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Lefty. The tale of the Tula oblique left-hander and the steel flea

Shoe a flea

Shoe a flea
The primary source is a Russian folk saying-jest: "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) put this proverb at the basis of his story "Lefty" (1881). After that, the expression became popular.
Allegorically: highest degree ingenuity, talent, skill.

encyclopedic Dictionary winged words and expressions. - M.: "Lokid-Press". Vadim Serov. 2003 .

Shoe a flea

This expression has the meaning: To show extraordinary invention in some business, skill, fine craftsmanship - gained wingedness after the appearance of the story of N.S. 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.

Dictionary of winged words. Plutex. 2004

See what "Shoe a Flea" is in other dictionaries:

Shoe a flea- wing. sl. This expression means: to show extraordinary invention in some business, skill, fine craftsmanship gained wingedness after the appearance of N. S. Leskov's story "Lefty" (1881), which was created on the basis of a folk joke: The English ... ... Universal optional practical Dictionary I. Mostitsky

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

Razg. To discover amazing ingenuity, fiction in what l. deed. BTS, 85; ZS 2001, 413. /i> The expression arose on the basis of the story “Lefty” by N. S. Leskov. BMS 1998, 49 ... Big Dictionary Russian sayings

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

The hero of N.S. Leskov's story "Lefty" (1881, the first publication under the title "The Tale of the Tula Oblique Lefty and steel flea(shop legend)"). A work created in the spirit of a popular print 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 bright works writer. This is a story about the Tula gunsmith Lefty, who managed to forge a steel flea made by English masters.…

Lefty - Russian miracle, Great master, the hero of the story of the same name by the 19th century writer Nikolai Leskov. This plot was used in many works of art: by artists, composers, and other writers. At the end of the 20th century, the composer Rodion Shchedrin's opera "Flea" based on the same plot was staged at the Mariinsky Theater.

Fiction and truth

Leskov's story, published in 1881, has the full title "The Tale of the Tula Oblique Lefty and the Steel Flea." The main event of the story is the Tula craftsman, nicknamed Lefty, shoeing a toy flea made by English craftsmen. England sends a "robot" as a gift to the Russian Tsar, a tiny metal flea that can dance when wound up. And Lefty makes the work even smaller, shoeing this very flea. Now the flea no longer dances... but the superiority of Russian miniature masters over foreign ones has been proven.

In reality, such historical fact, as a gift of a toy by England and its shoeing, did not exist, more precisely, it was not documented. However, over the course of centuries, master imitators of the literary hero did indeed appear in Russia.

Lefty prototype - Tula master

It is interesting, however, that there was a Russian master gunsmith from Tula named Surnin. He traveled to England "for training" like Lefty, but like the hero, he quickly showed his own skills. Surnin was taken as an assistant to the owner of the plant, Henry Knock. Surnin was in England a hundred years before the creation of "Lefty", what many forest experts consider to be his prototype of Lefty. Fortunately, although the fate of Surnin was happier than the fate of Lefty. A. M. Surnin returned to his native Tula, had a high position at the local arms factory and died in 1811 in honor and respect, having done a lot of good for the Russian arms industry, and introducing a number of English developments that played a big role in Russia's victory in Patriotic war 1812.

Nikolai Aldunin is a modern Russian Lefty

However, only in the 20th century did a person appear who really managed to shoe a flea. This is our contemporary Nikolai Sergeevich Aldunin, who died in 2009 and managed to create a whole museum "Russian Lefty". He shoed a real euthanized flea, cutting off its claws on tiny paws (after all, a flea is very uncomfortable and, so to speak, is not intended for shoeing). The horseshoes were gold, the nails on the horseshoes too, but it was all microscopic! From a gram of gold, you can make 20 million of these horseshoes, the master once shared in an interview.

Museum of microminiatures

Aldunin also created many more miniatures. Today he has followers. Of course, he worked, unlike literary character, and using a microscope (Leskovsky Lefty said that he had "a shot eye"). But how great is the diverse heritage of the master! This is a T-34 tank on an apple family, and a caravan of camels in the eye of a needle, and a rose in the hair ... All of them are exhibited in the mobile museum of microminiatures "Russian Lefty".
Aldunin's followers are miniaturists A. Rykovanov (Petersburg), A. Konenko (Kazan), Vl. Aniskin (Omsk). Their works have traveled half the world, won international competitions.
Today, shod fleas are in the collection of the President of Russia, and in a number of museums around the world, and in the main museum of Tula - the "Old Tula Pharmacy".

