The name of Yevgeny Petrov is usually coupled with the name of his coauthor Ilya Ilf. These two writers have already been long perceived as one author in consciousness of the majority of their readers and admirers.

Yevgeny Petrov (his real name was Yevgeny Petrovitch Katayev) was born on December 13, 1903. Though a sibling of the writer Valentin Katayev, Yevgeny had a talent of a publicist, rather than a writer. Before meeting his future coauthor Yevgeny Petrov at first worked as a correspondent of the Ukrainian cable agency, and subsequently as an inspector of the criminal investigation department.

Having moved to Moscow, Yevgeny became a contributor to the Krasny Perets (Red Pepper) magazine. Very quickly he found legs in the capital city of Russia, and became a brilliant organizer and feuilleton author in the editorial board. His contemporaries remember the young man as a person having unusual comic imagination. This is when his nickname Petrov, coming from his patronymic name, appeared.