«Monuments» to Ostap Bender and Kisa Vorobyaninov (bronze in appearance, but actually plaster) appeared in Odessa City Garden recently.
They were put up by the owners of the restaurant «Pecheskago», attracting visitors, and they did not fail — there are always a lot of people willing to be photographed near Kisa, standing with his hat in his outstretched hand.
So, the advertising works, Odessa brand once again proves its popularity — and who would have doubted? Ostap Bender, standing opposite Kisa and as if controlling the proceeds, of course, does not go unnoticed either. The author of the sculptures, Sergei Tolkeev, depicted the «son of a Turkish subject» in a resolute but waiting pose.
It is known that the Odessians Ilf and Petrov invented the image of the great combinator Ostap Bender, based on another real Odessian, Osip Shore. Osya was famous for his inexhaustible sense of humor and storytelling skills, witty inventions and adventurous exploits. The Shor family lived on Kanatnaya Street.
Shor studied in the men’s gymnasium Iliadi, in «The Golden Calf» mentions the study of Ostap Bender in the same gymnasium. Osip traveled to the province under the guise of a famous grandmaster and a popular artist, married a rich widow for the sake of money — the same feats repeated by Bender in «The Twelve Chairs». Shor called himself «the son of a Turkish subject» in order not to get into the army — and that, too, was included in the book. So Ostap can be safely called an Odessian, and as such he has every right to be in the City Garden.
As for Ippolit Matveyevich (Kisa) Vorobyaninov, he, as is known, was a former leader of the nobility from Stargorod, and also a registrar of the registry office of the district town N. The episode with Kisa’s begging («Je ne mange pas sis jure. Give a hand to the former deputy of the State Duma») refers to Bender’s stay with his companion in Pyatigorsk.
But do not pay attention to such geographical subtleties — after all Vorobyaninov is such a vivid character and fits perfectly into the tourist landscape of the center of Odessa. Again, literally 100 meters away from him, here in Gorsad — monument to the very coveted Chair with Madame Petukhova’s jewels.
On the other hand, it would be more logical to have statues of his other accomplices — Shura Balaganov and Panikovsky from The Golden Calf — next to Ostap. After all, it is in Odessa where the action of the novel takes place (only there it is called Chernomorskoye). 
Near this very City Garden, the swindler Panikovsky was beaten, caught sham blind.
Opposite the Gorsad is the Bolshaya Moskovskaya Hotel (now the reconstruction is finishing there). In the novel Ilf and Petrov placed there the office «Hercules», where the underground millionaire Koreiko worked, from whom Ostap pulled out his million («An idiot’s dream has come true!»). In general, Panikovsky would have been in his place (and with a goose, of course).
And as the administration of the restaurant assures — the goosekrad and «the man without a passport» has a chance to join other characters of Ilf and Petrov in Gorsad. Well, there must be a lot of good people, albeit plaster ones.