Efim Alekseevich (Evgenii) Bolkhovitinov

Son of a priest. He studied at Voronezh Theological Seminary (1778-1784), then at the Slavic-Greek-Latin Academy (1784-1788). Attended lectures at Moscow University, and worked as a proofreader in a printing house. He started his literary activity by translating mainly literary and philosophical French works: "Brief Description of the Lives of Ancient Philosophers" (“Kratkoe opisanie zhiznei drevnikh filosofov”) by Fénelon (1788), satirical "Eulogy to Anything" (“Pokhvalnoe slovo chemu-nibud”) by Louis Coquelet (1787) with a parodical dedication to "Nobody", the anonymous "Parnassus Story" (“Parnasskaia istoriia”) (1788) with enthusiastic praise for Voltaire and harsh attacks against the "poets-flatterers", scholastic poets, champions of "academic rules".