according to gaidai’s idea, ivan vasilyevich was to be played by yuri nikolin, whom he had already filmeda read and said: “lenya, what are you talking about, this is on shelf." even with hyde’s authority, the fate of the new film could be difficult, and despite the long-standing friendship with the director, nikolin did not want to take risks. and in my opinion, he even regretted it when he looked at it. tina, that she is like this, she is a masterpiece, he regretted that he refused, precisely because he was sure he would put it on the shelf, but they didn’t, thank god. on the eve of filming, gaida was left without a leading role; with his characteristic enthusiasm, the director began to try out the best artists in the country; these unique photo tests are stored in the masfilm archive. here are the swans in different makeup, here he is in... grozny, by the way, he was good, by the way, he was good, and whitson auditioned, look, he auditioned for stegneev, listen, i don’t recognize you in the makeup, who are you, sergei bondarchuk, no, yuri nikulin, no, no, no, no, for kenti smaktunovsky.