Where and how was Barmaley born?

Many remember Korney Chukovsky’s children’s tale about the evil robber Barmaley, who lurks in Africa for naughty children, fights with Aibolit, and as punishment for his mischief ends up inside a crocodile’s belly. However, few know where the name of Barmaleeva Street on the Petrograd side came from: whether the villain contributed to it, or some other fantastic and grotesque character. Since then, people arriving in the city on the Neva’s banks, upon seeing Barmaleeva Street, ask if Barmaley lived there? Indeed, he did.

It turns out the street got its name in the second half of the 18th century from the surname of a wealthy Petersburg homeowner; before that, on maps, it was called Perednyaya Matveevskaya (after the nearby Church of Saint Apostle Matthias).

Now in more detail. According to one official version, during the reign of Catherine II, the merchant Barmaleev kept warehouses here. Another legend says the street was named after another character, whose presence in these parts is confirmed by address books of that time. Where now stands house No. 5, built in the early 20th century by the design of Herman Grimm (a namesake of the storytellers), at the end of the 18th century there was another house belonging to the Department of Institutions of Empress Maria Feodorovna. It was there that he lived. Not Barmaley, but Barmaleev. Andrey Ivanovich. Chief police ensign. He lived here in his own house with his wife Agrippina Ivanovna and children Vasily, Ivan, and Anisya, who were surely frightened for their misbehavior, if not by walks in Africa, then by something similar.

The literary character appeared much later than the day the street was laid out, in the 1920s. Lev Uspensky wrote in his “Essays on Toponymy”:

As for the terrible villain Barmaley, I was fortunate in April 1966 to find out where and how he came to be, from the greatest authority on “Barmaley studies,” Korney Ivanovich Chukovsky himself. Many years ago, Korney Ivanovich was walking on the Petrograd side of our city (that’s his district) with the famous artist Mstislav Dobuzhinsky. They came out onto Barmaleeva Street.

— Who was this Barmaley, after whom an entire street was named? — Dobuzhinsky wondered.

— I, — said Korney Ivanovich, — started thinking. One of the 18th-century empresses might have had a doctor or perfumer, an Englishman or a Scotsman. He could have had the surname Bromley: Bromleys are not uncommon there. On this small street, he might have had a house. The street could have been called Bromleev Street, and then, when the name was forgotten, changed to Barmaleeva: it sounds better in Russian…

— But the artist did not agree with this guess. It seemed boring to him.

— Not true! — he said. — I know who Barmaley was. He was a terrible robber. This is what he looked like…

And on a sheet of his sketchbook, M. Dobuzhinsky sketched the fierce villain, bearded and mustached. Thus, the evil Barmaley was born on Barmaleeva Street. Chukovsky looked at the drawing, laughed heartily, and shortly after wrote the first fairy tale in verse about the fierce villain, pirate, and cannibal Barmaley.

So, an unremarkable street on the Petrograd side inspired the writer to one of the most famous and instructive children’s tales.

Sources:

https://dic.academic.ru/dic.nsf/enc_sp/169/%D0%91%D0%B0%D1%80%D0%BC%D0%B0%D0%BB%D0%B5%D0%B5%D0%B2%D0%B0

https://www.fiesta.ru/spb/live/nado-znat-v-chest-kogo-nazvana-barmaleeva-ulitsa/

https://monlib.ru/kak-rodilsya-barmalej/