History Film / IvanVasilievichChangesProfession

* GratuitousRussian: Ivan IV tends to switch between modern and 16th-century Russian. When he finds out the truth, Yakin tries to use archaic Russian words (which most modern Russian would never understand) but gives up quickly. He also uses them incorrectly, which infuriates Ivan[[note]]He says "zhitiye moye" (archaic Russian for "my life"), except the word "zhitiye" is reserved only for a royals or a saints (and not meaning life itself but biography of the person), not a commoner like Yakin. The correct word would've been "zhivot" (currently means abdomen but used to mean life as well).[[/note]].

** The Tsar sells his date of birth as "1533 since the birth of Christ", while a more historically accurate answer would be "7038 since the creation of the world". Russia only adopted the BC/AD calendar in Peter the Great's time.

A Soviet comedy movie released in 1973, and still immensely popular in UsefulNotes/TheNewRussia -- like most Leonid Gaidai movies from that era. Based on a 1935 play by [[UsefulNotes/RussianReading Mikhail Bulgakov]], with a setting update -- moving the "present day" action from the 1930s to the 1970s -- but generally staying faithful to the original, with most of the funny lines taken directly from the play. One of the most promiment changes in the film was the merge of the Timofeyev character with the protagonist of two of Gaidai's previous films to form the so-called "Shurik trilogy".

Engineer Alexander Sergeyevich "Shurik" Timofeyev (named Koka, from Nikolay, in the play) invents a time machine, which he uses to open a rift to the 1500s Moscow, straight into the palace of Tsar Ivan IV the Terrible. In the chaos that ensues, the time machine is damaged (in the play, it stays intact but its key is lost, forcing Timofeyev to seek a keymaker for a replacement), leaving the Tsar stranded in the present day while his namesake and look-alike, Soviet bureaucrat Ivan Vasilievich Bunsha, is stuck in the past with GentlemanThief George Miloslavsky. The two are forced to dress as the Tsar and a noble, until their ruse is eventually exposed and they are rescued into the present just in time when Timofeyev fixes the time machine.

* DisproportionateRetribution: Although not too surprising for the Dark Ages, but boiling the interpreter alive for being drunk on duty is rather harsh. The same goes for blowing up an inventor for making wings.

[[SanDimasTime Meanwhile, back in the 20th century]], Ivan IV hides in Timofeyev's apartment until he encounters the inventor's wife Zinaida, an actress who had left Timofeyev for her director Yakin, and later Bunsha's wife, who mistakes him for her husband. She and Timofeyev's neighbor Shpak (previously robbed by Miloslavsky) call the police and ambulance, resulting in the two Ivans and Miloslavsky being taken away -- although the Tsar escapes and returns to his time with Timofeyev's help.

* AllJustADream

* NobodyHereButUsStatues:
** Ivan Bunsha pretends to be part of a sculpture when fleeing the Streltsy.
* ObstructiveBureaucrat: Ivan Bunsha's response to just about everything is "get permission from the authorities". Even when his only hope of getting out of the past alive is to impersonate the tsar, he complains that he doesn't have permission, and signs official documents as "Acting for the tsar, I. Bunsha".

* RooftopConfrontation: The Streltsy are closing in on Ivan and Shurik on the rooftop. Then the two pretend to jump off and the Streltsy follow suit.

*** And Ivan IV was born in 1530, not in 1533. Actually, in 1533 he became the Grand Prince of Moscow.

* AnachronismStew: Also courtesy of CriticalResearchFailure:

* GratuitousRussian: Ivan IV tends to switch between modern and 16th-century Russian. When he finds out the truth, Yakin tries to use archaic Russian words (which most modern Russian would never understand) but gives up quickly. He also uses them incorrectly, which infuriates Ivan[[note]]He says "zhitiye moye" (archaic Russian for "my life"), except the word "zhitiye" is reserved only for the life of a tsar or a saint, not a commoner like Yakin. The correct word would've been "zhivot" (currently means abdomen but used to mean life as well).[[/note]].

** Historically, Ivan The Terrible had been married ''seven'' times (although, the last few weren't authorized by the Church).

* PhlebotinumBreakdown: one of the palace guards throws a halberd (which Shurik [[YouKeepUsingThatWord calls a bardiche]]) at the time machine and it breaks down, trapping Ivan the Terrible in the twentieth century and Bunsha and Miloslavsky in the sixteenth.

* SpiritualSuccessor: To ''[[Film/OperationYAndShuriksOtherAdventures Operation "Y"]]'' and ''Film/KidnappingCaucasianStyle''

* {{Adorkable}}: Shurik

* LovableRogue: Miloslavsky, especially in the movie. Although at first Miloslavsky appears as an ordinary thief caught in an extraordinary situation, he later shows himself as a rather lovable and patriotic statesman who saves the day for impersonator Bunsha and refuses to give the Russian territories to the Swedish ambassador while Bunsha happily agrees to grant it to the Swedish king. In the original play, it was the other way around: Bunsha insists on the territorial integrity of Russia while Miloslavsky tells to the ambassador that he agrees to leave the Kemskaya vololst.

** TruthInTelevision: RealLife Ivan IV ''did'' view public executions as a form of entertainment — as were a lot of his contemporaries. What's interesting, however, is that this notion was much less widespread in Russia than in the Western Europe, which was one of the reasons of his grisly reputation with his subjects.

** Historically, UsefulNotes/IvanTheTerrible had been married ''seven'' times (although, the last few weren't authorized by the Church).

** In ''[[Film/OperationYAndShuriksOtherAdventures Operation "Y"]]'', another Leonid Gaidai film, one of the robbers pretends to be a mannequin standing between two actual mannequins. It works.

** Somewhat explained on the play, as Bunsha is mentioned to be the son of a prince and [[GenerationXerox a descendant of Ivan the Terrible]] (although he denies it with a passion).

** Granted, all that can be handwaved as [[AllJustADream Shurik's subconsciousness]] basically painting him a ThemeParkVersion of UsefulNotes/IvanTheTerrible's Russia. And the credits in the beginning acknowledge that the film is "non-scientific fiction, not quite realistic and not strictly historical".

** Somewhat explained on the play, as Bunsha is mentioned to be the son of a prince (although he denies it with a passion).