Coming from a noble Ukrainian family, Bogdanovich studied in the
Moscow University until 1761. His literary career started two years later with editing a literary journal. In 1766, he joined the
Russian embassy in
Dresden as a secretary. Three years later, he was back in
Saint Petersburg, where he edited the only regular official newspaper, the
Vedomosti, between 1775 and 1782. In 1788, Bogdanovich was appointed Director of State Archives, a post which he treated as a
sinecure, translating
Voltaire,
Diderot, and
Rousseau at loose hours. It was in 1778 that Bogdanovich brought out his only work of lasting fame,
Dushenka. This long poem, resembling a
mock epic, was a reworking of
La Fontaine's
Psyche, a subject originating from
Apuleius but ingeniously stylized by Bogdanovich as a Russian folk tale. The definitive edition followed in 1783 and instantly became popular for its mildly scurrilous passages. La Fontaine's conventional heroine was presented by Bogdanovich as "a living, modern girl from a gentry family of the middling sort". Following the publication, Bogdanovich was recognized as the foremost Russian practitioner of
light poetry and gained admission into the literary circle of
Princess Dashkova, while
Catherine II of Russia engaged him to write several comedies for her
Hermitage Theatre. An English translation can be found in the anthology
The Literature of Eighteenth-Century Russia. == Assessment ==