Popov Mikhail

Popov Mikhail (1742 ‒ nr.1790) – writer, translator, folklorist.

Disciple of the founder of the Russian Drama theatre F. G. Volkov. Since 1765, he studied at the Moscow University; worked as Secretary of the Commission for Composing a Project of the New Ulozjenie (Code). In 1769, he got the lowest official rank of Collegiate Registrar; in 1776, he became District Secretary (two step higher rank).

He translated ‘The Adventures of Telemachus’ by Fenelon (under the title ‘Aristonoevy prikliucheniya’), ‘Le Barbier de Seville’ by Beaumarchais, ‘Gerusalemme Liberata’ by Tasso, Voltaire’s fables, and Persian fairy-tales from French into Russian. In 1770-1774, together with M. D. Chulkov, he prepared and published several issues of folk songs.

In 1768, in St. Petersburg, he published ‘A Description of Ancient Slavic Pagan Fables Collected from Various Writers, and Commented’; in fact, it was a kind of mythological lexicon. In 1772, in the book ‘Leisure, or a Collection of Compositions and Translations by Mikhail Popov’ he published a corrected variant of the same lexicon under the title ‘A Short Description of Ancient Slavic Pagan Fables Collected from Various Writers, and Commented, Placed in the Alphabetic Order’. According a popular tradition of his time to rationalize the mythology, he explained the origin of the gods names in the euhemeric way. He compared Slavic gods with gods of other mythologies, Greek and Roman first of all.

Compositions

A Description of Ancient Slavic Pagan Fables Collected from Various Writers, and Commented. St. Petersburg, 1768. (in Rus.)
Songs Composed by Mikhail Popov. St. Petersburg, 1765, 2nd publ., 1768. (in Rus.)
Leisure, or a Collection of Compositions and Translations. Parts 1-2, St. Petersburg, 1772. (in Rus.)
Old Curiosities, or the Adventures of Slavic Princes. St. Petersburg, Weitbrecht and Schnorr Free Typography, 1778. (in Rus.)
Russian Erarta, or the Choice of the Best and the Newest Russian Songs… Collected and Partly Composed by the Late Mikhail popov, in 3 vol. St. Petersburg, I. Glazunov Imp. Typography, 1792. (in Rus.)

About him

Stolpyansky P. N. One of the Persons of the Catherine’s Epoch // Russkaya starina. 1905, No 5. (in Rus.)
Zolotarev S. А. Writers from Yaroslabl’. Yaroslabl’, 1920, vol. 2. (in Rus.)
Zapadov А. V. Writer of the Eighteenth Century М. Popov // Uchenye zapiski of the Kursk Teachers-Training Institute. 1941, iss. 1. (in Rus.)
Gusev V. Е. Mikhailo Popov – Poet-Songwriter // The Role and Significance of the Literature of the Eighteenthc Century in the History of Russian Culture. Moscow - Leningrad, 1966. (in Rus.)
Shakhnovich М. М. The History of Russian Religious Studies: the Eighteenth Century // Religiovedenie. 2005, No 1, pp.118-134. (in Rus.)
Shakhnovich М. М. Essays on Religious Studies. St. Petersburg State University, 2006. (in Rus.)

M. Sh.