprived of the position of leader of the nobility. He moved to a county town, the name of which is not mentioned by the authors of the famous book. Here he worked in the registry office, in the department of registration of marriages and deaths. Vorobyaninov lived with his mother-in-law Claudia Ivanovna - a woman who, as it turned out, was quite secretive and mysterious.

Chasing treasure

Kisa Vorobyaninov's life changed completely after the death of his late wife's mother. In the last minutes of her life, his mother-in-law admitted to him that she owned pre-revolutionary books. True, they were kept far away, in one of the 12 chairs. Treasure Hunt - Basic story line the famous novel by Ilf and Petrov.

In 1918, Ippolit Matveevich’s idle life came to an end. He was expelled from his own home and deprived of his property. Over time, he turned into a pathetic philistine. And suddenly - news about jewelry. She gave her a chance to return to her former life, full of luxury and idleness. Ippolit Matveyevich rushed in search of jewelry, being completely unsuited to this type of activity.

Kisa Vorobyaninov and Ostap Bender

Where did such a strange nickname come from, inappropriate for a mature man? Of course, Ostap Bender came up with it. In relation to his assistant, he also used words such as “field marshal”, “leader of the Comanches.”

Almost nothing is known about the fate of Vorobyaninov after the events described in the novel “The Twelve Chairs”. He is mentioned only once in another book - “The Golden Calf”. In this work, Ippolit Matveyevich is described as “an eccentric old man, a former leader of the nobility,” with whom Ostap Bender once sought happiness for the sum of 150 thousand rubles.

Appearance

What did Kisa Vorobyaninov look like? The actor who played this character in the 1971 film lives up to the famous image. Ippolit Matveevich was tall and gray-haired. He wore a mustache. He preferred pince-nez to glasses in order to avoid resemblance to Pavel Miliukov, a politician who served as Minister of Foreign Affairs under the Provisional Government.

Before going in search of treasure, Vorobyaninov has to change appearance. He dyes his hair black. However, the procedure turns out to be unsuccessful. Hair turns green. There is nothing left to do but shave your head.

Habits

Kisa Vorobyaninov, like any other representative of the nobility, speaks French. In the morning he usually says bonjour. But only if you woke up in a good mood. If Vorobyaninov’s liver is acting up in the morning, he tends to say hello in German.

Past life

What Kisa Vorobyaninov’s life was like before meeting Ostap Bender is described in the story “The Past of the Civil Registry Office Registrar.” The work was published in 1929. Here the image of Vorobyaninov is quite unexpected. The character appears to readers as a kind of reveler and adventurer.

From the story it becomes known that the former registry office registrar was born in 1875. His hometown is located in Stargorod district. Ippolit Matveyevich’s father was a passionate lover of pigeons - this is all the information about the relatives of the “giant of thought.” There are no significant events in Vorobyaninov’s biography, with the exception of a few scandalous cases.

Collector

In 1911, the “father of Russian democracy” married the daughter of the neighboring landowner Petukhov. Change Family status he decided due to the shaky affairs in the estate. While Vorobyaninov was known as a passionate philatelist. He dreamed of surpassing the legendary Mr. Enfield in collecting stamps.

One day, a famous English philatelist approached him with a request to sell one of the stamps. Vorobyaninov refused, and in a rather peculiar form. The leader of the nobility sent a laconic answer to Enfield: “Bite the marrow!” A short and comprehensive refusal was written in Latin letters. After all, it was addressed to a foreigner.

Scandalous case

In 1913, an event occurred that outraged the advanced layers secular society. The leader of the nobility appeared in a public place, accompanied by two completely naked ladies. The policeman walked behind him in confusion, holding clothes in his hands that apparently belonged to Vorobyaninov’s unmasked companions.

1971 film

The director of the film is Leonid Gaidai. The film became the box office leader in 1971. The main role was played by Archil Gomiashvili. Kitty Vorobyaninov was played by Sergei Filippov. He was an actor with multifaceted talent. However, in films he appeared mainly in a satirical image. Before the release of The Twelve Chairs, he played more than 50 roles in films. In 1980, the film “The Comedy of Bygone Days” was released, in which Filippov again played Kisa Vorobyaninov.

