The Irony of Fate

It's a story that could only happen in Russia.  After a rip-roaring New Year's

Eve party with his buddies in a Moscow bathhouse, a man wakes up in his own bed, his own apartment, surrounded by his own furniture, next to his very own New Year's tree.  Or so it seems. According to the beautiful blonde who has just poured cold water over his head, the man is indeed in Apartment 12, Building 25, Third Builders' Street – but in Leningrad!

So begins the New Year's adventure of Zhenya, hero of the Soviet film Ironiya Sudby  (The Irony of Fate).  Produced during the Brezhnev years, the film pokes gentle fun at Soviet realities: rows of anonymous apartment buildings linked by interchangeable keys, chock full of people living interchangeable lives.  But the film is also an improbable, magical romance of the sort that could only happen on the most important holiday of the Soviet year:  New Year's Day.

Much in the way that Americans associate Frank Capra's It's a Wonderful Life with the Christmas holidays, several generations of Russians gather around the television to watch The Irony of Fate during the Russian winter holidays.  Mikhail Mikhailov, a linguist in his early thirties who works for a branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, knows the film by heart.

“Of course, the film is full of great acting and great songs,” he explains, “but the most important thing is that it really captures the mood of New Year’s, when miraculous things can happen.”

Although much has changed in the two decades since The Irony of Fate debuted on Soviet movie screens, some things are timeless. Russians still believe the old saying that “The way you ring in the New Year is the way the whole year will turn out.” No wonder there’s such a great potential for passion and romance.

Of course, few Russians will have had the good fortune to make the acquaintance of their loved ones on New Year’s Eve. Mikhail and Natasha Dubrov, however, have a special reason to celebrate the winter holidays this year. After being married for 11 years with two children, Mikhail has at long last been able to settle his parents in a new apartment.  For the first time ever, Mikhail, Natasha, and the kids will have his parents' old apartment all to themselves this holiday season.

"Holiday traditions?" said Mikhail.  "I don't know that we have any, except to open presents on New Year's Day.  Probably we'll start some traditions of our own this year.  Anything's possible!"

It's an optimism that those ageless celluloid lovers, Zhenya and Nadya, would understand.  They know all about starting New Year's traditions.