Find the meaning of the stable expression gnawing on the granite of science. Gryz granite science
You can often hear the admonition addressed to young people that they need to diligently “gnaw the granite of science.”
What it means, we all understand correctly, “gnawing the granite of science” means learning, acquiring new knowledge.
Do you know where this expression came from?
The phrase “gnaw the granite of science” was first heard from the lips of the outstanding party leader and orator L.D. Trotsky. He said it at the 5th All-Russian Congress of the Communist Youth Union in October 1922.
A fiery call to youth "gnaw the granite of science with young teeth", comprehend the knowledge accumulated by the older generation, prepare to take over and take the helm of the country. This is precisely the meaning that Trotsky put into these words.
The phrase immediately became a catchphrase:
- It was published in newspapers.
- She decorated student notebooks, along with Trotsky's profile.
- This phrase was even heard in the song.
The phraseology “gnawing the granite of science” is probably one of the most popular these days. We hear it from school from the lips of teachers and parents.
Having become university students and even coming to work for the first time, we hear these words again.
Trotsky's catchphrase has become truly popular.
In publications related to education and training, one can often find the call to “gnaw on the granite of science.” Typically, a figurative wish comes from the lips of representatives of the older generation when they address young people - schoolchildren and students. But it’s unlikely that everyone who uses this word knows exactly its roots.
For the first time, the call to “gnaw the granite of science” was heard in the speech of the revolutionary, party and statesman of the young Country of Soviets, Lev Davidovich Trotsky.
In October 1922, speaking at the opening of the V Komsomol Congress, Trotsky, one of the most authoritative leaders of the Soviet state, addressed the rising revolutionary shift with an incendiary speech.
Having called the Komsomol members the most honest, sensitive and conscientious representatives of the working strata of society, Trotsky called on them to toughen up, prepare to replace the older generation and diligently “gnaw the granite of science” with their young teeth. It was in this formulation that this figurative expression had the strongest meaning: only with strong and young teeth can one “gnaw through” the solid knowledge that humanity has accumulated.
“Gnawing on the granite of science” is the task of youth
Trotsky’s words almost immediately turned into a bright and colorful aphorism that had the meaning of a fighting slogan for young people. A few days later, an article appeared in the Pravda newspaper, which spoke about the need to study and actively chew through the granite of science.
Trotsky's saying, along with his profile, was printed on the covers of student notebooks to constantly remind schoolchildren of the need to persistently acquire knowledge.
In those difficult years for the country, of course, no one called on working youth to en masse go to universities and get higher education. In a country where, during the tsarist regime, a significant part of the population was illiterate, the concept of “gnawing the granite of science” meant, first of all, mastering the most basic knowledge, without which it was impossible to build a new society.
The “granite” aphorism was reflected in the song “Young Guard” by the popular author S. Tretyakov in those years, turning into the lines: “Granite is granite through persistent study.” These were also found in incendiary folk ditties. Young people actively took up the call of the party leader. Gradually, Comrade Trotsky’s formula lost its authorship and became catchphrase, which has reached the present day.
Hi Hi!
Hello, hello!
Today I propose to go back a little, namely to the previous issue, and consider the expressions that I left without attention last time. Let's start with to study hard. This expression has a very specific “parent” and date of birth, and came to us from the report of one of the leaders of the October Revolution, Lev Davidovich Trotsky, at the V All-Russian Congress of the Russian Communist Youth League Zhi (1922): “Study, gnaw the granite of science with your young teeth, harden yourself and get ready for your shift!”
Today, I propose to go back a little bit, to the previous episode, and to look at the expressions that I left unattended the last time. Let’s start with “to gnaw the granite of science”. This expression has an absolutely definite “parent” and date of birth, and came to us from the report of one of the leaders of the October coup, Lev Davidovich Trotsky, at the V All-Russian Congress of the Russian Communist Youth Union (1922 ): “Learn, gnaw with your young teeth the granite of science, get tempered and ready for the change!”
A rather informative article on this subject was published in the online magazine “School of Life” (http://shkolazhizni.ru/archive/0/n-9527/). Read it if you're interested.
A quite informative article about it was published in the online magazine “School of Life”. You can read it, if it’s interesting to you.
Let's move on to the second expression: shelve, which means postponing a matter for an indefinite period (for a long time, in general).
Let’s move on to the second expression: “to postpone into a long box”, which means postponing the deal for an indefinite period (for a long time, in general).
According to one version, the expression originated three hundred years ago in Muscovite Russia, when Tsar Alexei, the father of Peter I, ordered a long box to be installed in front of his palace, where anyone could put their sting. forehead. The complaints went down, but it was very difficult to wait for a solution: months and years passed. The people renamed this “long” box “long”.
According to one of the versions, the expression emerged three hundred years ago in Moscow Rus, when Tsar Aleksei, the father of Peter I, ordered the installation of a long box in front of his palace, where everyone could drop his complaint. Complaints were dropped, but it was not easy to receive the response: months and years had passed. People renamed this “long” box into a “long time” box.
