‘Like peas against a wall’: What’s behind the Russian expression?

“No matter what you’re told, it’s like peas against a wall”! (“Что тебе ни говори, как об стену горох!”): You might hear a Russian mother yelling the phrase at her teenager, who refuses to stop playing video games and clean up their room.

From the context, it’s clear that the meaning most closely resembles the phrase: “Like talking to a wall”. In other words - when someone either doesn’t hear, or hears, but doesn’t react, and nothing changes.

Obviously, throwing peas at a wall is a futile undertaking, so - why peas, and not something else? 

The most common origin story has to do with there being no shortage of peas in Russia. They grow almost everywhere, and a great many dishes contained them in the olden days, be they pies, puddings, soups, pancakes - even drinks! (For the bravest among you, check out our list of ancient pea recipes here). 

However, peeling a mountain of peas was difficult and time-consuming, so women would throw the pea pods at the kitchen wall in order to split them and release the peas inside. They could spend half a day watching them bounce off, causing absolutely zero damage to the hard surfaces - hence the meaning: words are absolutely useless in getting your kid to do anything.

That being said, peas could still be used to profoundly scar your offspring: a widespread form of punishment that partly persisted even through the Soviet years used to be forcing the child to kneel on dry peas for an hour or two… which might explain why the number of pea recipes has since sharply decreased!