Agnia Lvovna Barto, nee Volova, was born on February 4, 1901 (old style) in Kovno in a family of educated Jews. Her father, Lev Nikolaevich Volov (1875-1924), was a veterinarian and came from Shavley. His mother, Maria Ilyinichna Volova (nee Bloch; 1881-1959), was a homemaker. Their marriage was concluded on February 16, 1900 in Kovno. Agnia had a mother's brother, Grigory Ilyich Bloch (1871-1938), a well-known otorhinolaryngologist and phthisiologist, who from 1924 to 1936 headed the throat clinic of the Institute of Tuberculosis Climatology in Yalta, and also wrote children's poems.
After graduating from university in 1895, Agniya's father worked as a veterinarian in Tara, Tobolsk province, until 1902. In 1902, the family moved to Moscow, where they first lived in Korovin's house on Dolgorukovskaya Street, and then in Muratov's house on Sadovaya-Triumfalnaya Street (since 1903), Borodin's house on Sadovaya-Karetnaya Street (1904-1911), and finally, in 1912, settled on Malaya Nikitskaya Street, No. 15. where they remained in the 1920s (apartment 25).
Agnia was educated at the gymnasium and at the same time attended the Lydia Nelidova Ballet School. After graduating from the choreographic college in 1924, she joined the ballet company, where she worked for about a year.
In 1926, Agnia married the poet Pavel Barto and moved into an apartment on Vorontsovo Pole, No. 42, sq. 15. Together they wrote three poems: "The Revushka Girl", "The Dirty Girl" and "The Counting Girl". In 1927, their son Edgar (Garik) was born, but the couple divorced six years later.
For the second time, Agnia married Andrey Vladimirovich Shcheglyaev, a thermal power engineer and corresponding member of the USSR Academy of Sciences. They had a daughter, Tatiana Andreevna Shcheglyaeva, Candidate of Technical Sciences (born 1933).
During the Great Patriotic War, Agnia and her family were evacuated to Sverdlovsk, where she had to learn the profession of a turner. She donated the prize she received during the war to the construction of a tank. In 1944, they returned to Moscow. The tragedy occurred in 1945, when their son Garik died at the age of 18 after being hit by a truck while cycling in Lavrushinsky Lane.
Agnia Barto died on April 1, 1981 and was buried at the Novodevichy Cemetery in Moscow (plot No. 3).