Who is the master

Today, needlework, master classes, creativity training are very common. The ability to do something with your own hands is one of the ways to yourself! Also, a series of trainings will help you to know yourself faster. It is recommended to do them once a week.

It can be assumed that creativity, even at the simplest level, contributes to self-knowledge. But also at the professional level, the one who, knowing himself and loving his work, develops in it, becomes a master.

First exercise: "Your bag"

Take a sheet, a pencil and whatever bag you have. Lay out its contents on the table.
Now select three things that can reveal you as a person: those that reflect your character, human qualities- and state in writing what these things say about you (if something is missing, take another thing from the office, from the apartment). Now read the text and think about what you just learned and what you knew before. Try to complete the exercise in 15 minutes, and then reflect on it later, throughout the day.

Second exercise: "Fictional hero"

This is also a small fifteen-minute exercise.

Come up with or remember a movie hero, book, cartoon character that will look like you today.
Now write what you have in common with this hero. These are character traits, appearance, life situations, and maybe a profession, personal life, family. Complete them with differences.
Would you like to meet such a hero in reality - and why? Write it down.
Now imagine a character you would like to imitate. Also write down the similarities and differences.
Now think about how you can use the features of your sample? Can you get close to them by changing yourself for the better?

Third exercise: "Your feelings"

Remain in silence and solitude. Listen to yourself and try to write down your feelings.
Try to describe your emotional state in three sentences. Three more are physical sensations, perhaps tension, pain, or fatigue. Could it be related to your feelings? Or psychological state?
Do you want to get started now? Do something, like hug or hit someone?
Your task during the implementation of this technique will be to learn how to describe in detail the state at the emotional, psychological and physical levels - that is, at the level of body, soul and spirit.

So you can better deal with your feelings, be able to express yourself, develop creative thinking.
Often people realize in the course of such trainings that they are afraid of death, tense in the face of anxiety, unable to find their bearings.

How to find your profession by becoming a master of your craft

Work takes up about a third of our lives and, accordingly, plays a large role in it. It does not matter for what and where you work - only for the sake of money, for self-realization or experience. Getting a job that you would like and at the same time bring income is real happiness. And this is where God's help is needed.

Saint Nicholas the Wonderworker - perhaps the most revered in everything Orthodox world saint. Being illiterate, many peasants even called him as part of the Holy Trinity. In his life the saint was true father for all the inhabitants of the city of Myra Lycian, of which he was archbishop. Both during his life and after his death, he became famous for many wondrous deeds, showing the power of God's grace: through his prayers, the sick were healed, justice was restored, the poor righteous received a reward - wealth.

They pray to St. Nicholas the Wonderworker for all the difficulties associated with work:

in employment, search for vacancies,
before the interview
before important matters and decision-making,
with difficulties at work,
about risk management,
about business development,
on timely salary
if it is necessary to make a decision on dismissal or further labor activity in the company.

It is difficult to believe in the power of prayer, but many people from all over the world testify to the signs of God at the request of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker: people facing a serious choice make it right; those who want to change jobs and professions wonderfully connect it with the Church and find the happiness of their favorite work among good people.

Prayer to Saint Nicholas, who during his lifetime performed miracles of saving slandered and ruined people, is an important means of support, including psychological support. You can pray not only for finding a job that will give you material security, but also for finding your professional path.

Prayer for job search

A strong prayer for the work of the Matrona of Moscow can be read in all the difficulties associated with professional activities:

difficulties in finding a job
quarrels and problems in the team,
inability to cope with work
pressure from superiors or colleagues,
intrigues and threatening dismissal,
problems with the payment of salaries or low wages for your work.

Prayers for well-being in work and money are read only about honest deeds. It's not that unrighteous earnings - fraud, debauchery, casino activities, and so on - cannot be prayed for. It’s just that these deeds are sinful, in principle, it’s not worth doing them: do not multiply evil on earth, do not prepare yourself for punishment by misfortune. The Lord will bless you for good, for sure you have a talent that you can earn in a good job. Pray and ask God and the holy Matronushka to point it out to you.

