Barmaley Fountain

The Barmaley was a fountain in the city of Stalingrad, installed in front of the Museum of Defense of Tsaritsyn. Its official name was Children's Khorovod. The statue was of a circle of six children dancing around a crocodile. It was made famous by several photographs by Emmanuil Evzerikhin that juxtaposed the carnage of the Battle of Stalingrad with the banality of children at play.^[1]

The fountain was restored after World War II, but was later removed in the 1950s. The statue featured prominently in Enemy at the Gates, and a similar statue was seen in V for Vendetta. It is also seen in the film A Clockwork Orange, in the documentary footage shown to the main character Alex as part of the sinister aversion therapy to "cure" him of "ultra-violence."

Name

The allegory of the monument was derived from the eponymous fairy tale poem written by Korney Chukovsky. Excerpt (literal translation):

Little children! / For nothing in the world / Do not go to Africa / Do not go to Africa for a walk! // In Africa, there are sharks, / In Africa, there are gorillas, / In Africa, there are large / Evil crocodiles / They will bite you, / Beat and offend you - // Don't you go, children, / to Africa for a walk / In Africa, there is a robber, / In Africa, there is a villain, / In Africa, there is terrible / Bahr-mah-ley! // He runs about Africa / And eats children - / Nasty, vicious, greedy Barmaley!

While being burned in fire by Barmaley, Doctor Aybolit asked a crocodile brought in by a gorilla to swallow up Barmaley, so that he could no longer harm little children. The crocodile did so, but Barmaley was later released after promising to change. Barmaley became nicer and proclaimed he would be kinder, that he now loved little children and would become a friendly baker.^{[citation needed]}

References

External links

• Pictures