A fairy tale based on real events: what is true in the film "Ivan Vasilyevich changes his profession"

Leonid Gaidai's painting "Ivan Vasilyevich changes his profession" is rich in historical mistakes, which, of course, is excusable for a frivolous comedy. For example, Ivan the Terrible was born in 1530, and not in "1533 from the Birth of Christ," as he informs the policeman. And not from The Nativity of Christ was then counted, but from the creation of the world. Eggplant caviar is also an anachronism, it was imported from Iran only in the XVII century. However, in some moments something similar to historicity still slips through.

Happy birthday hero Yuri Yakovlev made a mistake, but his phrase "I also had one like that — I made wings. I put him on a barrel of gunpowder — let him fly!" partly corresponds to reality. The disgraced Strelet commander Nikita Golokhvastov accepted the schema and took refuge in a monastery to avoid execution. The scheme, which requires the fulfillment of the most ascetic rules, was called angelic, and the king, with his characteristic sense of humor, promised to help the monk to fly to heaven as soon as possible. Golokhvastov was put on a barrel of gunpowder and blew it up.

Ivan IV officially married four times, and among his wives was indeed Marfa Vasilyevna. However, 19-year-old Marfa Sobakina was married to the tsar for only 15 days: two weeks after the wedding, she died of poisoning. It turns out that Miloslavsky and Bunsha ended up in the XVI century in November 1571. However, the action takes place in summer.

By the way, about Miloslavsky. The Miloslavskys are a noble family whose roots go back to the XIV century. Although in the time of Ivan the Terrible, they did not manifest themselves in any way and did not hang any of them on their own gates. But Shpak was a notable person then. This was the nickname of the boyar Ivan Golitsyn, the tsar's voivode.

"I'm here, and we have a Crimean khan there playing pranks on the Izyumsky shlyakh… Send me back, boyar!" — the tsar calls engineer Timofeev, while he repairs the time machine. We are talking about Khan Devlet Gerai, who in 1571 ruined Moscow because of Ivan the Terrible's refusal to give him Kazan and Astrakhan. The following year, Devlet Gerai made another attempt to raid the capital of Russia, but his army was defeated. A song was composed about this event, "And not a strong cloud...". It is she who is performed in the film by the choir at the royal banquet.