Movies of 1976

This picture was shot by an equally famous Soviet and Russian director. Namely Mark Zakharov. Ostap Bender was played by the outstanding actor Andrei Mironov. Ippolit Matveevich - Anatoly Papanov. The actor has several dozen roles to his name, including tragic and comic ones. He first appeared on screen in 1939, playing a cameo role in the film “The Foundling.”

Films with Papanov’s participation: “Children of Don Quixote”, “Beware of the Car”, “The Diamond Arm”, “Cold Summer of '53” and many others. The most famous cartoon character speaks with a voice Soviet period- The wolf from “Well, wait a minute!”

Plays and musicals

Who played Kisa Vorobyaninov besides Filippov and Papanov? In the early 70s, a British film starring Ron Moody was released. In the 1966 performance, the role of “a person close to the emperor” was played by Alexander Belinsky. In the 2005 musical - Ilya Oleynik.

The legendary “The Twelve Chairs” by Ilf and Petrov forty years ago was filmed first by the Soviet comedian Leonid Gaidai, and then, five years later, by the great experimenter, always keeping up with the times, Mark Zakharov.

Both comedies by both outstanding directors turned out brilliant, which to this day does not prevent them from remaining competitors. Ardent fans of Gaidaev's film never tire of criticizing Mark Zakharov's alternative creation. And those who fell in love with Andrei Mironov’s Bender openly “can’t stomach” Ostap performed by Archil Gomiashvili.

Both comedies and, it turns out, the actors who played in them are constantly competing for the attention and love of the audience. Today we decided to see how the filming of the two “Twelve Chairs” took place.

One didn’t know who to shoot, the other hired actors without auditions

Director Leonid Gaidai was a doubting man. Sometimes, only in the process of a difficult, long search, he groped for what he intuitively imagined. Leonid Iovich did not know what kind of Bender he would have, and he looked for candidates for this role all over the country for many months, just like the great schemer - chairs with treasures. For the role of Ostap-Suleiman-Bert-Maria Bender-Bey, Gaidai tried as many as 22 artists. List of applicants as a Board of Honor: Vladimir Basov, Vladimir Vysotsky, Alexey Batalov, Oleg Borisov, Valentin Gaft, Evgeny Evstigneev, Andrey Mironov, Spartak Mishulin, Alexander Shirvindt, Mikhail Kozakov, Nikolay Rybnikov, Nikolay Gubenko and others. Even the singer Muslim Magomayev was offered by Gaidai to “try on” Bender. Gaidai was going to approve Kozakov, but soon called and apologized to him - they say he decided to take Belyavsky. On the first day of filming with Alexander Belyavsky, the plate did not break “for luck.” “It won’t work! There will be no luck!” - The superstitious Gaidai shook his head. And so it happened: Belyavsky, against the backdrop of Sergei Filippov in the image of Kisa Vorobyaninov, looked “unauthoritative.” The director stopped filming and urgently called Vladimir Vysotsky. But again the earthenware plate did not break. And Vysotsky, having just started filming, went on a spree... And then someone told the director that in the provinces the little-known actor Archil Gomiashvili had been successfully playing Bender in the play “The Golden Calf” for several years.

Goskino was outraged by Gaidai’s decision:

Why will Bender be Georgian?

So, after all, Ostap’s dad is a Turkish citizen. Why shouldn’t mom be Georgian? - responded the director, who saw in Gomiashvili the “romantic arrogance” of Bender, which he lacked in other actors.

Gomiashvili played Bender, but did not come to the dubbing due to illness. His character was voiced by Yuri Sarantsev, which drove a stake in the war between the offended actor and the director. They didn't even talk for several years.

But Mark Zakharov, with his adventurous attempt to outdo Gaidai, already at the script stage knew that his Bender would be Andrei Mironov, who was rejected by Gaidai. And Vorobyaninov is Anatoly Papanov, who also auditioned for Gaidai’s “The Twelve Chairs”, but somehow did not suit him.


Zakharov was friends with Mironov and saw in him an extraordinary gift for comedy and music. Mironov enthusiastically began filming with a friend and worked on the set “at a time.”

My film has nothing to do with Gaidaev’s project. Films were shot in different time. At Gaidai's - at Mosfilm. For me - in Ostankino, as a kind of literary and musical composition with text that is not direct speech. But Mironov and Papanov are not the people you should try. I just invited them. And it was not by chance that he took them off. We worked together in the theater for a long time,” Zakharov told us.

It is known that Gaidai really did not like Zakharov’s film adaptation.

