Ilya Ilf

Ilya Ilf, pseudonym of Iehiel-Leyb Arnoldovich Faynzilberg (Russian: Иехи́ел-Лейб Арьевич Фа́йнзильберг) (15 October [O.S. 3 October] 1897 in Odessa – 13 April 1937, Moscow), was a popular Soviet journalist and writer of Jewish origin who usually worked in collaboration with Yevgeni Petrov during the 1920s and 1930s. Their duo was known simply as Ilf and Petrov. Together they published two popular comedy novels The Twelve Chairs (1928) and The Little Golden Calf (1931), as well as a satirical book Odnoetazhnaya Amerika (often translated as Little Golden America) that documented their journey through the United States between 1935 and 1936.