Prayer to the Matrona of Moscow - an appeal for help to her, as if she were alive. After all, the saints are our intercessors before God. Each person needs the support of loved ones, but it is known that in a state of stress, people with their irritability create conflicts in the family. It's time to turn for help to the Heavenly Family - to God Almighty, the good Father to all of us, the Mother of God, who adopted the human race, and our spiritual brothers and sisters - the saints.

May God keep you!

I have no doubt that many have read the story of the remarkable Russian writer Nikolai Semyonovich Leskov "Lefty". Even more of those who have heard about this story, i.e., without reading the story, know the essence: “Is this about the fact that a flea was shod? How have you heard…” But it seems that the largest number of those who know the expression "shoe a flea", which means very fine workmanship, but do not know where such an expression comes from. Now - attention! - a question to all who read and did not read the story "Lefty": what was the name of the left-hander? Dude, don't look at the book. What is the name and patronymic of the master famous throughout Russia? The question is a little provocative, but in the end you will understand the essence.

Let me remind you of some storylines story. The Russian tsar, who is in England and is interested in all sorts of foreign curiosities, is shown a metal flea, a kind of small speck that cannot be grasped by rough male fingers, unless tender girlish fingers are invited for this purpose; and if you also wind a flea with a key “through the belly”, then it will begin to “dance” dance.

That's such a miracle! What magicians these English masters are! The king wanted to buy a flea. The English are insolent blue eye they asked for a million for it, but in silver! They sold it! Cossack Platov, who was with the king, turned white with annoyance - a million for a minute of fun, ugh! Dissuades the tsar, says that Russian masters can do no less miracles in Rus'.
Don't spoil politics for me! - the king answers Platov and rolls off the British a million.
It's in Russian!

The British gave away the flea, and asked for another five thousand for the case. It's already in English. Skvalygi! Platov began to argue, they say, the case was put for the thing, but the tsar paid. Then Platov, out of resentment, imperceptibly pried a small scope (microscope), (at least a tuft of wool from a black sheep) in order to look at the flea enlarged - it seems that the small scope is included in the kit for the flea.

In Russia, the flea was safely forgotten for many years, this is also in Russian, and only the new tsar, sorting through his father's things, discovered a strange box, the meaning of which no one understood. They found Platov, who was already retired at that time, and he explained that in the case there was a steel flea that could dance if it was wound with a key through the "bubble". The new tsar marveled at the art of the English masters, and Platov says that the Russian masters can still make not that surprise. So let them do it, says the tsar, and orders Platov to do it.

Platov found masters in the glorious city of Tula, who promised to create a miracle and, praying to God, set to work. Two weeks later, the Tula masters shod this flea, so small that you couldn’t pick it up with your fingers! And shod each paw. And without any microscope - "... we have shot the eye like that." Yes, not just a shoe, but on each smallest shoe the name of the master was engraved, which can be seen only in the smallest small scope. And the left-hander forged carnations for horseshoes, which are much smaller than the horseshoes themselves.
These are the magicians Russian masters!

The king, when he found out what the Tula people had done, was both surprised and proud of his subjects. I sent the flea back to England so that the British could see the skill of the Russians and not turn up their nose too much. And at the same time he sent a left-hander there to explain to the English what was happening.

The British marveled at the skill of the Russian masters and kept asking the left-hander what sciences the Russian masters were studying. And the left-hander says: “Our science is simple: according to the Psalter and according to the Half-Dream Book, but we don’t know arithmetic at all ... We have it so everywhere.”
Also in Russian!

The British liked the left-hander so much that they began to persuade him to stay in England, they promised a lot of money, they promised the most honorable position and an economic Englishwoman to boot. But the left-hander - in any! And your faith is not like that, he says to the English, and you don’t know how to marry, and your English women don’t dress like that ... But our faith is fuller, and our gospel is thicker, and idolized icons, and coffin heads and relics ... At home everything is their own native, habitual. And our women "everyone in their lace."
“We,” he says, “are committed to our homeland, and my aunt is already an old man, and my parent is an old woman and used to going to church when she comes ...
How is it in Russian!

