Hole of a bublik

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Hole of a bublik (Hole of a bagel, Russian: 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, Russian: 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).

[edit] 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.