"The Old World Landowners" (Старосветские помещики, Starosvyetskiye pomeshchiki), a short story written in 1835, is the first tale in the Mirgorod collection by Nikolai Gogol.
A bittersweet and ironic reworking of the Baucis and Philemon legend from Ovid's Metamorphoses, it is a simple story that represents the mature Gogol and hints at his later works.
Eventually, Gogol introduces Pulkheriya’s grey cat, which Afanasy jokes about, wondering why anyone would waste time with such a creature.
The cat is introduced with a sense of foreboding, with Gogol commenting that little things can affect the stability of the strongest realities ("a melancholy incident that transformed forever the life of that peaceful nook").
He puts the estate under the care of a board of trustees, bringing things like a fine English sickle to clear the area, and the huts on the property soon fall down, leaving some peasants drunken and hopeless and others to run away to find better lives.