Moydodyr is a 1923 poem for children by Korney Chukovsky

Korney Chukovsky

Korney Ivanovich Chukovsky was one of the most popular children's poets in the Russian language. His poems, Doctor Aybolit , The Giant Roach , The Crocodile , and Wash'em'clean have been favourites with many generations of Russophone children...

 about a magical creature by the same name. The name may be literally be translated as "Wash'em'clean", or "Clean 'til Holes".

The poem is about a small boy who does not want to wash. He gets so dirty that all his toys, clothes and other possessions decide to magically leave him. Suddenly, from the boy's mother's bedroom appears Moydodyr—an anthropomorphic washstand. He claims to have powers over all washstands, soap bars, and sponges. He scolds the boy and calls his soap bars and sponges to wash him. The boy tries to run away, chased by a vicious sponge. The chase is described as happening on Petrograd

Saint Petersburg

Saint Petersburg is a city and a federal subject of Russia located on the Neva River at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea...

 streets. Finally they meet another recurring character from Chukovsky's books—the Crocodile. The Crocodile swallows the sponge and becomes angry with the boy for being so dirty. Scared by the Crocodile, the boy goes back to Moydodyr and takes a bath. The poem ends with a moralistic note to children on the virtue of hygiene

Hygiene

Hygiene refers to the set of practices perceived by a community to be associated with the preservation of health and healthy living. While in modern medical sciences there is a set of standards of hygiene recommended for different situations, what is considered hygienic or not can vary between...

.

Moydodyr character became a symbol of cleanliness in Russia and is often used to advertise detergents and other products.

External links

• Nikolay Kalashnikov. Two Moydodyrs. On the 1939 and 1954 cartoons "Moydodyr" drawn by same artist Ivan Ivanov-Vano
  Ivan Ivanov-Vano
  Ivan Pyetrovich Ivanov-Vano was a Soviet animator and Russian animation director, sometimes called the "Patriarch of Soviet animation"....
  
  . Part 1, part 2.