Saratov Administration Building

The building, which currently houses the Saratov city administration, was built in 1867 by the merchant I. G. Kuznetsov and was used as a tenement house. On the first floor of the apartment building, the premises were rented by different shops, and on the second and third floors since 1874 there were rooms of the European Hotel, which in 1878 was called Tatarskaya. In the period 1907-1914. the hotel premises were rented by the 2nd Ministerial Gymnasium A. D. Kufeld.

The largest tenant of the retail space of the apartment building was businessman F. Sorokin. His business was bought by the merchant of the first guild A.I. Bender, who in 1911 acquired this house as well. Therefore, the second name of this building is “Bender Trading House”, which is reminded by a sign on the wall. By order of A. I. Bender, the architect V.K. Karpenko reconstructed the building, after which it acquired its current form. The facade of the building was decorated according to the project of the sculptor N. Volkonsky, and V.K. Fedorov created the famous lion sculpture on a globe wrapped in a sarpinka , personifying the financial empire of the merchant ("Andrei Bender and Sons").

After the October Revolution, the apartment building was confiscated and nationalized. In the 1920s the hostel was located in the building, and since the 1930s. it was transferred to state institutions: the Council of People's Deputies and the Executive Committee of the City Council. Now in this building is the city administration of Saratov.

There was a legend about Andrei Ivanovich Bender: he came to Saratov from Balcer ( Krasnoarmeysk ) at the age of 28 and he already had the initial capital. It is not known for certain where he came from, but according to legend, Andrei Ivanovich used to be an employee before the final move to Saratov. He was instructed to transfer a certain amount of money from Balcer to Saratov. A week later, Bender returned home and said that he could not withdraw the money, since he was attacked on the way. The most interesting thing is that for some reason no checks of this fact have been carried out.

Some researchers of the works of Ilf and Petrov believe that on the basis of these legends a surname was born of their most famous character. Ilya Ilf visited Saratov in early August 1925. As a journalist for the Gudok newspaper, he covered the circulation of the fourth peasant winning loan, which was carried out on the Herzen campaign boat, and traveled to many cities of the Volga region, including Saratov ^[1] .

• Trading House A. Bender (City Council) (Russian) . Chronicle of the Saratov province. Date of treatment January 6, 2015.
• I. Kozlovsky. City Administration (Russian) . Big Saratov Encyclopedia. Date of appeal May 27, 2015.