Nothing is nice in a foreign land! Everything is wrong, everything is rough. Even sweet English tea is not sweet, and tea with a bite is tastier in our way. Home, home! In a word, “the British could not bring him down with anything so that he would be seduced by their life,” as the author writes.

These pieces of text, which describe the desire of the left-hander to his homeland, you read with mute delight; you understand the master, you approve - you yourself would do it - and you love him, simple-hearted, intelligent, your own, Russian.

Out of respect for the master, the British show the left-hander both machines, and mechanisms, and all sorts of devices, and he looks at all this, understands and pays attention to the guns, puts his finger in the muzzle. And then he understands one secret, very important in military affairs, and that's it! He hurried home, rather, rather, there was nothing to hold him back! The secret must be conveyed to your own!

They sent him by steamer from England to St. Petersburg, but the left-hander did not even go down to the cabin - he sat on the upper deck and looked towards his homeland. For this, his English half-skipper respected him and offered him a drink. Then he offered a bet - to drink on an equal footing ... They drank, competed ... In short, two fools, a half-skipper and a left-hander, got drunk, to hell, only one has a red-haired devil, and the other is gray. It's our way!

And in St. Petersburg, the honey-sucking legend ends and leaden Russian everyday life begins. If a drunken Englishman in St. Petersburg was taken to the embassy's house and in two days the doctors put him on his feet, then the left-hander was thrown to the floor in the quarter, i.e. in a police monkey house, if in a modern way, where the policemen (sovereign people) robbed him, took away all the money, took away his watch, took off his good coat and then, unconscious and half-naked, they drove him around the city in the cold, trying to attach him to the hospital. But in hospitals, Lefty was not accepted, because. he did not have a “tugament” (passport) - “until the very morning they dragged him along all the remote crooked paths and transplanted everything so that he was beaten all over” and the back of his head “was (strongly) split”. In short, in the homeland, where he so aspired, left-handed, hearty, tortured, tortured alive. And not even out of spite. More on gouging, indifference and stupidity.
How is it in Russian!

Before his death, the master managed to tell the doctor the secret that he understood in England:
- Tell the sovereign that the British do not clean their guns with bricks: let them not clean ours either, otherwise, God forbid, they are not suitable for shooting.
And it's in Russian! The left-hander until the last thinks about the homeland, about business, in spite of any abominations.

The doctor transmitted this information from the left-hander to the official, but due to bureaucratic stupidity and cowardice, which is equal to meanness, the information never reached the king. Such are the eternal morals of the Russian bureaucracy. And then they lost the Crimean War. The guns were cleaned with bricks.

The ending of the story about the left-hander is impossible to read without an internal shudder. An ardent hatred for the soullessness of the Russian state arises! Judge for yourself: the master was not seduced abroad, he strives for his own, for his homeland, and not just strives, but carries the most important military secret, and in his homeland the police (sovereign people) rob him, torture him and actually kill him. So you can see how the left-hander is being dragged by the legs up the stairs, and his head is beating on the steps. To the brutality of the police is added the gloomy indifference of the bureaucracy, when without some kind of crappy piece of paper it is impossible to save a person and take a dying person to the hospital. Cynicism and heartlessness.

Nothing has changed fundamentally in the last hundred and fifty years. Russian state. All around is the same indifference of bureaucrats. None of the bosses need anything but their own self-interest. Bureaucratic greed, laziness and cowardice.
AND human life worthless.
You are nobody and there is no way to call you.
The lefty has no name.
No, and never has been.

The protagonist demonstrates such qualities as directness of character, innocence and love of work. Being a skilled gunsmith, the hero is admired for his skill in St. Petersburg and London. However, the ranks and rewards for the character are of no interest - a skilled craftsman is only interested in the professional sphere. Lefty demonstrates this, even being on the verge of death.

Character Creation History

In 1881, on the pages of the Rus magazine, a story was published entitled "The Tale of the Tula Oblique Lefty and the Steel Flea", the main idea which was set out in the preface by the author. 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 be removed from the text introductory part. Critics and readers literally took the information about the story of the master from Sestroretsk and accused him of simply retelling a forgotten fairy tale. In fact, the story of Lefty was written by Leskov himself. The description of the hero emphasizes the folk features: “a birthmark on the cheek, and hair on the temples was torn out during teaching.” The characteristic of the master, the image took a special place in the history of Russian literature.

