In the USSR, religious celebrations were discouraged, so instead of celebrating Christmas, the Soviets encouraged their citizens to celebrate New Year's. Today in Russia, Christmas remains an almost entirely religious holiday, but New Year's is celebrated in a fashion very similar to the American Christmas, with a few differences.

Like Americans, Russians celebrate with their friends and family over a delicious meal. Russian children receive presents under the New Year's tree, though from Grandfather Frost (Ded Moroz) and the Little Snow Maiden (Snegurochka), not Santa Claus. And like Americans, Russians have special movies that they like to watch at New Year's, though instead of gathering around It's a Wonderful Life, Russian families watch the old Soviet classic film Ironiya Sud'bi, The Irony of Fate.

Though you might not guess from the title, The Irony of Fate is a romantic comedy. It pokes a little fun at the cookie-cutter architecture, street names, even home decor of the late Soviet era . On New Year's Eve, our hero, Zhenya (Andrey Myagkov), a Muscovite, gets so thoroughly smashed that he accidentally boards a plane to Leningrad. When he gets off, still believing he is in Moscow, he goes home to his apartment building at 3rd Builder's Street, lets himself in (barely noticing the curious rearrangement of "his" furniture), and collapses into bed.

Where he is awakened a short time later when Nadya (Barbara Brylska), the real owner of the apartment, comes home to find a strange man sleeping in her bed. What follows is a classic screwball comedy tinged with some sadness, as the two first argue and then fall in love, interrupted by repeated visits from Nadya's jealous boyfriend Ippolit, female friends, and others.

Many quotes from The Irony of Fate have passed into Russian culture, and so has the beautiful soundtrack, which was composed by Mikael Tariverdiev. The lyrics included poetry by such masters of the Russian language as Boris Pasternak and Marina Tsvetaeva, and the actors' singing voices were dubbed by the popular Russian singers Sergei Nikitin and Alla Pugacheva.

Her singing voice was not the only thing dubbed for Barbara Brylska. Brylska was a Polish actress whose Russian was not good enough to realistically play a native of Leningrad, so the Russian actress Valentina Talyzina dubbed her lines. Talyzina also appeared in a small role in the film as one of Nadya's friends.

More than 30 years after it was made, Ironiya Sud'bi remains a beloved Russian New Year's tradition, and it is a perennial favorite among foreign students of Russian as well, thanks to its charming plot, beautiful soundtrack, and lovely scenes of Leningrad (now St. Petersburg) in the winter.