Moscow's first elected mayor, the economist who warned Washington of the August coup
On June 20, 1991, Popov secretly met U.S. Ambassador Jack Matlock and warned him that Prime Minister Pavlov, Defense Minister Yazov, and KGB chief Kryuchkov were preparing to seize power. Matlock relayed the warning to Yeltsin and Gorbachev — and two months later, the August coup unfolded.
An economist who served as dean of Moscow State University's economics faculty, Popov coined the term 'command-administrative system' as editor of Voprosy Ekonomiki, laying the theoretical groundwork for perestroika. Elected a People's Deputy in 1989, he co-chaired the Interregional Deputies Group alongside Sakharov and Yeltsin, leading the democratic reform camp. As Moscow's first elected mayor (1991–1992), he enacted free housing privatization and reorganized the city into prefekturas, but his most consequential act came on June 20, 1991, when he secretly warned U.S. Ambassador Jack Matlock of the coup being plotted by Pavlov, Yazov, and Kryuchkov. He resigned in June 1992 in opposition to Gaidar's shock therapy and returned to academia as president of the International University in Moscow.
Career Timeline
- 1957, 1960–61Secretary of the Komsomol committee, Moscow State University
- 1959–71MSU economics faculty: graduate student → docent → head of management laboratory
- 1971–88Head of the management department, MSU economics faculty
- 1978–80Dean of the economics faculty, Moscow State University
- 1988–90Editor-in-chief, Voprosy Ekonomiki; introduced 'command-administrative system'
- 1989–90People's Deputy of the USSR; co-chair, Interregional Deputies Group
- 1990–91Chairman of the Moscow City Council (Mossovet)
- 1991–92Mayor of Moscow (first elected); free housing privatization, prefektura system
- 1991–2015President of the International University in Moscow
Related historical events
- 1985–1991Perestroika and Glasnostfirst elected mayor of Moscow
- 1988–1990The Nineteenth Party Conference and the First Contested ElectionsCo-chaired the Inter-Regional Deputies' Group.
- 1991The Novo-Ogaryovo Process and the New Union TreatyThe first to warnOn 20 June 1991 he secretly warned U.S. Ambassador Matlock of the coup being plotted by Pavlov, Yazov and Kryuchkov.
- 1991The August Coup and the Collapse of the USSRwarned of the coup