A possible prototype of the protagonist was the craftsman Alexei Mikhailovich Surnin. The man lived for two years in England, where he was trained at the factory. After returning, Surnin taught Russian masters and developed new tools for working with metals. Over time, the name of the protagonist has become a household name. Phrases actors the stories became popular quotations.

Biography and image of Lefty

The action takes place in 1815. It is reported that the emperor visited as part of a tour of European countries England and saw there a lot of amazing things created by local craftsmen. The ruler especially liked the British mechanical flea, made of steel, which knew how to "dance".

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

A few years after the death of Alexander, when he ascended the throne, a steel little thing was found in the things of the deceased. The courtiers could not understand what the function of this miniature was, and invited the Don Cossack Platov, who accompanied Alexander I on a tour of Europe, to explain. The Cossack said that the late emperor had purchased this amazing device, pointing out that it was the work of skillful 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 call in Tula, get acquainted with local gunsmiths and give them a flea to familiarize them with - so that they could then come up with something 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 with the passage of time that no dramatic changes had taken place with the flea, the Cossack flared up, believing that the Tula gunsmiths had deceived him. Taking Levsha with him, the diplomat went back to St. Petersburg. Platov wanted the master to report to the emperor himself that the Russian artisans could not come up with anything new.

Illustration by Nikolai Kuzmin (Masters carry Platov's box) | Leskov.org.ru

At an audience with the king, the Cossack admitted that he had not fulfilled the instructions and brought one of the deceivers from Tula. Nikolai Pavlovich decided to personally talk with the unfortunate master. Once in the royal chambers, Lefty, who was not used to talking with such high-ranking officials, in folk terms explained to the sovereign the idea of \u200b\u200bthe masters. Only under a microscope could one see what the Tula craftsmen had come up with.

Men shoed a flea and engraved proper names on 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. In order to rub the nose of the British, the sovereign decides to send the savvy flea back and, together with an unusual gift send Levsha abroad. Thus, an unexpected turn takes place in the biography of a simple Tula blacksmith.

Having washed the village peasant and giving the hero a more decent look, Platov sends Levsha abroad. In London, where the Russian delegation soon arrived, the skilled craftsman was regarded as an unprecedented miracle. Local blacksmiths and other artisans asked the brave hero questions about education and experience. Left-handed, however, without hesitation admitted 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 the story of Leskov, the film "Lefty" was shot. The filming process took a long time, and the biggest scenes were filmed in Grand Palace Gatchina. The role of the craftsman was played by Nikolai Stotsky. In 2013 the story of skilled craftsman served as the basis for opera. The author of the music for "Lefty" was. The part of the protagonist was written specifically for the tenor.
Quotes
And because, - he says, - I worked smaller than these horseshoes: I forged carnations, with which the horseshoes were clogged, - no melkoscope can take it there.
We are poor people and because of our poverty we do not have a small scope, but we have shot our eyes like that.
Bibliography
1881 - "Lefty"

Filmography
1964 - "Lefty"
1986 - "Lefty"

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

Irina, the artist's widow: "My dearly beloved husband, Nikolai Sergeevich Aldunin, died on September 9, 2009 due to coincidence, mainly due to the unprofessionalism and carelessness of medical workers (I will not say which and in which institutions). He was only 53 years old, he could have created many more amazing works, but apart from personal grief, I am very sorry 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

