первая ласточка

• ПЕРВАЯ ЛАСТОЧКА{{}}

[NP; usu. subj-compl with copula, nom or instrum (subj: human, abstr, or concr); fixed WO]

=====

⇒ the earliest, very first indication of the approach of sth., the first member of a series to follow:

- the first swallow (announcing the summer of sth.);

- the first sign (the harbinger, the forerunner) (of sth.).

     ♦ Рогозин сказал примерно следующее. Классики марксизма, а Ленин в особенности, были полными невеждами в области логики... С факультета Рогозина убрали, но не посадили... Судьба Рогозина... - одна из первых ласточек наступавшей либеральной эпохи (Зиновьев 2). What Rogozin said amounted roughly to this. The classics of Marxism, and Lenin in particular, were complete ignoramuses where logic was concerned. ... Rogozin was expelled from the faculty, but left at liberty ..Rogozin's fate was one of the first swallows announcing the summer of the liberal period (2a).