Vasili Popugaev

Vasili Vasilyevich Popugaev (Russian: Василий Васильевич Попугаев) (1778 or 1779 – c. 1816) was a Russian poet, novelist, and translator. He was one of the leaders of the Free Society of Lovers of Literature, Science, and the Arts.

Popugaev was born in 1778 or 1779 in St. Petersburg, the son of an artist. He was orphaned early and in 1786 was adopted at public expense into the gymnasium at the Imperial Academy of Sciences, where he studied for twelve years but without being graduated.

In 1797 Popugaev began working for the St. Petersburg censor, where in December 1802 he joined the committee drafting new censorship laws. He stayed with the censor until August 1811, first as assistant editor of the second department, then (from 1809) as head of the archives commission.

During some of this time Popugaev also taught Russian language and literature at the Petrischule.

On June 18, 1812, Popugaev entered service in the Department of Communications, where he first performed the duties of chief clerk for the classification of overland communications, then (from 1816) was a translator for the chief of the head office.

Accurate information about Popugaev's further life has not been preserved. According to the memoirs of Nikolai Grech, Popugaev died in 1816, probably in Tver. According to Grech, Popugaev was a "fiery, eccentric poet, a boisterous friend of truth and a persecutor of evil, unstable, hot-tempered, gentle and simple" who often served as "an object of ridicule from people who did not understand him, and which hurt him".

Popugaev's literary career was short, about ten or twelve years, but despite this modest length he was a worthwhile and important writer. He was one of the few bright voices of the political direction that arose during the reign of Catherine the Great, only to stall under Czar Paul but to be renewed with new force at the beginning of the reign of Czar Alexander I.

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