It seems that since then little has changed in the bureaucratic apparatus... :)
It seems that little has changed since then in the bureaucratic apparatus... :)
That's all for today. Chew on science and don’t put it away! As they say, live forever and learn! 🙂
That's it for today. Gnaw the science and do not put into a long time box! As they say, live for a century, learn for a century! 🙂
To study hard
To study hard
From the report of one of the leaders of the October revolution, Lev Davidovich Trotsky (party pseudonym of L. D. Bronstein, 1879-1940) at the V All-Russian Congress (October 11, 1922) of the Russian Communist Youth Union (RCYM): “Science is not simple thing, And social science including, “it’s granite, and you have to gnaw it with young teeth.” And also: “Study, gnaw the granite of science with your young teeth, harden yourself and get ready for your shift!”
Allegorically: study diligently, diligently (jokingly ironic).
encyclopedic Dictionary winged words and expressions. - M.: “Locked-Press”. Vadim Serov. 2003.
See what “Gnawing the granite of science” is in other dictionaries:
GRANITE, a, m. A hard granular rock consisting mainly of quartz, feldspar and mica. Dictionary Ozhegova. S.I. Ozhegov, N.Yu. Shvedova. 1949 1992 … Ozhegov's Explanatory Dictionary
To study hard- Which. Razg. Express Study hard any science. Stepan went to the front in the very first days, but I didn’t go to war because my right leg didn’t bend at the knee. So I was unlucky while my peers were fighting, I was studying at the university, gnawing... ... Phrasebook Russian literary language
Book High or Shutl. Study, get an education. BTS, 226...
To study hard- Learn, comprehend, acquire knowledge... Dictionary of folk phraseology
to study hard- joking. Study hard, persistently, acquire knowledge... Dictionary of many expressions
Jarg. school Joking. Study at school; study something Nikitina, 1998, 205. /i> Formed on the basis of the popular newspaper stamp of gnawing the granite of science ... Big dictionary Russian sayings
- (French granit, Italian granito, from Latin granum grain). A commonly found rock with a granular structure, consisting of quartz, feldspar and mica. Dictionary of foreign words included in the Russian language. Chudinov A.N., 1910. GRANITE... ... Dictionary of foreign words of the Russian language
Gnawing, gnawing; nibbled, la, lo; nsv. 1. (st. chew). What. Squeezing firmly with your teeth, crushing the strong, hard; bite through. G. bone. G. seeds, crackers. He crunched on a carrot and a piece of sugar. * The squirrel sings songs and gnaws all the nuts... ... encyclopedic Dictionary
GRANITE, huh, husband. A hard, granular rock composed primarily of quartz, feldspar, and mica. Gnawing on the granite of science (colloquial joke) persistently mastering knowledge. | adj. granite, oh, oh. Ozhegov's explanatory dictionary. S.I. Ozhegov, N.Yu.... ... Ozhegov's Explanatory Dictionary
To study hard. Book High or Shutl. Study, get an education. BTS, 226... Large dictionary of Russian sayings
Books
- Academy of Witchcraft, Oleg Shelonin, Victor Bazhenov. It is difficult to gnaw on the granite of science, but it is very interesting. Student years are remembered for a lifetime. But their teachers remember them even better, especially if at the Academy of Witchcraft, Witchcraft and Nastiness...
- Adept. Education. Vacations, Oleg Bubela. It’s not for nothing that our man, Alexey Vetrov, ended up in the world of magicians, demons and dragons! However, here he is already called Alex Dragon. He gets to the Imperial Academy of Magic, ready to gnaw granite...
A symbol of death among the blossoming of life. The environment that learns about the world and science is usually youth. She is cheerful and reckless everywhere. All centuries-old student folklore testifies to this.
Students live for the future because they are young and beautiful. Wine and girls are the main themes of their songs, and only somewhere on the periphery of their work do ironic tirades flash about the hard work of mastering the knowledge that humanity has accumulated. So where did granite, a symbol of inertia and death, appear in their flourishing environment? Who called for gnawing on the granite of science?
The truth is different - this symbol is painted by the students’ creativity in ironic and reckless tones, but, nevertheless, it grounds and deadens what yearns to rejoice and make the whole world happy with its joy.
Socrates and the Ancient Greek Academies
It is believed that the systematic education of young people was introduced into ancient Greek culture by the unsystematic sage Socrates. The philosopher from the barrel spoke of this in the sense that the free mind of Socrates makes cells in the green gardens of the Academy for young minds. If he, to put it in modern terms, had less authority, then he would have the right to teach. And so young people will start looking into his mouth. And young flexible sprouts will turn into stone under the senile gaze of Socrates.
Who called for gnawing on the granite of science, Socrates?
No, this will not happen, Socrates objects, because for me students are not vessels, but torches. I don't fill them, I light them.