From the memoirs of Archil Gomiashvili:

“Gaidai called me and said:

In half an hour you can turn on the TV and see a criminal offense.

What's happened?

- “Twelve Chairs”, filmed by Mark Zakharov.”

Several years after the first show, viewers began to look at my creation with slightly more sympathy than during the initial acquaintance,” Zakharov noted much later.

Madame Gritsatsueva

Gaidai tried actresses Galina Volchek, Nonna Mordyukova for “a woman of immense size with watermelon breasts”, and approved Natalya Krachkovskaya.

Natalya Krachkovskaya says: “My husband, who was Gaidai’s cameraman, brought me to the shooting. When the director saw me, he grabbed me by the hand: “You’ll be filming!” Just don’t lose weight!” He made sure that I was served donuts and all sorts of flour products more often. Filming the scene of the chase after Bender seemed the most difficult and dangerous... I rushed up and down the stairs for exactly two weeks. It was impossible to find an understudy with a similar build. Then I had to fly upside down onto a tiny mattress. The director warned: “The head will fit, we don’t care about the rest.” I jumped. They answered me:

It worked, but our camera jammed. We need to re-shoot...”

Mark Zakharov approved Lydia Fedoseeva-Shukshina in his film for “Madame Gritsatsueva” without testing.

The actress’s filming coincided with great grief in her family: her husband Vasily Shukshin passed away, and already when work on the film began, her father died. The actress came straight from the funeral to film the funniest scene - the wedding of Madame Gritsatsueva and Ostap Bender. She played an episode, and then left and cried... That is why she refused to sing on camera herself, then she had no time for songs at all. But heroically, take after take, she played the scene where the cornice falls on her. The cornice was real, not fake, and the actress “dodged” it with a sinking heart...


Ellochka has lost weight

Natalya Varley auditioned for the role of Ellochka the cannibal in Gaidai’s film, but Natalya Vorobyova was cast.

During the audition, Leonid Iovich asked me to try on a blonde wig - and immediately saw Lisa in me. I agreed. This role was not so eccentric, but more sincere,” says Varley.

But the performer of the role of Ellochka the cannibal in Mark Zakharov’s film adaptation, Elena Shanina, lost 41 kg in 65 days before auditioning for the role, and then, at Mark Zakharov’s request, three weeks before filming, she lost another 10 kg. And by the time of filming she weighed 50 kg.

Mironov sang, but Gomiashvili was not given

Gaidai wanted to make his Ostap sing. He invited Zatsepin and Derbenev and asked them to write a kind of solo “Song of Ostap Bender”. The song was written, and the film crew sang it with pleasure. But she was not included in the film. And the viewer did not hear it from Ostap’s lips. Minister of Culture Ekaterina Furtseva categorically opposed Ostap’s song, saying that after its release this song will become the “anthem” of a certain part of our society. “We’ve had enough already,” Furtseva added and sternly shook her finger.

The fate of Andrei Mironov in the singing sense turned out to be happier.


Mark Zakharov says:

Andrei Mironov is an enchanting actor. We did not intend to show a 100% realistic Bender; there was a need for a purely emotional, rather than ideological and semantic, recollection of our former passion for the previous “Twelve Chairs”. Gladkov’s witty music, consisting of melodies that were remembered once and for all, Kim’s surprisingly elegant, ironic poems... I don’t know who Yuliy Kim had in mind - Andrei Mironov or Ostap Bender, when he composed one of his piercing foxtrots: “Oh, the pleasure of sliding along the edge! Freeze, angels, look - I’m acting”... I did not compete with traditional cinema. And as a result, I made a kind of literary and musical review with large text blocks, entirely extracted from the original source... Kozakov called my film musical hooliganism.

The plans of the film’s director Mark Zakharov initially did not include the song “My sail is turning white, so lonely.” It was suggested by lyricist Yuliy Kim. And it unexpectedly became the running theme of the film.

Lyricist Yuli Kim wrote five Ostap songs for the film. The final one was supposed to sound before the appearance of the last chair (the episode when Ippolit Matveevich dealt with his concessionaire with a razor). A sad tango would sound behind the scenes. But this text was not approved by director Mark Zakharov.


