He was orphaned early and in 1786 was adopted at public expense into the gymnasium at the Imperial Academy of Sciences, where he studied for twelve years but without being graduated.
According to Grech, Popugaev was a "fiery, eccentric poet, a boisterous friend of truth and a persecutor of evil, unstable, hot-tempered, gentle and simple" who often served as "an object of ridicule from people who did not understand him, and which hurt him".
Popugaev's literary career was short, about ten or twelve years, but despite this modest length he was a worthwhile and important writer.
He was one of the few bright voices of the political direction that arose during the reign of Catherine the Great, only to stall under Czar Paul but to be renewed with new force at the beginning of the reign of Czar Alexander I. Popugaev's first literary experiments, such as his story "The Apothecary's Island, or The Distress of Love" (St. Petersburg, 1800) and his early sentimental poems, in the mode that Tynyanov and Lotman would later describe as "Karamzinism", do not show distinction in comparison with many of his contemporary poets.
Popugaev made translations of Volneya, Filandzhieri, Machiavelli, Tacitus, and others ("The General Plan of Legislative Provisions", "The Effect of Education on Laws and Government, "On Feudalism", "The Legal Argument for Infanticide", "On Monarchy", and more).
On November 26, 1803 the group was officially recognized and chartered as the St. Petersburg Free Society of Lovers of Literature, Science, and the Arts.
Beginning with a desire to practice diligently at writing poetry and stories of both light and serious content, Popugaev gradually turned to public discourse and rhetoric; he studied and translated Western philosophers, legal thinkers, and writers on in philology, history, and finally, physics, and he wrote essays and reviews on all of these subjects.
Like other members of the Society, he welcomed the new reign which promised to promote public education, but chastised it for failing to honor its pledge that the strong should abide by the laws, protect the people's happiness, march in the paths of righteousness, and care for the peaceful development of the state.
With regard to Popugaev's political beliefs: He sympathized with cosmopolitanism and was ready to "love, as brothers, all peoples"; but he was also an ardent patriot of the democratic tendency.
However, the other members of the Society felt almost unanimously that the tone of the article was too harsh, even in a time when "The government itself, the Emperor himself, has studied ways to alleviate the plight of the peasants".