The author of the catchphrase shoe a flea. “Shoe a flea”: the meaning and origin of a phraseological unit. Unique Russian electrician

Few people know that the person who shoed the flea is no longer alive.
There is very little information on the Internet about this artist.
Unjustly little has been said about his death.
Camel caravan
In the eye of a needle
Height 0.25-0.20 mm. Gold 999.9 purity

Irina, the artist’s widow: “My beloved husband Nikolai Sergeevich Aldunin died on September 9, 2009 due to a coincidence of circumstances associated mainly with the unprofessionalism and carelessness of medical workers (I won’t say which ones and in which institutions). He was only 53 years old. he could have created many more amazing works. But, in addition to personal grief, I am very upset that all those who were interested in him during his lifetime (journalists, colleagues, friends, etc.) very quickly forgot about him, many do not even know, that he is no more...."

Tula samovar
Tula samovar
Height - 1.2 mm. Made from 12 parts

Master of microminiature Aldunin Nikolai Sergeevich was born on September 1, 1956 in the village of South Lamovatka, Voroshilovgrad region. Of all the natural and artificial materials, since childhood I fell in love with metals and metal products. Working as a mechanic and then as a turner at industrial enterprises, I learned all the secrets of metalworking. With some kind of inner instinct, he immediately unmistakably selected the metal cutting mode, this made it possible to increase the number of products, increasing their quality.

A.S. Pushkin
Portrait on a grain of rice
Height 1 mm

Nikolai considered the existing “metal technology” to be imperfect. About fifteen years ago he came up with the idea of ​​shoeing a flea. I wanted to prove that it was not in vain that N. Leskov sang and glorified the Tula Masters throughout the world. I prepared for two years, and then sat down at the microscope. Three months later, when I finished the work, I realized that I had “found myself” in the existing “metal technology” Nikolai considered imperfect. About fifteen years ago he came up with the idea of ​​shoeing a flea. I wanted to prove that it was not in vain that N. Leskov sang and glorified the Tula Masters throughout the world. I prepared for two years, and then sat down at the microscope. Three months later, when I finished the work, I realized that I had “found myself” in the existing “metal technology” Nikolai considered imperfect. About fifteen years ago he came up with the idea of ​​shoeing a flea. I wanted to prove that it was not in vain that N. Leskov sang and glorified the Tula Masters throughout the world. I prepared for two years, and then sat down at the microscope. Three months later, when I finished the work, I realized that I had “found myself” in the existing “metal technology” Nikolai considered imperfect. About fifteen years ago he came up with the idea of ​​shoeing a flea. I wanted to prove that it was not in vain that N. Leskov sang and glorified the Tula Masters throughout the world. I prepared for two years, and then sat down at the microscope. Three months later, when I finished the work, I realized that I had “found myself” in a microminiature. He quit his job and decided to seriously take up this very difficult and interesting craft. Nikolai believed that a person’s achievement of goals in life depends on desire: the higher the goal, the greater the desire should be.

Russian ruble
Diameter - 0.88 mm
Material - 999.9 gold

Work on the flea began with the preparation of a micrometric instrument. One cutter, 2 microns thick, was sharpened for 6 - 7 hours in a row. His wife Irina goes to bed, he sits sharpening. He wakes up and sharpens. What did you sharpen it on? This is already the master's secret. Diamond paste of 3 - 5 microns turned out to be rough. I was looking for my compositions. Worked at night. He tied a scarf around his head and put on cotton clothes. Microminiatures are very sensitive to static electricity that artificial fabrics accumulate. You barely touch them with a charged cutter - she, as if alive, jumps somewhere to the side. Having put on his clothes, Aldunin sat in the kitchen and waited motionless for a couple of hours for the dust to settle. And only then did he start working. For three months he sharpened horseshoes, forged nails and shod flea legs. And when I hammered in the last nail, I slept for almost a week.

