Soviet New Year films: what Russians watch on December 31
Updated 2026-11-03
In Russia and much of the former USSR, New Year's Eve is the biggest holiday of the year, bigger than Christmas. Families gather around a table of salads, the President's speech plays at midnight, and the television shows the same beloved old films it has shown for decades.
Watching them is a ritual, a bit like Christmas films in the West. Here are the classics, what they are about and why they became part of the holiday.
The essential one: The Irony of Fate
No film is more tied to New Year than Eldar Ryazanov's The Irony of Fate, or Enjoy Your Bath! It was first shown on television on 1 January 1976 and has been repeated almost every year since. The story of a man who flies to the wrong city after a New Year's Eve trip to the bathhouse, and wakes up in an identical flat, is funny, romantic and very Soviet.
Mosfilm has not yet added English subtitles to its upload, so on our page it plays with YouTube's machine translation only. It is still worth it: the songs and the faces tell you most of what you need.
The Irony of Fate, or Enjoy Your Bath! (1976) MACHINE CC
The New Year film: a wrong flat in the wrong city and the most famous romance of Soviet television.
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Carnival Night (1956) MACHINE CC
A pompous director tries to cancel the fun at a New Year party. Ryazanov's first comedy and Lyudmila Gurchenko's breakthrough.
Watch free →Other films Russians watch over the holidays
Television channels fill the long New Year holiday, which lasts until the Old New Year on 14 January, with comedies and fairy tales. These are some of the favourites.
An Ordinary Miracle (1978)
A musical fairy tale for grown-ups about a wizard, a bear and a princess, first shown over the New Year of 1979.
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The Old New Year (1980) MACHINE CC
Two Moscow families celebrate the Old New Year of 14 January, and both rebel against their lives.
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Zigzag of Luck (1968) MACHINE CC
A lottery win at New Year time turns a small photo studio upside down.
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Office Romance (1977)
Not a holiday film, but a television favourite at any time of the year.
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Gentlemen of Fortune (1971)
Another holiday staple: a kind kindergarten director among escaped convicts.
Watch free →Want the full selection? Our Soviet New Year films collection gathers them all in one place.
