The original Ukrainian sound for this movie was labeled as a lost variant until in 2013 it was found by chance in a cinematic archive of the Ukrainian city of Mariupol.
It was originally a Ukrainian-language movie based on M.Starytskyi's eponymous play (1883) that satirized pretentious upstarts eager to assimilate into Russian culture. However, the completed film was dubbed into Russian and released throughout the Soviet Union in the Russian version. The change of language reversed the meaning of the film's satire, turning the movie into a harmless folkloric comedy that reinforced imperial cultural hierarchies rather than undermining them.