[1] Panas Rudchenko was born in 1849 into a family of an accountant of county treasury in Mirgorod (today – Myrhorod).

In 1871 Panas Rudchenko settled in Poltava, where he got the rank of State Councilor at the local government house.

The work can be characterized as a sociopsychological novel-chronicle; it covers almost a century in the history of a Ukrainian village, from serfdom to the post-reform era.

[1] Myrny's second important sociopsychological novel, Poviia (The Loose Woman, 1884), describes new social processes caused by the reforms of 1861.

Myrny also portrayed the changed social dynamics of the village after the abolition of serfdom in the story Lykho davnie i s'ohochasne (Ancient and Contemporary Evil, 1903) and Sered stepiv (Among the Steppes, 1903).