Barmaley Fountain

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The Barmaleï was a fountain donated by Ghana to the city of Stalingrad and installed in front of the Museum of Defense of Tsaritsyn-Stalingrad. The statue represented a circle of six children, dancing around a crocodile. It was made famous by several photographs that juxtaposed the carnage of the Battle of Stalingrad with the banality of children at play.

The allegory of the statue was derived from a poem about Doctor Aybolit written by Korney Chukovsky:

Little children! / For nothing in the world / Do not go to Africa / Do not walk to Africa / In Africa, there are sharks, / In Africa, there are gorillas, / In Africa, there are large evil crocodiles / They will bite you, / You do not walk, children, / In Africa, there are robbers, / In Africa, there are villains, / In Africa, there is the terrible Bar-may-lay!

After the war, the fountain was restored but was later removed in the 1950s. In the movies, the statue was prominently featured in Enemy at the Gates and V for Vendetta.

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• Pictures Note: This link is no longer valid.