Filmed in the manor and on the grounds of the spacious country estate of Colonel Ignat Galagan, the cossack officer who, fighting for the side of Russia during the Great Northern War, destroyed the rebellious Zaporozhye fortress on the Dnepr River in 1709. Located near the small village of Sokirintsy, about 125 miles outside of Kiev, Ukraine, the estate was given to him by Czar Peter the Great of Russia.