BOGDANOVICH, Ippolit Fedorovich, Russian poet: b. 23 Dec. 1743 O. S.; d. 1802. From his earliest years he showed a great love for poetry, music and painting, but when, in 1754, his parents brought him to Moscow and forced him to study law at the university, he secretly tried to go on the stage. Heraskov, the director of the theatre, succeeded in dis suading him from this purpose and urged him to dedicate himself to the literary field. His first attempts in the domain of lyricpoetry Useful Joy' and (Leisure Hours' ), al though inferior, were published by the univer sity periodicals. In 1764 he was appointed to a secretarial position in the Ministry for Foreign Affairs and two years later he was transferred to the Russian embassy at the Royal Court at Dresden. He later wound up his governmental career as president of the Imperial Archives in Saint Petersburg. His most productive period was in 1769-75, when in his (Lyre' he published his collective lyric poems, which were un usually well received. For his momentous song,
(Dushenka) ((Dear Little Soul') he drew the inspiration, if not entirely borrowed, from La Fontaine's (Les Amours de Psyche' and glori fied the beauty of soul as imperishable and un alterable while he spoke of exterior brilliance and beauty as being transitory and inconstant as smoke.