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

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

Nikolay considered the existing "metal technology" to be imperfect. About fifteen years ago he got the idea to shoe a flea. I wanted to prove that it was not in vain that N. Leskov sang and glorified it to the whole world Tula Masters. I prepared for two years, and then sat down at the microscope. Three months later, when he finished the work, he realized that he "found himself" in the existing "technology of metals" Nikolay considered imperfect. About fifteen years ago he got the idea to shoe a flea. I wanted to prove that it was not in vain that N. Leskov sang and glorified the Tula Masters to the whole world. I prepared for two years, and then sat down at the microscope. Three months later, when he finished the work, he realized that he "found himself" in the existing "technology of metals" Nikolay considered imperfect. About fifteen years ago he got the idea to shoe a flea. I wanted to prove that it was not in vain that N. Leskov sang and glorified the Tula Masters to the whole world. I prepared for two years, and then sat down at the microscope. Three months later, when he finished the work, he realized that he "found himself" in the existing "technology of metals" Nikolay considered imperfect. About fifteen years ago he got the idea to shoe a flea. I wanted to prove that it was not in vain that N. Leskov sang and glorified the Tula Masters to the whole 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 "found myself" in a microminiature. He quit his job and decided to take seriously 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, sharpened for 6-7 hours in a row. Wife Irina goes to bed, he sits sharpening. Wakes up, he sharpens. What did you grind on? This is 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. Just touch them with a charged chisel - she, as if alive, jumped somewhere to the side. Having dressed, Aldunin sat down in the kitchen and waited motionless for a couple of hours until the dust settled. And only then did he start working. For three months he sharpened horseshoes, forged carnations and shod flea paws. And when he scored the last carnation, he slept for almost a week.

Shod flea
With saddle and stirrups

Here is what the master himself said about his flea: “After all, their paws are empty inside, but hairy outside. I did depilation on my paws, trimmed my claws, put on a pedicure, so to speak, and then only proceeded to the horseshoe. I calculated that two and a half thousand pieces can fit on one match head of these horseshoes. At the very tips of four of the six flea feet, gold horseshoes sparkle. Each has three cloves. One flea horseshoe Aldunin weighs 0.00000004419 grams. From one gram of gold, 22,629,544 horseshoes will be obtained. 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 stud caps is 5 at all (1000 microns in 1 millimeter).

May you live happily ever after
rice grain
The height of the letters is 0.14 mm. Material-gold 999.9 samples.

“It's a brand for the Tula region, after all,” says the microminiaturist. - And I was the first Tula resident, 150 years after the release of "Lefty" by Leskov, who shod a flea. Bloch was supposed to be the first. After all, if I was simply engaged in microminiature, the Tula people would not forgive me for this. And all the time they asked: “When will you kick a flea?”. And then I decided all at once. So that there are no questions. And now I have a flea with a saddle and a bridle, with a stirrup, everything is as it should be.

Three-line Mosin rifle
On rice grain
Length - 3 mm. Material - 999.9 gold

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

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

The master microminiaturist considers the T34/85 tank to be his most difficult work. 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 for food in the store. In general, during serious work, I try not to appear on the street, so as not to gain negative emotions. In general, I love the military theme, and I made this tank with the meticulousness of a true fan 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, the craftsman made it exact copy, only 850 thousand times less. On it, through a microscope, all antennas, satellite dishes and even the Seventh Heaven restaurant are clearly visible.
According to Nikolai, representatives of political circles and show business often turned to him - they ordered gifts, for example, a portrait famous singer on a grain of rice or a shoeed flea for a politician.

N.V. Gogol
Portrait on rice grain

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

Bike
Located on a sewing needle
Length - 2 mm.

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

L.N. Tolstoy
Portrait on rice grain

On September 1, Nikolai Aldunin, a talented master, celebrated his 53rd birthday at the hospital. He spent 2 months in the hospital at the Vishnevsky Institute with complications after the surgery. He had chronic pancreatitis. On September 9, Nikolay developed severe internal bleeding, which he could not endure. He left as he lived, fighting and violently tearing serious illness every new day. “I do not pray, but only ask God to give me a little time to finish what I did not have time to do,” he said to 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 - gold 585 and 999.9 samples. Production time - 6 months.

"In the near future, I'm going to start creating new job- "Mercedes" 15 cm long, made of gold, silver and platinum, - Nikolai Sergeevich planned. - Moreover, it will contain details of a real car. I will pay special attention to the dashboard: all the arrows, numbers, buttons ... ”There was an idea to forge a flea out of metal. And so that she throws out a square dance like Leskov's to the music of "Tula forged weapons for centuries." It is a pity that his plans were not destined to come true.

According to his deep conviction, it is impossible to teach the philosophy and psychology of the skill of performing miniature masterpieces. He constantly emphasized: "I'm not an artist!" At the same time, Nikolai Aldunin put the elegance and beauty of the execution of an idea in the first place in his work. But, probably, the most important secret of Nikolai was that he sat down to work only in good mood, in a state of harmony and love for oneself and the world, for what was to be done.