And indeed, from the Socratic Academy lush gardens of philosophy grew throughout the ancient world. There is no inertia anywhere. Stoics, Sophists, Epicureans, materialists, idealists... Over the next 2.5 thousand years, not so many movements arose in philosophy as from the Socratic Academy. So none of them could call on the granite of science to gnaw.
It seems that until the 18th century, namely before the birth of Goethe, world philosophy was only picking up crumbs of wisdom after the feast of the philosophers of the ancient world. The great Aristotle, chosen by a random poke of the finger of St. Constantine among a host of great philosophers, is appointed to be the pillar and cornerstone of church wisdom about that world that is not religion. Unhappy Aristotle. He would never agree to such a role. His philosophy trembles with life. His philosophy is principles, but not unshakable canons.
Confucius
On the other side of the world, a mid-level government official of a large power by the standards of antiquity is reflecting on life and worldly wisdom.
And in a strange way, the simplest and obvious truths, systematized by the sage, become a powerful philosophy that contains, if not everything, then much. Maybe it was the ancient Chinese who called for gnawing on the granite of science, meaning, putting into his words something that is not entirely clear to us today? No, everything that he wrote a long time ago is understandable today with utmost clarity. No wonder many of his sayings became proverbs.
But Confucius argued that a person cannot give eternal laws, because he must fulfill the eternal canons. Only by going beyond the law does he create laws in order to master something new and introduce eternal canons into it. Then human laws die.
This thought echoes Goethe’s thought: “Theories are dead, my friend, dead, but eternally alive.” A stone cannot grow through the blocks of centuries. Only living things will sprout this way.
Dogmatism. Theology and scholasticism
Why did Saint Constantine gather about half a thousand shepherds (shepherds) of Christian flocks (flocks) in the city of Nicaea in 325? And in order to remove all contradictions from the teaching about Christ and God, because he was going to make Christianity the state religion. He needed a cornerstone to build a mighty empire, and it was created for him. And more than 30 Gospels, dozens of revelations flew into the fires, crumbs remained from the teaching of the Gnostics about knowledge of the world. Even the beloved disciple of Christ was included in the Bible only in 415. And his revelation even later. From the revelation of Peter himself, two worthless chapters remained.
Tertullian says that the construction of the eternal stone of the doctrine of truth has begun. God's laws are strict and the riot of colors is inappropriate. And after a couple of centuries, including for these words, he was numbered among the fathers of the church. Gnawing on the granite of science - he did not give birth to such phraseology, because he considered all sciences unnecessary. And another phraseology of another church father - I believe because it is absurd, and completely tore out the very concept of “science” from the everyday life of knowledgeable youth. Scholasticism became the space, and theology the granite walls of the building into which students were introduced in the Middle Ages.
Here one would have to look for the one who was the first to call for gnawing on the granite of science, if the word “science” itself were not perceived as a rebellion against the edifice of faith. When in our time a person reads ancient works on scholasticism and theology, he is perplexed for two reasons:
- Why did people write a lot of words when it is written much shorter and more clearly in the same Bible?
- Why are their works so gloomy, why is there not even a poppy seed of life in them, when in the Gospels themselves it is life that is rampant.
These worthless treatises are similar to the modern compilations of many people from philosophy with titles. The writings of ancient Greek philosophers are understandable and interesting today. Probably at that time a prejudice arose that the intelligent should be incomprehensible, although in reality it was just the opposite - only the understandable is intelligent.
Overcoming
The Middle Ages ended with a revival. Science has ceased to be a beaten girl and has turned into a princess, destined to become a queen in her time. True, for this reason many stepped into the fire. Together with science and art in human society life has returned. Galileo does not invite his students to bite into the stone of science, but carries it with them to the top to conduct the first physical experiment. He thereby laid the living, not dead, foundations of science for the Newtons, Lomonosovs and Maxwells. Artists and sculptors laid the foundations of optics without even suspecting its future birth. And they were surprised that 1500 years before them they were already drawing like this, they were already creating like this.
Who called for gnawing on the granite of science?
You don't have to go far to find an answer to this question. Those who began to sculpt a new stone system of dogmas are Marxists. But science is woven into this phrase only because she has already become a queen.
It is impossible to read the works of the founders of the new scholasticism, because nothing is clear. Some of them are the same philosophers as old women are ballerinas. Trotsky said specifically that something needs to be chewed on, and thereby gave away what their Marxist-Lenist-Trotsky-Stalinist-... theory is. An indigestible stone to be chewed by the young. And they were not interested in whether this would benefit life on Earth. And the stone, as it was an emblem of death and inertia, remained this symbol.
Irony
Not only Belgorod has a monument to the granite of science. However, it is not so important who called for gnawing on the granite of science. The main thing is said in a vital and clear way: humanity says goodbye to its terrible past cheerfully. It is this joy that is expressed by the ironic numerous monuments to lost inertia. With their strict contours and artistry, they are reminiscent of Malevich’s equally famous and exalted creation of the whole world - “Black Square”.