Savvy flea
With saddle and stirrups

This is what the master himself said about his flea: “Their legs are empty on the inside and hairy on the outside. I waxed my paws, trimmed my nails, gave them a pedicure, so to speak, and then just started shoeing. I calculated that two and a half thousand pieces could fit on one match head of these horseshoes.” At the very tips of four of the six flea legs sparkle golden horseshoes. Each contains three carnations. One Aldunin flea horseshoe weighs 0.00000004419 grams. One gram of gold will yield 22,629,544 horseshoes. That is, you can shoe more than 5 million fleas. The width of each horseshoe is 40 microns, the length is 50, the diameter of the nail heads is 5 (there are 1000 microns in 1 millimeter).

May you live happily ever after
Rice grain
The height of the letters is 0.14 mm. Material: 999.9 standard gold.

“This is a brand for the Tula region,” says the microminiaturist. - And I was the first Tula resident, 150 years after the release of “Lefty” by Leskov, who shoed a flea. The flea had to come first. After all, if I was just doing microminiatures, the Tula people would not forgive me for this. And they kept asking: “When will you hook the flea?” And then I decided everything at once. So that there are no questions. And now I have a flea with a saddle and bridle, with a stirrup, everything is as it should be.

Three-line Mosin rifle
On a grain of rice
Length - 3 mm. Material: 999.9 standard gold

Aldunin's shod flea, together with a microscopic Mosin rifle, located on a grain of rice (the length with the bayonet is less than 3 mm, there is a moving bolt!), is included in the exhibition of the Tula Museum of Weapons.

Tank T34/85
Located on the longitudinal section of an apple grain
Case length - 2 mm. Number of parts - 257. Material - 999.9 gold

The microminiaturist considers the T34/85 tank to be his most difficult job. Case length - 2 mm. The microminiature is located on a longitudinal section of an apple grain. “I made the tank for six months for the 60th anniversary of the Victory. I almost never left the house, only going to the store for food. In general, during serious work I try not to appear on the street so as not to gain negative emotions. I generally love military themes, and I made this tank with the meticulousness of a true fan of military equipment,” says Nikolai Sergeevich. “Assembled from 257 separate parts!”

Ostankino Tower
Located on apple grain
Height - 6.3 mm. Material - 999.9 gold

On the eve of the 40th anniversary of the Ostankino TV tower, a craftsman made an exact copy of it, only 850 thousand times smaller. On it, through a microscope, all the antennas, satellite dishes and even the Seventh Heaven restaurant are clearly visible.
According to Nikolai, representatives of political circles and show business often approached him - they ordered gifts, for example, a portrait of a famous singer on a grain of rice or a savvy flea for a politician.

N.V.Gogol
Portrait on a grain of rice

The craftsman completed about a hundred works. Nikolai Aldunin performed all masterpieces from pure 999.9 gold. According to him, this was dictated by severe necessity, because a microscopic part made of any other metal could become rusty before our eyes.

Bike
Located on the sewing needle
Length - 2 mm.

Legends have already begun to circulate about the master of microminiatures Aldunin, this is what we read in one of the blogs: in order to achieve ideal hand movements, Nikolai learned to play more than 20 stringed musical instruments. Thanks to this, he can create such amazing things.

L.N. Tolstoy
Portrait on a grain of rice

On September 1, Nikolai Aldunin, a talented master, celebrated his 53rd birthday in the hospital. He spent 2 months in the hospital at the Vishnevsky Institute with complications after the operation. He had chronic pancreatitis. On September 9, Nikolai suffered severe internal bleeding, which he could not bear. He left as he lived, struggling and fiercely snatching each new day from a serious illness. “I don’t pray, but only ask God to give me a little time to finish what I didn’t have time to do,” he told his friend Alexander Bogatyrev, saying goodbye, on May 19 in Moscow. And the microminiaturist had many plans and new unique ideas...

AKM-47 assault rifle
Located across the match
Length - 1.625 mm. Consists of 34 parts. Material - 585 and 999.9 gold. Manufacturing time - 6 months.

“In the near future, I am going to start creating a new work - a 15 cm long Mercedes made of gold, silver and platinum,” Nikolai Sergeevich planned. - Moreover, it will contain parts of a real car. I will pay special attention to the instrument panel: all the arrows, numbers, buttons...” There was an idea to forge a flea out of metal. And so that she would throw a square dance like Leskov’s to the music “Tula has been forging weapons for centuries.” It's a pity that his plans were not destined to come true.

