The Irony of Fate: Moscow to Leningrad and Back

The story opens in a new Moscow housing estate. Zhenya has just moved into flat 12 at 3rd Builders Street 25, and he plans to propose to his fiancée Galya on New Year's Eve; to show he means it, he hands her his keys. For the film, Ryazanov used one of two experimental panel houses in Troparyovo-Nikulino, at Vernadsky Prospekt 125. A memorial plaque went up there in 2003 with Ryazanov present, but the aluminium plate was stolen the next day.

Location precision: Real filming location: the pin marks the Moscow house filmed as Zhenya's home, not the story's address.

Zhenya goes to the banya, where his childhood friends Sasha and Misha wait alongside Pavel. The friends drink to Zhenya's coming wedding, and afterwards leave for the airport to see Pavel off to Leningrad. The film never names the bathhouse. The Sandunovsky Baths in central Moscow, open since 1808, took part in the shooting, though the take that stayed in the film was reshot in Mosfilm studio sets.

Location precision: The bathhouse is not named in the story; the pin marks the Sandunovsky Baths, where part of the scene was filmed.

Visitor guidance: The Sandunovsky Baths are a working public bathhouse in central Moscow.

At the airport the drunk friends cannot remember who is supposed to fly. Pavel and Zhenya are both asleep, so by elimination they put Zhenya on the plane. Zhenya wakes in Leningrad, still thinking he is at home, takes a taxi and gives his Moscow address. Pulkovo, opened in 1932 as a state domestic airport, is the airport that serves the city today.

Location precision: The film says only "Leningrad airport"; the pin marks Pulkovo, the city's airport.

By an absurd coincidence, Leningrad has the same address and the same standard house. The standard lock takes Zhenya's Moscow key, and even the standard furniture matches. This is where he meets Nadya, whose fiancé Ippolit arrives to find a stranger in her flat. The film opens with an animated prologue about identical buildings spreading across every city. Nadya's house was in fact Vernadsky Prospekt 113 in Moscow, and plaques went up on both houses in 2007.

Location precision: Real filming location: the story puts this house in Leningrad, but it was filmed at this Moscow house.

Nadya wants Zhenya out of her flat. She takes a taxi to Moskovsky Station, buys him a train ticket to Moscow, and brings it home. He throws it out of the window. The station is one of five working terminals in Saint Petersburg.

Visitor guidance: A working railway station in central Saint Petersburg.

With a heavy heart Zhenya returns to Moscow, and Nadya takes a plane after him. She finds him easily, because the addresses are the same and her key fits his lock. In real life, there was no 3rd Builders Street when the film was shot: it existed only from 1958 to 1963, then was renamed Maria Ulyanova Street. House 25 on that street now has a plaque shaped like a briefcase with a broom.