About injuries

Gaidai's father Fyodor was played by Mikhail Pugovkin. The actor at first doubted: “Isn’t it a sin to ridicule a clergyman?” - but my mother reassured me, saying that you are laughing not at faith, but at an unworthy shepherd. In the Caucasus, for the episode when Father Fyodor climbed a rock, Pugovkin, pale with fear, was lifted by a fire crane to the highest peak of the rock (he admitted that he almost had a nervous attack). And when they watched the film at the studio, it turned out that the height was not visible - they had to re-shoot the scene in the pavilion. In Batumi, the group waited a month for a storm so that Pugovkin could cut chairs against the backdrop of expressive waves. After this filming, the actor fell ill with a severe attack of radiculitis - he could not straighten up and lay flat.

However, Zakharov also had injuries on the set. Actress Lyubov Polishchuk injured her spine - Andrei Mironov had to drop her on the mattress during a sultry tango. But the actress fell to the floor...

Stories on the set

While working on “The Twelve Chairs” by Mark Zakharov, there was one episode when none of the crew could contain their laughter. In the scene of the meeting of the “Union of Sword and Ploughshare”, according to the director’s idea, there had to be a talking parrot.

“My parrot is the smartest and most talking parrot,” the trainer introduced his pet when he appeared on the set. “Now we will try to demonstrate to you only a small part of what he can do.” The trainer turned to the parrot, but in response... he remained expressively silent.

“Wait a minute, he needs to tune in,” the trainer was not embarrassed.

The film crew froze in anticipation. However, not a minute later, not ten, not even half an hour later, the bird did not speak.

“Okay, apparently he’s not in the mood to talk today. But now he will definitely show you how contagiously he can laugh.”


And, without giving anyone time to come to their senses, the trainer began to laugh wildly, looking expectantly at the bird. In response, the parrot still looked attentively at its owner, remaining silent.

At this moment, Mark Zakharov, having lost all patience, gave the command to start filming, and then the parrot would simply be voiced. But when the director said “camera, motor!” The parrot immediately perked up and... began to laugh contagiously.

“You see, I told you that this is a very smart bird,” the trainer summed up. “He doesn’t waste his energy in vain and works only when he hears the director’s signal!”

During filming, Gaidai couldn’t film the episode when Kisa Vorobyaninov and Father Fyodor, holding a chair on both sides, kicked each other. Gaidai didn’t like the way the artists kicked. He wanted to see long legs and more delicious kicks in the frame. The actors almost quarreled with the director because of “nitpicking.” These kicks were filmed below the waist, and instead of Sergei Filippov's legs, Gaidai decided to film his own - very long ones. And he was quite happy with his legs.

BY THE WAY

The films “The Twelve Chairs” by Mark Zakharov and Leonid Gaidai still have actors who played in both. Four artists simultaneously played in both the first and second films. True, they are still different roles. Thus, Savely Kramarov played the locksmith Polesov in Zakharov’s version, while in Gaidai he played the one-eyed chess player. Georgy Vitsin for Zakharov is a coffin master Bezenchuk, for Gaidai he is a fitter Mechnikov. Eduard Bredun, in Zakharov's version, appeared in the image of Alchen's relative, and in the film Gaidai played Pasha Emilievich. And finally, Yuri Medvedev for Zakharov is the chairman of the circulation commission, for Gaidai he is a theatergoer.

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"12 Chairs" - two films, two anniversaries. Alena BARMATOVA

Ippolit Matveevich Vorobyaninov was the district leader of the nobility (leader of the Comanches, as Bender puts it). He is portrayed in the novel not just as a rich man in tsarist times. Vorobyaninov was a man of outstanding wealth.

His income is described by the authors clearly and in detail: from his father he inherited a stable income of 20,000 rubles a year. Meeting his future lover Elena Bour at a charity ball, Vorobyaninov gives 100 rubles for a glass of champagne. When he breaks up with the same Elena Bour, he begins to pay her a maintenance of 3,600 rubles a year, and he perceives this financial burden painlessly.

Vorobyaninov does not fit into the rent he receives and begins to live off real estate and productive assets; in 1911 he was forced to marry an ugly (180, 90-60-90 - for that time it was just an ugly, lanky skeleton, as they say in the novel) girl with a large dowry. If we assume that by this time Vorobyaninov had lived for 18 years (from the moment he received the inheritance from his father) at least a third of his original wealth - and the landowner’s wealth was traditionally defined as 16 of his annual income - then he actually spent 26-27,000 rubles per year .