According to his deep conviction, the philosophy and psychology of the skill of performing miniature masterpieces cannot be taught. He constantly emphasized: “I am not an artist!” At the same time, Nikolai Aldunin put the grace and beauty of the execution of his idea in the first place in his work. But, probably, Nikolai’s most important secret was that he sat down to work only in a good mood, in a state of harmony and love for himself and the world, besides what had to be done.

Interview with the master of microminiatures in 2002, the first milestone has been taken - the flea has been savvy...

Rus' is famous for its craftsmen who will not break the price for their skill. They can even give you a miracle made with your own hands. They will pore over their work, forgetting about everything. And therefore only in our country could this phrase appear.

The origin of the phraseological unit “shoe a flea”

Even before N.S. Leskov wrote about his Lefty at the end of the nineteenth century, there was a saying among the people. It was about how Tula craftsmen were able to shoe an English steel flea, which wiped the noses of the local craftsmen.

Disregard for the quality of work of domestic craftsmen caused justifiable indignation among the non-noble part of the people. Therefore, tales were told about how a Russian peasant (soldier, artisan or simple peasant) did something better than a foreign specialist.

Nikolai Semenovich picked up the sentence and created his famous tale about Lefty on its basis. He himself said that this story was born among gunsmiths. It is only unknown in which city - Tula or Sestroretsk, since he recorded it in Sestroretsk from a gunsmith who came from Tula.

After the publication of the tale about Lefty, the expression “to shoe a flea” conquered the country and began to be used in a figurative meaning. For example, they might say about a good car mechanic: “He can not only fix a car, he can shoe a flea.” This means that there is nothing beyond the control of such a person in the profession.

Lefty shoed a flea

In Leskov's story, Lefty advises the sovereign to take a small scope, which magnifies five million times. This is the only way to notice the name of the master on the flea’s horseshoes. Lefty himself forged nails, which are not visible under any microscope. When asked how they worked without a microscope, he answered simply: “We have our eyes so focused.”

Leskov calls this “artistic prowess,” admitting in the twentieth chapter of the tale that he took the plot from a folk epic with a “human soul.” He speaks sadly about machines that have become widely used in production and have replaced the highlight of the craftsman - making the impossible possible.

It is no coincidence that Lefty dies from inattention and neglect after returning to his homeland. The arbitrariness of officials and the too cheap value of the lives of ordinary people is the scourge of Russia. Even Platov, the former sovereign’s assistant, who personally brought Lefty to St. Petersburg, did not help.

Many inventions left the country, embodied in patents abroad. Physics teachers have a saying: “If you teach a child, he will know physics well. And if you help him learn the laws himself, you’ll get a genius.” The same can be said about Lefty.

There is another, sad meaning of the expression “to shoe a flea.” The meaning of a phraseological unit is to do something brilliantly, but not receive recognition for it.

Unique Russian electrician

Originally from the village of Elkino, near Sverdlovsk, there was a master of miniatures, Alexander Matveevich Sysolyatin. He worked as an electrician. He made the finest surgical micro-instruments.

His miniatures were given to high-ranking foreign guests as a confirmation of Russian character. The master himself did not receive anything from his hobby, he did the work from the heart and gave with all his heart. It is known that he gave Mikhail Botvinnik a tiny chess table the size of a penny with a real chessboard and pieces on it.

He received the title of Lefty for a flea, which he made life-size with a motor inside. The flea could jump 20 times. He did not let the expression “shoe a flea” be forgotten; it acquired a new literal meaning. And it has again become relevant to call folk craftsmen “left-handed.”

Andulin could shoe a flea

Master Andulin, who also lived in Tula, like Lefty, was able to shoe a real flea. He quit his job when he became interested in miniature mechanisms. He worked using a microscope. He did amazing things: he placed many small camels that go to the palm trees to drink in the eye of a needle. He painted portraits on grains of rice.

