Ilya Ilf (Ilya Arnoldovich Feinsilberg or Russian: Илья Арнольдович Файнзильберг, 1897–1937) and Yevgeny Petrov (Yevgeniy Petrovich Katayev or Russian: Евгений Петрович Катаев, 1902–1942) were two Soviet prose authors of the 1920s and 1930s. They did much of their writing together, and are almost always referred to as "Ilf and Petrov". They were natives of Odessa. The duo were arguably the most popular satirical writers in the Soviet period. representatives of the "Odessa School" of humorist writers, and some of the very prominent, mostly Jewish odessit (Odessa native) cultural figures along with Isaac Babel and Leonid Utesov, who moved to work in the Soviet capital after the abolition of restrictions on Jewish residence in the Pale of Settlement. Source: Wikipedia (en)