Mar’yanenka Lane in Kharkiv was established in 1972 on the site of the former Proviantsky Lane. It was named in honor of the outstanding actor and director Ivan Maryanenko.

In pre-Soviet times, he performed at Sadovsky’s First Ukrainian Theater in Kyiv, and beginning in 1923, he began performing at Les Kurbas’s “Berezil” Theater. The experimental “Berezil” was transformed into the Kharkiv Ukrainian Drama Theatre, where Maryanenko performed until 1958.

As is well known, the other characters were also based on other actors from “Berezil” theatre.

Maryanenko tried unsuccessfully to save Kurbas, who had been persecuted and was ultimately executed in 1937 during the Great Purge.