But all my friends pestered me with one single question: when will you catch a flea? And then Nikolai Sergeevich got down to business. He made small golden horseshoes, tiny nails (they are almost invisible, they are only distinguishable by their shine), and, like Lefty, he shoed a flea. And he not only shoed her, but also put a saddle on her.

Recognition of masters

There are two monuments that immortalize Lefty. Of course, one of them is in the Urals, and the other is in Tula. But there are countless unknown craftsmen scattered across Russia. Stories are told about them to this day. One of them is known: a mirror device in the mine broke down at a drilling rig. It cost a lot of money. But there was one Uncle Vasya there (his real name has sunk into oblivion), he drank two glasses so that his hands would not shake, and manually soldered a metal mirror.

They lowered him into the mine, hoping for almost nothing. And he made such a seam that it cannot be distinguished with the naked eye. So much for Lefty! Unfortunately, the country still does not know the names of its heroes. This is probably in the Russian character: yes, I did it, but what? Let us be more attentive to our dear left-handers.

Shoe a flea

Shoe a flea
The original source is a Russian folk saying: “The British made a flea out of steel, and our Tula blacksmiths shod it and sent it back to them.” The writer Nikolai Semenovich Leskov (1831 - 1895) based this proverb on his story “Lefty” (1881). After this, the expression became popular.
Allegorically: the highest degree of ingenuity, talent, skill.

Encyclopedic Dictionary of winged words and expressions. - M.: “Locked-Press”. Vadim Serov. 2003.

Shoe a flea

This expression means: To show extraordinary ingenuity in some matter, skill, fine craftsmanship - gained popularity after the appearance of N.S.’s story. Leskov “Lefty” (1881), which was created on the basis of a folk joke: The British made a flea out of steel, and our Tula people shod it and sent it back to them.”

Dictionary of catch words. Plutex. 2004.

See what “to shoe a flea” is in other dictionaries:

Shoe a flea- wing. sl. This expression means: to show extraordinary ingenuity in some matter, skill, fine craftsmanship gained popularity after the appearance of N. S. Leskov’s story “Lefty” (1881), which was created on the basis of a folk joke: The English... ... Universal additional practical explanatory dictionary by I. Mostitsky

shoe a flea- Masterfully cope with very delicate and complex work... Dictionary of many expressions

Razg. Discover amazing ingenuity, invention in what form. in fact. BTS, 85; ZS 2001, 413. /i> The expression arose on the basis of the story “Lefty” by N. S. Leskov. BMS 1998, 49 ... Large dictionary of Russian sayings

Winged words- stable, aphoristic, usually figurative expressions that have come into general use from or on the basis of a certain folklore, literary, journalistic or scientific source (apt sayings of outstanding public figures,... ... Pedagogical speech science

The hero of N.S. Leskov’s story “Lefty” (1881, first publication entitled “The Tale of the Tula Oblique Lefty and the Steel Flea (guild legend)”). A work created in the spirit of lubok is usually called a hymn to the talent of the Russian people, personified in ... Literary heroes

Books

• Lefty, N. S. Leskov. The story "Lefty" is one of the most famous and striking works of the writer. This is the story of the Tula gunsmith Lefty, who managed to forge a steel flea made by English craftsmen.…

The main character demonstrates such qualities as directness of character, simplicity and love for work. Being a skilled gunsmith, the hero arouses admiration for his skill in St. Petersburg and London. However, ranks and awards are of no interest to the character - a skilled craftsman is only interested in the professional sphere. Lefty demonstrates this even when he is on the verge of death.

History of character creation

In 1881, a story entitled “The Tale of the Tula Oblique Lefty and the Steel Flea” was published on the pages of the magazine “Rus”, the main idea of ​​which was set out by the author in the preface. Nikolai Leskov wrote that the work depicts the struggle of Russian masters with English ones. In this “battle”, Russian craftsmen showed their talent and “the British were completely shamed and humiliated.” Also in the preface to the story, the writer emphasizes that he wrote down this story from the words of an old Sestroretsk gunsmith who once worked in Tula.

