Moscow's first elected mayor, who told the U.S. ambassador of the coming coup
On 20 June 1991 Popov handed U.S. Ambassador Jack Matlock a note warning of a coup and naming Pavlov, Kryuchkov, Yazov and Lukyanov; the warning reached Gorbachev via Washington, though Matlock later wrote in his memoirs that it may have been a false alarm.
Born in Moscow on 31 October 1936 to parents from the Azov Greek community, he graduated from Moscow State University's economics faculty, became a candidate of economic sciences in 1963, a doctor in 1970 and a professor in 1971. He headed the production management laboratory in 1967–1971 and the management department in 1971–1988, and served as dean of the economics faculty (sources differ on a 1977 or 1978 start), then edited Voprosy Ekonomiki in 1988–1990, popularizing the concept of the 'command-administrative system'. Elected a USSR People's Deputy in 1989, he co-chaired the Interregional Deputies Group with Sakharov, Yeltsin and others, chaired the Moscow City Council from 1990 and on 12 June 1991 became Moscow's first elected mayor with 65.3% of the vote.
Activities and affiliations
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
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
Mayor of Moscow, 1991–1992
On 12 June 1991 Popov was elected Moscow's first mayor, nominated by the Democratic Russia movement, with Yuri Luzhkov, chairman of the Mossovet ispolkom, as vice-mayor; the two polled 65.3%. During the August 1991 coup attempt by the State Committee on the Emergency Situation he supported RSFSR President Yeltsin, and from 26 August to 6 November 1991 served as the head of state's representative for Moscow and Moscow oblast. According to U.S. Ambassador Jack Matlock, he was among the first on the putschists' arrest list, spoke at the White House rally on 20 August 1991, and that night hid from the putschists in the Russian parliament together with Yeltsin and Luzhkov.
While mayor he tried to forestall a government conspiracy against Gorbachev: per Matlock's 2011 interview he secretly told the ambassador on 20 June 1991, and Matlock passed it to Yeltsin and Gorbachev. The warning concerned preparations for a seizure of power by Pavlov, Yazov, Kryuchkov and Lukyanov. Russian Wikipedia reports that former USSR vice-president Yanaev, in a 2001 Ekho Moskvy interview, voiced his own suspicions of a supposed Popov–Matlock link, claiming Popov carried information of a delicate nature to the American ambassador five or six times a day. That is presented as Yanaev's suspicion, not as established fact. Popov himself said only that he had his own sources and had learned of coup preparations months earlier.
A 28 August 1991 RSFSR presidential decree gave the mayor wide powers: management of city property, privatization of municipal property, the urban land cadastre, and the withdrawal and allocation of land plots; further powers, including accelerated privatization and additional local taxes, were granted in December 1991. He replaced 33 districts with 10 administrative okrugs, abolished the raion ispolkoms so that prefects of the administrative okrugs succeeded them, and replaced the Moscow city ispolkom with a city government headed by vice-mayor Luzhkov. Housing, trade enterprises and service-sector privatization was carried out, and the city taxi service was liquidated with all taxi-fleet cars sold at auction. Per Russian Wikipedia, free apartment privatization began under Popov and considerably outpaced other regions, in late 1991 he backed a large-scale project transferring service enterprises, catering and shops to private ownership, and under him several monuments were removed and more than 10 metro stations and several hundred streets and squares were renamed.
TASS records the costs alongside the measures: many of the city authorities' decisions drew negative reactions from the country's leadership and city residents, food-supply interruptions became more frequent with some goods rationed by coupons in limited quantities, and road repair almost entirely stopped. Per Russian Wikipedia he resigned on 6 June 1992 over disagreement with the government's economic reform; as a social democrat he favoured small and medium business but opposed privatization of large state enterprises, considered Gaidar's appointment to leading posts mistaken and disagreed with his policy, and as mayor chose subordinates from among those not close to the Soviet-era state apparatus. TASS has him released from the mayor's post on 6 June 1992 at his personal request, with Yeltsin appointing Luzhkov by decree to head the city. The date and the succession agree, but the formal release 'at his personal request' and the stated reason of disagreement with the economic reform are documented alternatives, not one settled account.
In January 1992 he became president of the Free Economic Society of Russia, and in February 1992 was elected chairman of the Russian Movement for Democratic Reforms. From 1992 to 2015 he was president of the International University in Moscow, the first independent higher-education institution in Russia's recent history, founded in summer 1991 on the initiative of Gorbachev and George H. W. Bush. Sources conflict on when that presidency began: this one gives 1992–2015 while a Greek community portal gives 1991–2015. His Greek diaspora role overlaps the same period: TASS and Russian Wikipedia both date his leadership of the Pontos federation of Greek communities from 1989, and the community portal styles him 'our compatriot' and Moscow's first mayor.