The stories in
Mirgorod were composed at different times. “Old World Landowners” was begun in 1832 when Gogol revisited his birthplace of
Sorochyntsi after living in
Saint Petersburg for five years, “Viy” was begun in 1833, and “The Tale of How Ivan Ivanovich Quarreled with Ivan Nikiforovich” had previously appeared in the
almanac Housewarming (Новоселье) in 1834. The collection came to completion during Gogol’s ill-fated term as Professor of Medieval History at the
University of St. Petersburg in 1834. This period was very productive for Gogol, as he also worked on
The Government Inspector and
Dead Souls. Neglecting his duties as professor, Gogol wrote to his friend Mikhail Maximovich of his writing, confiding, “I am working like a horse, but on my own things and not on my lectures.” The two epigraphs that Gogol attaches to
Mirgorod reveal his intention to present the stories as a
cycle: “Mirgorod is an extremely small town near the
Khorol river. It has one rope factory, one
brick works, four water mills and forty five windmills” and “Although in Mirgorod
bread rings are baked from black dough, they are very tasty,” ostensibly taken from works entitled
Zyablovsky’s Geography and
Notes of a Traveler respectively. Gogol conceived of the stories as circular like a Mirgorod bread ring, and endeavored to exhaustively display in them the panorama of traditional Ukrainian provincial life. “The Tale of How Ivan Ivanovich Quarreled with Ivan Nikiforovich” met with disapproval from
censors, leading Gogol to pen a preface to the story with thinly veiled contempt for censorship. The preface, however, was also rejected during printing. As a result, Gogol was forced to hastily add two superfluous pages to “Viy” so that the finished bindings of the first edition would still fit. ==Reception==