Hole of a bublik

Hole of a bublik (Hole of a bagel, _ru. Дырка от бублика) is a Soviet/Russian phraseology expression for "nothing" or "zero" ("nil").

It's thought that the first author of this expression was Vladimir Mayakovskiy, a Russian poet. He used it in his play "Mystery Bouffe" (Misteriya-Buff, _ru. Мистерия-Буфф), where he criticized bourgeois democracy. The phrase was as follows:

Somebody got a bublik and somebody got a hole of a bublik. So that is to be a democratic republic.

Compare to the latin "aut Caesar aut nihil" (aut bene aut nihil, "All or Nothing").

Usage in culture

* In the a 1979 Soviet film The Meeting Place Cannot Be Changed Gleb Zheglov says in an angry voice: "You'll get a hole of a bublik, but not Sharapov."