Subsequently, the Russian classic had to remove the introductory part from the text. Critics and readers took information about the story of the master from Sestroretsk literally and accused him of simply retelling a forgotten fairy tale. In fact, the story about Lefty was written by Leskov himself. The description of the hero emphasizes folk features: “there is a birthmark on his cheek, and the hair on his temples was torn out during training.” The master's characteristics and image have occupied a special place in the history of Russian literature.

A possible prototype for the main character was the artisan Alexey Mikhailovich Surnin. The man lived for two years in England, where he was trained at a factory. After returning, Surnin trained Russian craftsmen and developed new tools for working with metals. Over time, the name of the main character acquired a household meaning. Phrases from the characters in the story have become popular quotes.

Biography and image of Lefty

The action takes place in 1815. It is reported that the emperor visited England as part of a trip to European countries and saw there many amazing things created by local craftsmen. The ruler especially liked the British’s mechanical flea, made of steel, which could “dance.”

Lefty, illustration by Victor Britvin | R-book.club

A few years after Alexander’s death, when Alexander ascended the throne, a steel item was discovered in the deceased’s belongings. The courtiers could not understand what the function of this miniature was, and they invited the Don Cossack Platov, who accompanied Alexander I on a tour of Europe, to explain. The Cossack told what kind of amazing device the late emperor had purchased, pointing out that it was the work of skilled English mechanics. And he immediately noted that the masters in Russia are no less talented.

After this story, Emperor Nikolai Pavlovich sent Platov to the Don on a diplomatic visit, and at the same time instructed him to go to Tula, meet the local gunsmiths and give them a flea to familiarize themselves with - so that they could then come up with something with the thing that would surpass the work of the British. In Tula, the Cossack found three experienced gunsmiths, among whom was a craftsman nicknamed Lefty. Having given the craftsmen a task, Platov left for the Don, and returned 2 weeks later.

During this time, 3 masters went to pray and began to think about the work. Seeing as time passed that no dramatic changes had occurred with the flea, the Cossack flared up, believing that the Tula gunsmiths had deceived him. Taking Lefty with him, the diplomat went back to St. Petersburg. Platov wanted the master to report to the emperor himself that Russian artisans could not come up with anything new.

At an audience with the Tsar, the Cossack admitted that he had not fulfilled his instructions and had brought one of the deceivers from Tula. Nikolai Pavlovich decided to personally talk with the would-be master. Once in the royal chambers, Lefty, who was not used to talking with such high-ranking officials, explained to the sovereign the masters' idea in popular terms. Only under a microscope could one see what the Tula craftsmen came up with.

The men shoed the flea and engraved their own names on the horseshoes. Lefty's name was not listed there. The hero did the most delicate work - he forged nails for horseshoes. The Russian court unanimously recognized that the master had golden hands. To wipe the noses of the British, the sovereign decides to send the savvy flea back and, along with an unusual gift, send Lefty abroad. Thus, an unexpected turn occurs in the biography of a simple Tula blacksmith.

Having washed the village peasant and given the hero a more decent appearance, Platov sends Lefty abroad. In London, where the Russian delegation soon arrived, the skilled craftsman was considered an unprecedented miracle. Local blacksmiths and other artisans asked the brave hero questions about his education and experience. The left-hander admitted without hesitation that he did not even know the basics of arithmetic. Impressed by the talents of a simple Russian peasant, the British tried to lure the master to their side.

In 1986, based on Leskov’s story, the film “Lefty” was shot. The filming process took a long time, and the largest scenes were filmed in the Great Palace of Gatchina. The role of the artisan was played by Nikolai Stotsky. In 2013, the story about a skilled craftsman served as the basis for an opera work. The music for “Lefty” was composed by. The main character's part was written specifically for a tenor.

Quotes

And because,” he says, “I worked smaller than these horseshoes: I forged the nails with which the horseshoes are hammered - no small scope can take them there anymore.”

We are poor people and due to our poverty we do not have a small scope, but our eyes are so focused.

Bibliography

• 1881 - “Lefty”

Filmography

• 1964 - “Lefty”
• 1986 - “Lefty”