Barmalei Postage Stamp

Doctor Aybolit (russian: Доктор Айболит, ''Doktor Aibolit'') is a fictional character from the children's poems ''Aybolit'' (1929) and ''Barmaley'' (1925) by Korney Chukovsky, as well as from the children's fantastic novella ''Doctor Aybolit'' (1925) by the same author. The name may be translated as "Ouch, thurts!"

The origins of ''Aybolit'' can be traced to Hugh Lofting's 1920 character Doctor Dolittle. Like '' Buratino'' by Aleksey Tolstoy or ''The Wizard of the Emerald City'' by Alexander Volkov, ''Doctor Aybolit'' stems from a loose adaptation by a Russian author of a foreign book. For example, the adaptation includes a Pushmi-pullyu, (tyani-tolkay) in Russian. The prose adaptation always credited Lofting in the subtitle, while the Aybolit poems are original works.

The character became a recognizable feature of Russian culture. The poems found their following in the films ''Doktor Aybolit'' (black and white, 1938), ''Aybolit 66'' ( Mosfilm, 1967, English title: ''Oh How It Hurts 66''), and ''Doctor Aybolit'' (animated film, Kievnauchfilm, 1985). The doctor's appearance and name appear in brand names, logos, and slogans of various medical establishments, candies, etc.

Aybolit's antagonist, the evil pirate Barmaley, became an archetypal villain in Russian culture. Barmaley debuted in Chukovsky's book ''Barmaley'' in 1925, 13 years before the first film appearance of Aybolit.

The poems ''Aybolit'' and ''Barmaley'' generated a number of Russian catchphrases such as "Nu spasibo tebe, Aybolit!" (''Thanks to you, Aybolit''), "Ne hodite, deti, v Afriku gulyat" (''Children, don't go to Africa for a stroll''). They were also the inspiration for the Barmaley Fountain in Stalingrad.

In 1967 Richard N. Coe published a loose English adaptation in verse entitled ''Doctor Concocter''.A review of ''Doctor Concocter''
'' The Spectator'', 1967, v. 219, p. 540 It starts: "Doctor Concocter sits under a tree, He's ever so clever, he has a degree!"

A living prototype of the character was Chukovsky's acquaintance, the Vilnian Jewish doctor Zemach Shabad (1864–1935), to whom a monument was dedicated in Vilnius on 16 May 2007. In Lithuanian language, Doctor Aybolit is called ''Daktaras Aiskauda''.

References

Bibliography

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* . Extracts of ''Aybolit'' and ''Barmaley'

https://archive.today/20070423070235/http://www.litera.ru/stixiya/authors/chukovskij/i-malenkie-deti.html]

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Fictional physicians
Characters in children's literature
Works by Korney Chukovsky
Russian poems
Children's poetry
Characters in poems
Literary characters introduced in 1929
1929 poems
1929 in Russia
Russian children's literature
Children's novellas
Fictional Soviet people