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Born in Moscow into the family of an office worker. After completing his degree at the Economic Faculty of Moscow University he worked there for a long time as lecturer and then dean. Doctor of economic sciences and professor.
From 1988 to 1990 he was the editor-in-chief of the journal Voprosy ekonomiki, in which he published a series of articles on the social and economic situation in Soviet society and the necessity to reform that society profoundly. As People's Deputy of the USSR he became one of the leaders of the Inter-Regional Deputy Group and joined the bloc entitled "Democratic Russia".
In March 1990 Popov was elected deputy of the Moscow Soviet and on 20 April, as its chairman. On 12 June 1991 he won the city elections and became the first mayor of the capital. In accordance with a decree of 28 August 1991 of the President of the Russian Federation he was given a wide range of powers, including: management of city property, the implementation of the denationalisation and privatisation of property controlled by organisations subordinated to the Moscow executive authorities, land disposal and management, the maintaining of the state register of the city land and the confiscation and allocation of land plots, etc.
In order to carry through radical economic reforms, with due regard for the special functions of the capital city, the President of Russia gave the Moscow mayor some additional powers in December 1991.
All this allowed Popov to carry out large-scale changes in the administrative and territorial division of the city and in the structure and functions of the executive and management bodies. Given the historic settlement patterns of the city-dwellers and the prospects for future social and economic development of the territory, the 33 districts were replaced by 10 administrative and more than 130 municipal districts and territorial departments. A single system of executive authorities was introduced on municipal, administrative and city levels. The district executive committees were disbanded and replaced by the prefects of the administrative districts. In 1991 the Moscow City Executive Committee was replaced by the Government of Moscow, whose main tasks became the speediest possible implementation of economic reform, privatisation and demonopolisation in all sectors of the economy, the comprehensive development of business activities in order to raise production and increase the output of consumer goods, speeding up the conversion of the defence industry and providing the city-dwellers with social security. The government was headed by deputy mayor Yu.M. Luzhkov, who received this title on the results of the mayoral election.
G.Kh. Popov actively encouraged the development of commercial entities, banks, exchanges and joint ventures; the privatisation of state property was begun. Public transport was made free of charge for pensioners and invalids. Many streets and squares of Moscow received their old historical names back again.
At the same time far from all measures planned by the mayor were successfully implemented in practice, and some of them evoked negative response both from the upper echelons of power and among a part of the Muscovites; irregularities in the supply of foodstuffs to the population increased and some products had to be sold in limited amounts for ration cards.
In June 1992 Popov quit as mayor of the capital and focussed his efforts on his work as chairman of the Russian Movement for Democratic Reform and on scientific activities.
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