It was a lot of money. An income survey carried out in 1910 by the Ministry of Finance in preparation for the introduction of an income tax showed that there were only 12,100 households in the country with an income of over 20,000 rubles per year. Thus, Vorobyaninov was one of approximately one two thousandth (or rather, 1/2300) of the richest people in Russia.

If we assume that Vorobyaninov’s prototype was the Poltava cousin of the authors, then in the populous and fairly wealthy Poltava province there were only 211 people with an income of over 20,000 rubles a year.

To receive such an income, the landowner had to have at least 2,800-3,000 dessiatines (a dessiatine - 1.08 hectares) of convenient land, that is, to have an estate of 3,500-4,500 thousand dessiatines (in any estate there are various kinds of inconvenient, unprofitable lands). Thus, Ippolit Matveevich owned a plot of approximately 6x6 km - and this was subject to high efficiency of land use. To cultivate such a plot, if Vorobyaninov managed the farm himself, it would have been necessary to hire about 150 people and maintain about 150 horses.

By noble standards, this was a very large property - the average size of a noble landholding in 1905 was 488 acres. In European Russia in 1905 there were only 2,594 noble land holdings of 3,000 or more acres. In the Poltava province there were 34 such estates - 2-3 per county. It is not surprising that Vorobyaninov, who had no personal merits, continued to remain a star of district magnitude and was easily elected district leader of the nobility.

What did 20,000 rubles a year mean in that scale of income? The governor received 10,000, the vice-governor 6,000, the university professor 3,000 (they complained bitterly about such a salary), the judge of the district court 4,200, the zemstvo doctor - 1,200-1,800, the gymnasium teacher 1,200-2,000 (depending on income). Income ordinary people were completely different: average salary worker in 1913 was 264 rubles, a qualified machine operator in the capitals received 500-700 rubles, a weaver 180-200 rubles, a watchman or laborer 120-180 rubles. A clerk or clerk in a store received 600-900 rubles, a teacher primary school- 300-400 rubles.

In general, maintaining a typical middle-class lifestyle for a family man in the capitals required at least 3,000 rubles a year. What exactly was included in this concept? Rented apartment with central heating and electricity, with bedroom, children's room, living room, dining room, kitchen and maid's room, with bathroom and toilet; cook, maid and nanny; meals according to the lordly type, that is, lunch with 2-3 hot dishes; new, well-groomed clothes, decent furniture in the house; moving around the city in a cab; dacha in the suburbs, rented for the summer. With 3,000 rubles, the family could barely stay at this level, and only if there were 1-2 children: the apartment was on a non-prestigious street, on a high floor or with windows facing the courtyard, you had to save money to buy clothes or furniture, sometimes you had to travel without by cab, and by tram, etc. But an income of 5,000-6,000 thousand rubles a year already ensured a completely comfortable life (regardless of the number of children) and allowed me to sometimes go on vacation abroad.

From all of the above, it is clear that Vorobyaninov lost a lot, a lot, in 1917. If for Bender the treasures hidden in the chair are the path to unprecedented prosperity, then even their discovery will not be able to return Ippolit Matveyevich to his previous standard of living.

Second interesting topic— Vorobyaninov’s activities as leader of the nobility. County leaders of the nobility are a unique position. Leading the district nobility took almost no time from them, since the district nobility had very few common affairs.

But the elected (for 3 years) leader of the nobility was an unpaid volunteer official who performed the duties of the de facto head of the county administration free of charge (legally, county institutions did not constitute a single whole and did not have a chief). The leader presided over the district zemstvo assembly (this duty took up one or two weeks a year) and at the district congress (this was a commission that examined complaints against judicial and administrative decisions of zemstvo leaders), which met one week a month. The leader also supervised the activities of the county conscription presence, which carried out the annual conscription into the army, the county land management commission (oversaw the implementation of agrarian reform), and the county assessment commission (examined complaints about the valuation of property for taxation). The leader was also the organizer of elections in State Duma, leading election meetings.

All this suggests that a completely empty, idle and stupid person could not cope with this work. No matter how carelessly the leader treated his duties, they were in any case troublesome and required good knowledge of numerous laws and procedures, the ability to manage processes and establish relationships with many people. Thus, Vorobyaninov’s timidity and dullness are explained only by the somewhat libelous nature of the famous novel. The real leaders of the nobility were efficient and intelligent people.