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.