was known during his
lifetime only to the very restricted circle of his friends. In his
convictions and views on literature he belonged to the epoch of
Lomonosoff and Sumarokoff; by birth and education to the highest
nobility. More faithfully than any other writer of his century does
Kheraskoff represent the pseudo-classical style in Russian epic, lyric,
and dramatic poetry, for he wrote all sorts of things, including
sentimental novels. To the classical enthusiasts of his day he seemed
the "Russian Homer," and his long poems, "The Rossiad" (1789) and
"Vladimir" (1786), were confidently believed to be immortal, being the
first tolerable specimens of the epic style in Russian literature. In
twelve long cantos he celebrates the capture of Kazan by Ivan the
Terrible in "The Rossiad." "Vladimir" (eighteen cantos) celebrates the
Christianizing of Russia by Prince-Saint Vladimir.

Ippolit Feodorovitch Bogdanovitch (1743-1803), who was developed under
the immediate supervision and patronage of Kheraskoff, belonged, by
education and his comprehension of elegance and of poetry, to a later
epoch--on the borderland between pseudo-classicism and the succeeding
period, which was ruled by sentimentalism. His well-known poem,
"Dushenka" ("Dear Little Soul"), was the first light epic Russian poem,
with simple, intelligible language, and with a jesting treatment of a
gay, playful subject. This subject Bogdanovitch borrowed from La
Fontaine's novel, "The Loves of Psyche and Cupid," which, in turn, was
borrowed from Apuleius.

The third writer of this group, Ivan Ivanovitch Khemnitzer (1745-1784),
the son of a German physician, was unknown during his lifetime; enjoyed
no literary fame, and cared for none, regarding his capacities and
productions as unworthy of notice. In 1779, at the instigation of his
friends, he published a collection of his "Fables and Tales." At this
time there existed not a single tolerable specimen of the fable in
Russian; but by the time literary criticism did justice to Khemnitzer's
work, Karamzin, and Dmitrieff had become the favorites of the public,
and Khemnitzer's productions circulated chiefly among the lower classes,
for whom his Fables are still published. His works certainly aided
Dmitrieff and Kryloff in handling this new branch of poetical literature
in Russia. His "The Metaphysician" still remains one of the greatest
favorites among Russian fables for cultivated readers of all classes.

Briefly told